Why isn't Audrey Hepburn a gay icon?

Her private life was too tame....even though she was secretly anorexic and married to a controlling no-talent tyrant.

Too good of a person.

Not a cunt and her pussy didn't stink.

Too attractive and too sane to be a gay icon.

Deadweight husband Mel Ferrer.

I guess the dick was good....

Rosemary Clooney had the then-single Hepburn over for drinks once and in a roundabout way she asked her hostess what she thought of Ferrer, and she went on and on about how no one liked him and thought he was pompous and not that talented...and later she realized they were engaged (!)

Hepburn just stayed silent.

She is. Breakfast at Tiffany's alone cemented the deal.

"The Nun's Story" holds up well: interesting and moving story, great cinematography and cast, and the best Hepburn performance I've seen. "Wait Until Dark" is creaky and dated, and I thought her performance, particularly her voice, was affected and annoying as hell.

She’ll always be the inferior Hepburn.

R8 Or the non-closeted, undykey one, you old rug muncher.

I have four times as many Oscars.

I had foxy escort Robert Wolders.

Truly, truly one of a kind. Irreplaceable. Style, taste, beauty, grace, talent, surprising amounts of sadness and sexiness too. Her kind of loveliness must derive from some goodness. I am not always in the mood for her movies but I adore Audrey Hepburn.

I never really liked her movies.

R13 is Julie Andrews.

In "Wait Until Dark" (which I saw, a real thriller) she played a damsel in distress role and I believe she was nominated for an Oscar but it was a bit too one dimensional for her to win.

She's good. I wish she made more really fine movies. SABRINA isn't very entertaining. MY FAIR LADY is kind of wretched.

But others like TWO FOR THE ROAD are good.

But it's not like you hear an Audrey Hepburn movie is on and scream "HOLD ALL CALLS!"

I think she really is. I really admired and enjoyed her. R16, 'Two for the Road' is wonderful.

Because she’s twee.

She did an interview on Donahue and he asked if she would write a memoir. She answered that one life is touched by so many others and she felt she had no write to talk about theirs. At the end an audience member said to her, “You are one class act.” Truer words were never spoken.

Too masculine.

Here's some interesting trivia. When Cecil B. de Mille made the big budget movie, "The Ten Commandments" he wanted Audrey Hepburn for the role of Nefertari and had her do a screen test for him. But when he looked at the results he found her too thin and too frail to be the seductive Egyptian wife so the role eventually went to Anne Baxter.

She's a star who appeals to women almost exclusively.

R21, when I think of ancient Egypt, my first thought is always Anne Baxter.

Always loved her but my favorite is "Two for the Road".

R23 my first thought is always Edgar G Robinson

She's too happy and flinty. She's not a woman who can be described as a "broad" which many gay icons are.

No she's not a woman who can be portrayed by a drag queen which is what most gay icons are.

R27, I resemble that.

[quote]r27 No she's not a woman who can be portrayed by a drag queen which is what most gay icons are.

Which is odd, as she pretty much resembled a boy.

Another vote for "Two For The Road". Such a quiet natural performance. Just like in " The Nun's Story".

She's not a gay icon because she didn't suffer like the others for their talents.

Female gay icons usually have a bit of a sleazy side. Hepburn is fresh as new fallen snow - admired but really not one of the gang. She also died sort of young and did have the "old broad" appeal. And maybe I'm wrong but I don't remember her doing anything re: the AIDS epidemic. She died in 1993.

But as others have said I think she was a genuinely nice person.

Dying young can instantly confer gay icon status. She was a bore.

THE TURNING POINT was offered to her and Grace Kelly first. The negotiations dragged on forever and finally the producers moved on.

Would have been SUCH a more interesting movie!

r33 - totally agree - if it's tragic and other things are a good fit an early death can make an instant icon. Didn't seem to happen to Audrey however.

r33 - I don't think she was boring - she just didn't have a lot of sizzle ...

Supposedly one of the few really, really likable and sweet major stars in old Hollywood.

Had a harder life than most people realize: nearly starved to death in WW2.

