Summer of Stars is a MovieJawn celebration of actors that have shined on the silver screen. Follow along as we count down some of our favorite players from various eras in the magical cosmos of cinema!

by Jaime Davis, Staff Writer

My first glimpse of Audrey Hepburn came when I was 11 years old, on an ordinary weekend evening when my parents and I settled in for a movie night. The movie in question? Steven Spielberg’s 1989 tearjerker Always. The only thing I really remember from the film is when Audrey, at the age of 60, makes her first appearance. “Is that Audrey Hepburn?” My dad nearly whispered in awe. I looked closely, as if I had any chance of identifying her appropriately. Who was this Hepburn person? My mom nodded, “It is!” They both seemed so excited - this was surely an important actor! My young eyes couldn’t discern much, but I remember she almost glowed on screen. Maybe it’s because she was dressed all in white…or maybe because she *actually* glowed. I think it’s the latter.

About five years later, I started watching a curious new cable channel called Turner Classic Movies. I’ve mentioned this in other MJ posts so I won’t be a bore, but basically I owe my entire love for movies to TCM. I learned so much about films and celebrities whose names I’d heard in passing or who my grandmother and her aunts still talked about while getting their hair done as if they were still the hottest stars of their day, names like Paul Newman and Marilyn Monroe, Barbara Stanwyck, Lauren Bacall, Katharine Hepburn, Orson Welles, Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly. Thanks to Robert Osborne, one of TCM’s most iconic hosts, I learned that Rosemary Clooney was George Clooney’s aunt (!!) and Melanie Griffith, my Melanie Griffith from my beloved Working Girl, had a famous mom who was in The Birds (among other things)! And Princess Leia also had a famous mom, Debbie Reynolds! And then I watched my first Audrey film - it was Breakfast at Tiffany’s, because of course. I had heard the title before but never understood the reference, so I had to tune in. And after watching (and enduring that Mickey Rooney, ick), all I could think about was how gorgeous and captivating and cool Audrey was. I didn’t entirely understand the movie - it would take me a while to glean that what the film adaptation omits from the book is equally important - but my purest love for Audrey was born. I attempted to watch all of her films in chronological order as best as I could, starting with Roman Holiday and then Sabrina. When I got to Funny Face, however, it was like a perfect storm of all of my interests: musicals, fashion, and Paris. It quickly became one of my favorite films. 

Audrey is well-known for her beauty, gamine features, and poise, thanks to her dance background. No one else has ever been able to rock Givenchy quite like her. She became famous at a time when Hollywood loved curves, yet she still staked her claim and built a career that was uniquely hers. Growing up, I knew I would never have an Audrey-like figure, but I could aspire to her simplicity, her gracefulness, her airy manner of walking as if she was floating on a cloud, her huge heart. She didn’t necessarily buy into the Hollywood shenanigans, though she did have an affair with a married William Holden. (She was only human!) She lived what seemed like many lives all in one: Resistance fighter in World War II, dancer and theatre performer in post-war London, movie star, mother, Unicef ambassador. She was also a muse to the French writer Colette (another one of my idols) when the latter spotted Audrey in Monaco and cast her as Gigi on Broadway. She was, and always will be, my role model. For the longest time, people gave me every conceivable piece of Audrey Hepburn memorabilia as gifts - if they weren’t sure what to get me for my birthday or Christmas, at least they knew I loved Audrey. 

Hepburn is also known for her charming presence on screen. From the delightful princess on a secret jaunt in Roman Holiday to lovable scamp Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, it’s hard not to be utterly wooed by her when watching her films. One of my favorite Audrey moments is in Funny Face - just watch how excitable she is in the Bohemian dance scene, getting to finally dance (her first love) and finally sing in a film. Her voice wasn’t as lovely as Marni Nixon’s (who famously dubbed over her singing in My Fair Lady), but she worked really hard at all of her technical skills. She’s been quoted as saying she knew her voice wasn’t one of the greats, but she was proud of the work she did regardless. You can see it in her dancing and singing in Funny Face - she really was in her element, doing what she loved the most.

But it’s two of her later performances that stick the most with me today, as Regina Lampert in Charade (1963) and as spunky wife Joanna Wallace in 1967’s Two for the Road. (Should I mention Stanley Donen directed both of these? And Funny Face? And many more gems! Give him a Legendary Legend Star right now!) In Two for the Road, the Hepburn Charm is in full effect along with her playful sense of comedic timing. Her chemistry with Albert Finney is such a joy to watch. In Charade, opposite the immensely debonair Cary Grant (another one I’d like to give a Legendary Legend Star to), you’d think his light would outshine hers because, hello, MiSTER CARY GRANT, but no. You literally cannot take your eyes off Audrey at any moment, especially in her scenes with Grant. She is luminous! She literally glows! And maybe that’s why she attracted me all those years ago, in a somewhat-forgotten Spielberg film. The woman literally emanated light, in not only her acting but in the way she moved, the way she performed, the way she gave to countless others less fortunate. It’s no wonder shops still sell postcards and posters and magnets with her face on them - Audrey is a light that still burns bright, almost thirty years after she said goodbye.