Audrey Hepburn A life of beautiful uncertainty

Tom Santopietro

Book - 2025

"Academy Award-winning actress, fashion icon, ethereal beauty, wife, mother, World War II resistance activist, UNICEF champion-- Audrey Hepburn transcended her era and became a global idol whose appeal continues to soar in the twenty-first century. Packed with beautiful photographs of the star at her most captivating and supplemented with incisive fashion commentary from award-winning designer Jeffrey Banks, Audrey Hepburn: A Beautiful Uncertainty is a one-of-a-kind exploration of Audrey's glamorous image and remarkable life. Always leading with her heart, Hepburn is shown here fully captured in all her complexity: an often self-doubting but brilliant and genuinely kind woman whose style and activism changed the world. Slipping ...behind the scenes of Hollywood's Golden Age, author Tom Santopietro details Audrey's personal and professional life, from her legendary dance partnership with Fred Astaire on the classic Funny Face to her love affairs with Albert Finney and William Holden. Throughout, her life and career are juxtaposed with the lasting legacy of her iconic image and unerring fashion sensibility, as she played muse to the brilliant designer Hubert de Givenchy and inspired women from Jacqueline Onassis to Carly Simon"--

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Subjects
Genres
Biographies
Published
Essex, Connecticut : Applause Theatre & Cinema Books [2025]
Language
English
Main Author
Tom Santopietro (author)
Other Authors
Jeffrey Banks (author)
Item Description
"With 68 images including commentary by Jeffery Banks"--Cover.
Physical Description
vii, 435 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 380-420), filmography (pages 378-379) and index.
ISBN
9781493068081
  • Act one: Coda/overture. A closet, 1993 ; Beginning, 1929-1948 ; War and a life of dance, 1940-1947 ; London, 1948 ; Chorus girl, 1948-1949 ; A star is (not quite yet) born, 1950-1951 ; A single line and Alec Guinness, 1951-1952 ; Discovery by Collette, 1951-1952
  • Act two: What price Hollywood. Roman Holiday, 1951-1953 ; Right girl, right place, right time--the 1950s ; A first love, 1952-1952 ; Sabrina, Bogie, and William Holden, 1953-1954 ; Soul mates, 1953-1993 ; Meeting Mel, 1953-1968 ; Exhibits A-B-C, 1954-1957 ; Bonjour, Paris! 1956-1957 ; Love In The Afternoon, 1957 ; Feature film mistake #1--Green Mansions, 1958-1959 ; The Nun's Story, 1959 ; Feature film mistake #2--The Unforgiven, 1960 ; Motherhood, 1960 ; When Audrey met Holly, 1961 ; From Holly to Karen, 1961 ; Paris when it fizzles, 1962-1964 ; Charade, 1962-1964 ; Home, 1963-1993 ; My Fair Lady, 1963-1964 ; What could go wrong? 1960s ; For the love of animals, 1957-1993 ; A beautiful uncertainty
  • Act three: Icon. The nature of the appeal, 1953-1993 ; Fashionista, 1953-1993 ; Once more with feeling, 1966 ; Two For The Road, 1967 ; Alone in the dark, 1967-1968 ; A different Roman holiday, 1969-1970 ; Nine years of silence, 1967-1976 ; As if we never said good bye, 1976 ; What could go wrong, part 2--1970s ; Feature film mistake #3--Bloodline, 1978-1979 ; They All Laughed, 1980 ; Might-have-beens, 1950s through 1980s ; Accept no substitutes, 1987-2002 ; With and without--life with father (and mother), 1929-1984 ; Love Among Thieves, 1987
  • Act four: What matters most. UNICEF, 1988-1993 ; Robbie, 1979-1993 ; Always, 1989 ; A reckoning with Anne Frank, 1990-1991 ; For the love of gardens, 1990-1993 ; Tributes, 1990-1993 ; Solo voce, 1992 ; Somalia, 1992 ; Priorities, 1993
  • Act five: The last golden age star. Announcing the news, 1993 ; Bequests, 1993-2000 ; Protecting the legacy, 1993-2004 ; Generations of activism, 1970-2004 ; Auctioning history, 2017-2018 ; Everything old is new again, 1993-2021 ; The last golden age star ; And in the end, 1929-1993
  • Time tested beauty tips
  • Appendix A: Selected honors
  • Appendix B: Career scorecard
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Acknowledgments
  • Index.
Review by Booklist Review

Audrey Hepburn was a study in contradictions. Frail yet steely, sophisticated yet approachable, Hepburn's ethereal beauty may have seduced the camera, but it masked her abiding diffidence about her physical attributes and theatrical talents. Perhaps nowhere were these warring traits more evident than in her most acclaimed roles, from the palpably innocent Sister Luke in The Nun's Story to the glamorous Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Voluminous in scope, worshipful in tone, Santopietro's biography of the Hollywood legend is a cradle-to-grave retrospective that explores the roots of Hepburn's underlying self-doubt while celebrating the core values of kindness, empathy, and commitment that informed her acting career and her later work as an indefatigable UNICEF ambassador. A veteran of Broadway management and production, Santopietro treats Hepburn's personal and professional lives with utmost respect, brilliantly positioning her lengthy filmography within the context of her love of fashion, dedication to family, and selfless devotion to international childhood welfare. Augmented by stunning photographs of her most iconic looks, Santopietro's accompanying fashion commentary honors the contributions designers such as Hubert de Givenchy made to her screen success. Truly a star for the ages, Hepburn shines in Santopietro's tribute to her talent, heart, and legacy.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.