Not an especially good actor, but was insanely charismatic and likable. Tried hard to be a better actress than she was, and only gave one really phenomenal performance (in THE NUN'S STORY). Wanted very much to be a singer and dancer, and was decent as the latter but had a weak scratchy voice (that is nonetheless showed to charming effect in FUNNY FACE).

Enjoyed being a jet set celebrity, and loved high fashion.

[quote] And maybe I'm wrong but I don't remember her doing anything re: the AIDS epidemic.

Why should she have, necessarily?

She worked really hard on behalf of refugees for the UN. Wasn't that enough?

R38 If she had we may have cared when she died, I think is his point.

She was boring, always, dull movie choices, sterile life

She had basically retired from public life by the 80s, having finally met a man that treated her well that she spent her last 12 years with. She made an exception to work with UNICEF as a way to show her gratitude for the organization that provided international aid when she was living through German occupation in WWII.

[quote]r36 I don't think she was boring - she just didn't have a lot of sizzle ...

BLASPHEMY!

She had PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES ! ! !

[quote]my first thought is always Edgar G Robinson

Oh, dear.

I remember seeing "Wait Until Dark" in a movie theater on its initial release (yes, I am an eldergay) and the theaters had some sort of gimmick where they turned out ALL the lights during the climactic scene near the end of the picture. I won't discuss what happened, but it scared the shit out of this 14-year-old.

[quote] I don't remember her doing anything re: the AIDS epidemic ... "Why should she have, necessarily? She worked really hard on behalf of refugees for the UN. Wasn't that enough?"

Totally agree - she was a lovely person. But the thread is why she wasn't a gay icon ...

She is okay but seems the same manufactured personality in every movie?

Hard to believe someone as beautiful and graceful as her was actually a real person.

Because she was boring? Gay icons need more pizazz.

Women want to be her. Slim, elegant, graceful, large eyes, lovely undefinable accent.

She is, but for gay women

[quote]She is, but for gay women

And Hubert de Givenchy

Even Ethel Mertz wouldn't have worn that terrible hat.

Wearing another clown hat.

Her mother Baroness von Heemstra had sex with Hitler. You won’t find that factoid in any whitewashed Hepburn bio... merely that she was a teensy bit fascist. However it does crop up in at least one WW2 history due to fact Leni Refenstahl was insanely jealous of her after she saw or heard of Heemsta coming out of Hitlers room sweaty with her clothes in disaray. She called her “that bitch Heemstra”. Of course Hepburn never mentioned it: instead dwelling on the lack of food as if she was persecuted. The fact was the entire dutch nation was hungry. Luvvies are such liars. Never believe a word that comes out of their mouths.

I heard gossip about the mother, too.

Audrety Hepburn never publicly denounced her, just spoke of how she personally worked for the Resistance.

The enemy was closer to home, right under her own roof!

It's amazing her mother's support of Hitler was never made more public.

r39 is just an idiot.

Proof, please, r53.

The truth was she was the nazi groupie to end all groupies. That’s why Leni was so jealous. It is amazing. I guess Hepburn’s bankability counted above all.

We shouldn't leave the father out, who was a more ardent supporter of the fascists than even the mother...but he was out of the picture somewhat early...so he's not so associated with Hepburn.

For r57 : It's discussed in several Hepburn biographies. Even wikipedia states:

[quote]In the mid-1930s, Hepburn's parents recruited and collected donations for the British Union of Fascists. Joseph left the family abruptly in 1935 and moved to London, where he became more deeply involved in Fascist activity.

nazi groupie to end all groupies.

r57, what are you saying exactly? Is there anything documenting any of this?

Her boobs weren't big enough and there's nothing tragic about her.

When I was a child, I had as much of a crush on her as I could have on any woman. Still love her. And to the bitch upthread, My Fair Lady is not “wretched”!

Anyone remember Robin and Marian?

Because female gay icons always have this bit of cheap-perfume or demonstrative and yet passive sexuality to them. Something that drag can make into a caricature. Ice Princess can't be a gay icon either. A butch woman who looks like she likes to be on top (think power lesbian stereotype)--also nope. Audrey is fresh and cool at the same time, almost asexual.

It's an interesting cultural thing, why are gay men so interested in women who have a certain "queeny bottom" type of sexuality.

From an article the mother Ella wrote for the publication THE BLACKSHIRT:

[quote]At Nuremberg…What stuck me most forcibly amongst the million and one impressions I received there were (a) the wonderful fitness of every man and woman one saw, on parades or in the street; and (b) the refreshing atmosphere around one, the absolute freedom from any form of mental pressure or depression.

[quote]These people certainly live in spiritual comfort….

[quote]From Nuremberg I went to Munich….I never heard an angry word….They [the German people] are happy….

[quote]Well may Adolf Hitler be proud of the rebirth of this great country…”

Was she really so thin because she was somehow malnourished during WWII and it stunted her growth or something?

I've always thought that story smelled like bullshit and that she was just plain ol' anorexic. What's the truth?!

Unfortunately, Audrey died on the same day as Clinton's first Inauguration in 1993. The next day, he was all over the front pages and her death did not receive the coverage it deserved.

Huntys, her family were Nazis. It's amazing the Jews hired her. And we should all have dicks as big as her feet.

[quote]r65 Was she really so thin because she was somehow malnourished during WWII and it stunted her growth or something? I've always thought that story smelled like bullshit and that she was just plain ol' anorexic. What's the truth?!

It's both. The WWII lack of food as an adolescent and a teen stunted the growth of her ribcage, and she had a huge fear of gaining weight afterwards, once she was a young adult. Shirley MacLaine says she would watch Hepburn eat a hard boiled egg for lunch, and that's it. Patricia Neal was invited to dine with her once, and a baked fish was rolled in. That was all.

When Hepburn was crossing by luxury liner to New York to rehearse GIGI, she gorged on chocolates and was almost fired for becoming plump. Ever since then, she knew her career was dependent on her remaining rail thin. She would occassionally gorge on pasta or chocolate, but utherwise was extremely rigid with her dieting.

Who's the guy who had Wolders? Spill svp.

She'd fuck a guard for a rotten potato. Whore!

Audrey’s mother doing her thing.

R71 The Baroness is a rather convoluter writer - -

Loved her in How To Steal A Million with Peter O'Toole. Iconic wardrobe, too. Especially her lace mask/veil.

I really don't understand why Hepburn didn't excize her parents from her life, knowing what she knew. She supported both of them all her life.

Makeup artist Sandy Linter made an interesting series of videos about Gia Carangi, featuring their mutual coworkers. Carol Alt is in a few of them.

Which one of those two bitches is more irritating?

Oh dear....that was for the CHRISTIE BRINKLEY thread : o

I think she's deeply admired in the gay community, but yes, she's not considered amongst the upper echelon of gay icons.

I think at the core, all female gay icons have a shared sense of being an underdog--facing some adversity that they manage to overcome by will of their determination and talent. Judy, Barbra, Cher...they all faced some visible roadblocks, but still went on to become stars in spite of them.

Maybe they had a tragic past, or weren't conventionally attractive, but nevertheless, they fought and became celebrated for their uniqueness in the end.

What gay can't heavily identify with that?

Hepburn epitomized the ideal standard of femininity. She was the convention. We all wanted to be her, but knew we never could. She was that unattainable ideal we admired from afar, but never could fully embrace as a symbolic reflection of us.

But Barbra or Cher? Now those are women we could truly relate to and see ourselves reflected back, because they broke the convention, were different, and managed to redefine what success could look like beyond the norm.

Every young woman in the US copied her short hairstyle in the 1950s.

She's not a gay icon because she's insufferable, Frau OP.

There's nothing much gay about her, OP.

Still, for your poll: TWO FOR THE ROAD. With the uncomparable Albert Finney.

It's becoming clear from this thread that OP clearly forgot TWO FOR THE ROAD in his poll.

She was that rare thing in Hollywood, an overnight success. (well, almost) Very unusual. She bacame a star alongside Liz Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly. Three women where it's easy to imagine them actually having sex. Not Audrey. Charade is great. And Funny Face (starring the equally sexless Fred Astaire)

I was bothered by the fact that in Wait Until Dark the blind woman lives in an apartment with a narrow landing right inside the front door, with a flight of steep steps leading down to the room. It looks as though it could be hazardous even for a sighted person to negotiate, and I don't recall it being exploited in any way during the action. Of course, maybe the idea was to show she was so well adjusted it didn't impede her at all. And how much would that small apartment rent for today?

Boring, but I do love "Wait Until Dark," and that's it.

I think it’s unlikely she worked for the Resistance, given her parentage.

It makes a very good story. I would totally tell people I worked for the Resistance.

Like Jean Seberg, she was too pretty and petite for any drag queen to ever "do" her successfully. Even the most 'girlie' man in the world wouldn't be able to pull it off.

The Nun in the Nun's Story was a lesbian. She became a private nurse and ended up taking care of Audry Hepburn when she broke her back.

[quote]The Nun in the Nun's Story was a lesbian.

Funny how that works out.

This thread is turning her Nazi, Hitler-fucking mother into a gay icon.

Being harassed by a lighted matchstick in "Charade." (Pronounced cha-ROD).

With Cary in cha-ROD.

We didn't need dialogue. We had faces.

Oh dear! I would HATE it if my parents were Nazis!

"Mom! You're EMBARRASSING me!"

She was fantastically twee, I think.

R68, as the long time Patricia Neal Troll (even on AGC), I salute your anecdote.

Besides being a wonderful actress, Patricia Neal was fucking Gary Cooper. That rates a big plus here anytime.

R87. Audrey was not petite. She was 5'7" , she had huge feet and no tits. Nobody did her in drag because nobody wanted to.

Judy was petite.

I think she inspired a lot of women to practically starves themselves by dieting much too much to try to match her very skinny frame. However, most women didn't have Givenchy doing their clothes, nor did they have Audrey's skinny genes. Plus, Audrey's very tepid singing voice isn't one you can build a club act around. Judy Garland, yes, Dolores Gray, even, cause they had great singing voices, but not Audrey. Even Cher, while less than a great voice, but a distinctive one, and a drag queen's outrageous sense of costuming.

Thanks for everyone who posted more information about Audrey’s mother.

I recently finished reading the Mitford sisters’ published letters. I was so surprised to see that one of Unity Mitford’s letters from the 1930s mentioned Audrey’s mother. Unity had seen Audrey’s mother loitering at the Osteria Bavaria, where Hitler was known to regularly come for tea and spend his afternoons.

I had heard the rumors her mother was facist-leaning (as many people were back then), but discovering that she was hanging out at Hitler’s favorite lunch spot waiting around for Hitler made me think she must have been much more into it than I had originally believed.

[quote]Nobody did her in drag because nobody wanted to.

Well, they couldn't have, regardless. Drag queens can't do natural beauties.

Yes, Audrey was twee and yes, she did have s bit of a frau mentality. Same with Sofia Loren. Big stars, but not much depth or guts.

To be a gay icon, one must be glamorous and either have a larger-than-life persona, a cynical edge, or a life filled with high drama. It also helps if you have a defining role that can be emulated and quoted by impersonators and drag queens for decades. Audrey was certainly glamorous and may have had a defining role or two (Holly Golightly, Eliza Doolittle), but her persona was too princessy and she led her life quietly, free of scandal or stories of drug addiction, alcoholism or mental illness.

Bulimia and anorexia are mental illnesses, but yes, she was quiet about her pecadillos.

Robert Wolders was a bad luck charm for women. Merle Oberon and Audrey both died while in relationships with him...Leslie Caron dodged a bullet when he croaked.

He was the original star fucker.

Uh, Leslie Caron dropped him decades ago. She dated him briefly.

I want to hear from the guy here who had him.

r65

No she was capable of gaining weight. Look at her early modelling video on youtube, she was chubby in the cheeks and curvy. She was also stout during her pregnancy with first son. She likely used chain smoking(3 packs a day) to curb appetite when not child bearing.

Below is 18 yr old Audrey, a full-faced Euro actress before her Hollywood break required her to lose weight.

Oops I double posted r65's pic by mistake.

Below is youtube vid of pre-fame Audrey. And no, she did not look like the still, which is from Sabrina.

Because she is a sex icon. You can’t have both.

Hardly a sex icon.

R109 Jane rot in hell.

Does anyone remember the Andy Dick parody of those stupid AH ads for The Gap?

She was a really bad actress.

Why did Rex Harrison win Best Actor for My Fair Lady, and the film won Best Picture, but the fair lady was not even nominated?

I'm crying, I love it so much . . . especially the music!

She didn't deserve the Oscar. I think the Academy was overwhelmed by her charm.

She's always been more of a straight icon in my experience.

[quote] I think at the core, all female gay icons have a shared sense of being an underdog--facing some adversity that they manage to overcome by will of their determination and talent. Judy, Barbra, Cher...they all faced some visible roadblocks, but still went on to become stars in spite of them.

Julie Andrews is a huge gay icon, and there's nothing underdog about her.

Julie is a lesbian icon, like Anne Murray.

Julie Andrews is no gay icon.

AH used the most exaggerated makeup out of her peers. Her brows eyes and lips were painted far beyond their boundaries to balance her sizable square face. There is a campiness to this look that should quality her as a gay icon. But sadly, her demure public persona make people overlook her camp. So, not a gay icon in spite having a look that many thin gay men can attain.

The Princess Leia prototype hair she spotted since the 50s should also count as camp.

I never bought that starving child to starving adult story.

She was fit and toned up to around 1957. Starting BAT she lot so much weight that it is even listed on IMDB trivia. She kept getting thinner and thinner throughout her thirties, and reportedly dived under 90 pounds many times despite being 5 ft 8.

Thinner than Twiggy in Two for the Road around age 37.

I love her to pieces. Like others have said her best performance was probably "Two for the Road." Such a beautifully acted and under-appreciated movie.

And yeah, she was probably too normal to be a gay icon.

bathing suit from two for the road

Too normal if you mean breeder mentality. Very frau. And she couldn't sing.

I do think Givenchy had to do with her thinness. She was no where as thin in her pre hollywood Euro Actress years. She probably "invested in cheekbones" like Crawford in Feudand pulled some teeth too to make her once full face thinner. That could also explain her thinness in her later life, with eating becoming more difficult after the cosmetic dental.

Contrast with Sabrina

In the picture posted by R120 she's wearing her stage makeup - she was appearing on Broadway in Ondine the night she won the Oscar, and since the ceremony that year was bicoastal, she was rushed from the theatre she appeared in to the one were the ceremony was held. She had time to change her outfit but not enough to alter her makeup.

She used almost equally dramatic makeup as her stage makeup in movies. But the studio lighting softens the effect. Below is the "bookworm" look in Funny Face. Here you can see her short thin brows being re-painted into thick rectangular powerbrows, and that she uses heavy upper eyeliner and false upper lashes.

From Sabrina. Note how along with her eyes and brows, her lips are also painted beyond their edges here. She had a face that took well to dramatic, feature-altering makeup under studio lighting. That allowed her to develop her fame as a great screen beauty. But if dramatic makeup is camp then AH is camp too. Joan Crawford ain't got nothing on AH when it comes to repainting the face.

If only Julie Andrews weighed forty pounds less at the time, she might have been Eliza on camera.

Another close up. She really did have a face you can paint over like a canvas.

pre hollywood in Secret People 1952. This is her real face.

Not tragic enough (at least for the old school).

One more screenshot from Secret People.

She was too cute and sweet to be a gay icon though in her autobio Sian Philips wrote that Audrey Hepburn was the most brutally ambitious actress she'd ever met. As in, she'd cut a bitch for a role

If we'd seen this side of her we would have liked her better.

I believe she'd cut a bitch for what she wanted. Real life AH was a vicious homewrecker, especially with Holden. As the other woman she dared to have dinner with Holden's family to intimidate the wife. And that was not the only time she affair-ed married men either.

Still like her, even if she had the heart of a ho!

She and Diana Ross were both able to pull off playing models despite having less than perfect faces.

Jean Marsh, who played the maid Rose Buck on Upstairs, Downstairs, reminded me of Audrey Hepburn.

Actually Jean Marsh is halfway between AH and Sian Phillips. I'm so glad I saw VALMONT btw, that's how I know who Sian Phillips is. Wonderful actress, as is most of the cast from VALMONT.

I saw Sian Phillips in the West End in Marlene! Magnificent!

I first encountered Sian Phillips as Livia in I Claudius. Iconic. Much more interesting than Audrey Hepburn.

Sian Phillips lives with two gay men.

[quote]r123 she lot so much weight that it is even listed on IMDB trivia. She kept getting thinner and thinner throughout her thirties, and reportedly dived under 90 pounds many times despite being 5 ft 8.

I heard she was so addicted to cum at that point, it wasn't giving her the necessary calories (?)

I remember that photo from the Vanity Fair spread.

R147 With heart in hand and cock in mouth.

I like her, but the nose job(s) turn me off.

R68, that doesn't explain why she remained rail thin into her 60s when there were no acting roles left.

"She had basically retired from public life by the 80s, having finally met a man that treated her well that she spent her last 12 years with. "

Yes, that vivacious now dead homosexual, Robert Wolders.

"A butch woman who looks like she likes to be on top (think power lesbian stereotype)--also nope."

Like who? Stanwyck?

Those Audrey Hepburn immitations are so funny! I simple HAVE to learn to talk like that!! Just to drive people crazy : )

It's as much the sudden staccato rythms as it is the inflections. Kind of like a cooing machine gun. On drugs. While a record is sped up, then slowed down.

She was lovely in Robin and Marian, but I don't remember a thing about it.

She is an icon and I would guess gay men in particular like her because she was such a chic woman- with no pretentious. Rare.

Gay men like her fine...she just doesn't cross their minds too often.

She started flashing her tits too late.

Now, that's the truth...to face and deal with. If you want to survive.

I wish people would read the thread before posting such stupid comments like R153/154.

It didn't help that starving children in Africa looked absolutely GLOWING with health beside her.

She wasn't enough of an outsider to be a gay icon. Icons of her era where all people like Streisand who were outsiders in real life or Bette Davis who played them on screen. Hepburn was a pretty young woman with a successful career and a not very interesting private life.

r150 "That doesn't explain why she remained rail thin into her 60s when there were no acting roles left."

She spent those few years in her 60s suffering serious colon illness before dying at only age 63. That and she still smoked 3 packs a day so she probably did not have any appetite then either.

Before that, she remained active in a number of low-quality movies and TV movies in the 1980s. So she probably dieted even then.

Photo of AH in her 50s.

[quote]Julie Andrews is a huge gay icon, and there's nothing underdog about her.

No, she's not. Like Hepburn, she's admired, but not an icon.

If drag queens aren't clamoring to impersonate her, then she ain't a gay icon.

R158, icons of Hepburn's era were Marilyn, Judy, Grace Kelly, Ava and Lana, NOT Streisand. Is there a DL thread that no one sneaks her name into?

I'm surprised the queens don't impersonate Hepburn when some of her most iconic looks are so camp and easy to imitate.

Hepburn and Streisand were both had active careers in the sixties r161 so thanks for playing but no.

She’s no gay icon because she was too frail and feminine. She wasn't a genuine actress. She wore lovely clothes and did whatever the director told her to do.

She had tremendous luck being the producers’ top choice for a good decade where she was nurtured by the best directors in the business— but unfortunately she was partnered with lots of very, very OLD men.

All her films after 1963 were quite ordinary.

R60 She was a blessèd antidote in the bosom-obsessed 1950s when even skinny actresses like Deborah Kerr were expected to wear pointy, fake brassieres

R16, R17, R24, R81, R114, R125 I’m not Jewish but I understand that Oscar-winner Frederic Raphael wrote the sad 'Two for the Road’ in the Harold Pinter style to tell men that love and marriage is a nihilistic mess and that sensible men should avoid it and take mistresses.

R138 I’ve been trying to find Sian Phillips’ memoirs. Do you think she talks truthfully about that appalling drunk she married?

R150 I loved that video and yes R18, R94, R151 her cooing voice was quite twee and tepid. Of course she was only doing what her (old, heterosexual) directors were asking her to do— but I sometimes think Audrey Hepburn’s voice was only half as constricted as the delicious Joan Greenwood’s voice.

THE NUN’S STORY is a superb film. Audrey is quite good in it.

Thank you to the poster who thought of Joan Greenwood - my hero

[quote]All her films after 1963 were quite ordinary

Not all of them. "Wait Until Dark" is fantastic, and very different for her, particularly coming after "Two for the Road."

Her voice was more annoying than Kate Hepburn's was. She was a lesser actress too. Even in Rom coms she lacked a comic touch. Say what you like about Kate but in Rom coms she was far superior.

R63 has never heard of Marlene Dietrich

Yes, Sian Philips writes marvelous stories about Peter O'toole in her autobiogrphy. And one gets a very clear understanding of how difficult it was for them in financial terms to stick with their first and greatest love, the theatre They worked in film and TV purely for the money

It's interesting how Audrey Hepburn has been built up since her death, and it started ten years AFTER her death. Today she's supposed to have been one of the greatest movie actresses and a fashion icon. When in reality, she was mostly cute with a charming personality, nothing "great" about her or her persona.

This list makes me ill - Audrey Hepburn voted the the THIRD greatest female screen legend.

agree with r171. Audrey's Death in 93 did not really cause media sensation. I was in highchool then, and none of my classmates even knew who she was. Indeed, it was like around 10 yrs after her death that fashion and luxury brands suddenly started embracing her again and propping up her name. It seemed to have to do with her sons selling her image while in-fighting around that time.

Audrey. Never tawdry.

Her pussy matched her foot size- large

You mean her sons are responsible for these coffee table books?

R171 In the Male Legends column The Marx Brothers come in at #20?! Is that some sort of joke? At least it made me laugh.

Uh, Audrey didn't smoke 3 packs a day. This kind of shite info must have come from that fat fuck queen who I shall not name.

Just because drag queens don't do her doesn't mean someone isn't a gay icon. When was the last time you saw a drag queen do Jessica Lange?

Quentin Crisp said in his review of Frances that Lange needed to perfect some camp mannerisms so that drag queens in the future can do her. That's also a reason why no drag queens do Audrey Hepburn. Also, she's not very recognizable to today's audiences.

[quote]r178 When was the last time you saw a drag queen do Jessica Lange?

Jessica Lange isn't a gay icon. Gays like her, just like everyone likes her.

R179, well, ten thousand DL threads disagree.

I counted over 100 threads on Google that had Jessica Lange/Datalounge in the title. That's a gay icon.

Okay, R177. Two packs a day.

[quote]and her pussy didn't stink.

I beg to differ.

[quote]Jessica Lange isn't a gay icon. Gays like her, just like everyone likes her.

Hang on, does someone have to be popular ONLY with gays to be a gay icon?

I'm a gay icon.

Please like me, gays.

Me too, gays, me too!

[quote]Huntys, her family were Nazis. It's amazing the Jews hired her.

This is just crass rather than bitchy. Her parents were Nazi smypathizers but she actually assisted the Dutch resistance, at a time when such assistance, if discovered, would have resulted in her being put up against the wall and summarily executed.

Implying she was a Nazi or Nazi sympathizer is like implying that Martin Luther King was a Clarence Thomas style race traitor.

Richard Burton's Diaries on Audrey about her reaction to the Liz Dick Scandal:

"......During the time of the Scandale ,when we were front-page and vulgar sensationalism every other day and every paper. Much lesser people cut us dead, even, if you please, people from our own profession.

An idiot like Audrey Hepburn, for instance, a supposedly long time friend of E's was unobtainable on the phone and refused to acknowledge flowers that were sent her for her birthday.

David Niven was toffee-nosed too, though he has apologized since. Grace wouldn't have been seen dead in our company though I'm sure now that Rainier didn't give a bugger. We didn't give a bugger either and were perfectly content to be left alone..."

She started smoking around the age of 15 (after world war 2) and was a considered constant smoker during her acting career. In fact, at certain times in her career she has been reported (Audrey Hepburn) smoking about 3 packs a day. That's 60 cigarettes a day! Audrey Hepburn was smoking more than a chimney!Jul 15, 2015

from Audrey Hepburn Smoking Facts - Everything Audrey Hepburn

R145 Yes, Sian Phillips is interesting. Her face was smashed up in a car accident in the early 60s.

The face was reconstructed and looked OK in 'Becket' in 1964 but it seemed to collapse again in subsequent years.

R150 Are you claiming Hepburn had a nose job? I've not heard that.

R165 I can't quite agree that Hepburn is ‘quite good in ‘The Nun’s Story’ because I've tried to watch it a few times on TV but it's so over long with advertisements interrupting that I had to give up after two hours. (Therefore I missed the always-interesting Peggy Ashcroft in her brief role).

I've said already that much of Hepburn's appeal in her hey-day was her passive acceptance of the sexual advances by middle-aged and old men. I guess it's appropriate that Hepburn made a good nun with her passive acceptance of the mental advances by that old man named God.

R166 The delightful Joan Greenwood was a few years older than Hepburn but they played similar roles within a limited repertoire. Hepburn appeared in lots of big-budget American films while Greenwood had the luck to appear in three permanent classics (‘Kind Hearts’, ‘Earnest’ and ‘Tom Jones’), a miscast failure (‘Sarabande’), a dirty movie with Gerard Philippe (‘Knave of Hearts’) and the bizarre and sexy (‘Peek-A-Boo’).

R175 I saw one of those coffee table books produced by her sons. One of them revealed that in her declining years (1970 onwards) she would eat chocolate for dessert. Her serving of chocolate was no bigger than a postage stamp.

R177 You mention a ‘fat f*ck queen’ who prodices ‘sh*te’ so I can tell you’re talking about the disreputable Donald Spoto.

R189 I take Burton’s growling with a gran of salt because, as you know, he was a drunk who drank himself to death.

We have met before Miss R96. I can tell you’re an African-Woman Lesbian unfamiliar with the English language and basic physiology because you keep on insisting that the tiny Patricia Neal “f*cked” the giant Gary Cooper.

[quote] When was the last time you saw a drag queen do Jessica Lange?

Around five years ago at Micky's.

R190 Do you not feel foolish citing an entirely useless site to carry a faux message to DL?

Like a few of us here I knew Audrey. Laughable to read she might have smoked 60 cigarettes a day. Utterly false. Mildly amusing.

R19, I remember Hepburn’s delightful appearance on “Donahue” and remember her charming giggle as that audience member referred to her as a class act!

Very interesting about Sian Phillips’s assessment of Hepburn, R138 (Phillips was a treat in “Goodbye, Mr. Chips”, by the way!) .Reminded me of something I read 100 years ago in Carroll Baker’s roman á clef, “A Roman Tale”. There was a character who was an actress beloved for her gamine charm and style who in reality was a ruthless phony. It was very obviously based on Audrey Hepburn, and as someone who’s loved her all my life, quite a jolt to read. First time I’d ever read anything critical of Hepburn’s personality!

r191

Burton's diary was very specific on how Audrey refused contact with Liz during the scandal. I can believe it, especially considering how he's writing for himself.

Also, if you look at her pre-Hollywood movies like Secret People (pics up thread) she definitely looked like had a nose job in Sabrina. Oh, that and she got her fat cheeks to sunk in through weight loss and possibly teeth-removal ala Joan Crawford.

Yes, but Burton wrote like a big queen. His diaries are amusing especially if you knew this cast of characters, all of them mentioned above lived close to each other in Switzerland and socialized regularly. They bitched about and played with each other all the time

Tell us more, [R196], and , [R193]!!

Sophia Loren has an amusing story about lunching with Audrey....

In came the appetizer, or so I thought upon seeing it. A leaf of lettuce, a curl of fresh cheese topped by a smidgen of raspberry compote. In the plate next to it, a crisp roll, bite size. The conversation was pleasant, the raspberry compote even more so, but when the help came back to take our plates away, Audrey got up from the table and with one of her airy, delicate, perfect smiles, she said: “I ate too much.” Our lunch was over. Diplomatically, I said: “It was so much, and all so delicious!” I was dying of hunger, and as soon as we got home I made myself a sandwich.

From 'Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow' by Sophia Loren.

She is simply exquisite.

Young Loren was a seriously curvy woman so she would feel starved from eating the same as Hepburn. Plus I doubt Loren was curbing appetite through chain smoking.