Editing Audrey Hepburn (section)

===1953–1960: ''Roman Holiday'' and stardom===
[[File:Audrey Hepburn screentest in Roman Holiday trailer.jpg|thumb|upright|Hepburn in a [[screen test]] for ''[[Roman Holiday]]'' (1953) which was also used as promotional material for the film|alt=Hepburn film test photo dressed in skirt with white blouse.]]

Hepburn had her first starring role in ''[[Roman Holiday]]'' (1953), playing Princess Ann, a European princess who escapes the reins of royalty and has a wild night out with an American newsman ([[Gregory Peck]]). On 18 September 1951, shortly after ''Secret People'' was finished but before its premiere, Thorold Dickinson made a screen test with the young starlet and sent it to director [[William Wyler]], who was in Rome preparing ''Roman Holiday''. Wyler wrote a glowing note of thanks to Dickinson, saying that "as a result of the test, a number of the producers at Paramount have expressed interest in casting her."<ref>{{Cite web |title=The letter that made Audrey Hepburn a star |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/letter-made-audrey-hepburn-star |access-date=19 October 2021 |website=British Film Institute |date=19 July 2013 |language=en |archive-date=1 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220801092710/https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/letter-made-audrey-hepburn-star |url-status=live }}</ref> The producers of the film had initially wanted [[Elizabeth Taylor]] for the role, but Wyler was so impressed by Hepburn's [[screen test]] that he cast her instead. Wyler later commented, "She had everything I was looking for: charm, innocence, and talent. She also was very funny. She was absolutely enchanting, and we said, 'That's the girl!{{'"}}{{sfn|Paris|2001|p=72}} Originally, the film was to have had only Gregory Peck's name above its title, with "Introducing Audrey Hepburn" beneath in smaller font. Peck suggested Wyler elevate her to equal billing so her name appears before the title, and in type as large as his: "You've got to change that because she'll be a big star, and I'll look like a big jerk."{{Sfn|Fishgall|2002|p=173}}

The film was a box-office success, and Hepburn gained critical acclaim for her portrayal, unexpectedly winning an [[Academy Award for Best Actress]], a [[BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role|BAFTA Award for Best British Actress in a Leading Role]], and a [[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama]] in 1953. In his review in ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[A. H. Weiler]] wrote: "Although she is not precisely a newcomer to films, Audrey Hepburn, the British actress who is being starred for the first time as Princess Anne, is a slender, elfin, and wistful beauty, alternately regal and childlike in her profound appreciation of newly-found, simple pleasures and love. Although she bravely smiles her acknowledgement of the end of that affair, she remains a pitifully lonely figure facing a stuffy future."<ref name=weilerelfin>{{cite news |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=940DE6DA153EE53BBC4051DFBE668388649EDE |title='Roman Holiday' at Music Hall Is Modern Fairy Tale Starring Peck and Audrey Hepburn |first=A. W. |last=Weiler |newspaper=The New York Times |date=28 August 1953 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811011154/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=940DE6DA153EE53BBC4051DFBE668388649EDE |archive-date=11 August 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Holden-Hepburn-Sabrina.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Hepburn with co-star [[William Holden]] in the film ''[[Sabrina (1954 film)|Sabrina]]'' (1954)|alt=Publicity still from Hepburn film with William Holden.]]

Hepburn was signed to a seven-picture contract with [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]], with 12 months in between films to allow her time for stage work.<ref>Connolly, Mike. [http://www.audreyhepburnlibrary.com/50s/images/photoplay1-54pg3.jpg Who Needs Beauty!] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070605055453/http://www.audreyhepburnlibrary.com/50s/images/photoplay1-54pg3.jpg |date=5 June 2007 }}, ''[[Photoplay]]'', January 1954</ref> She was featured on 7 September 1953 cover of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine, and also became known for her personal style.<ref>{{cite news |title=Audrey Hepburn: Behind the sparkle of rhinestones, a diamond's glow |url=http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19530907,00.html |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=7 September 1953 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090512220104/http://www.time.com/time/covers/0%2C16641%2C19530907%2C00.html |archive-date=12 May 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Following her success in ''Roman Holiday'', Hepburn starred in [[Billy Wilder]]'s romantic [[Cinderella]]-story comedy ''[[Sabrina (1954 film)|Sabrina]]'' (1954), in which wealthy brothers ([[Humphrey Bogart]] and [[William Holden]]) compete for the affections of their chauffeur's innocent daughter (Hepburn). For her performance, she was nominated for the 1954 Academy Award for Best Actress, while winning the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role the same year.<ref name="NY Times">{{cite news |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/42513/Sabrina/details |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090402042339/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/42513/Sabrina/details |url-status=dead |archive-date=2 April 2009 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=2009 |title=NY Times: Sabrina |access-date=21 December 2008}}</ref> [[Bosley Crowther]] of ''The New York Times'' stated that she was "a young lady of extraordinary range of sensitive and moving expressions within such a frail and slender frame. She is even more luminous as the daughter and pet of the servants' hall than she was as a princess last year, and no more than that can be said."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9406E3DF1238E23BBC4B51DFBF66838F649EDE |newspaper=The New York Times |first=Bosley |last=Crowther |title=Screen: 'Sabrina' Bows at Criterion; Billy Wilder Produces and Directs Comedy |date=23 September 1954 |access-date=5 February 2017 |archive-date=19 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019214944/https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9406E3DF1238E23BBC4B51DFBF66838F649EDE |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer 1955.jpg|thumb|upright|Mel Ferrer and Hepburn in ''[[War and Peace (1956 film)|War and Peace]]'' (1956)]]

Hepburn also returned to the stage in 1954, playing a [[water nymph]] who falls in love with a human in the fantasy play ''[[Ondine (play)|Ondine]]'' on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]]. A critic for ''The New York Times'' commented that "somehow, Miss Hepburn is able to translate [its intangibles] into the language of the theatre without artfulness or precociousness. She gives a pulsing performance that is all grace and enchantment, disciplined by an instinct for the realities of the stage". Her performance won her the 1954 [[Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play|Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play]] three days after she won the Academy Award for ''Roman Holiday'', making her one of three actresses to receive the Academy and Tony Awards for Best Actress in the same year (the other two are [[Shirley Booth]] and [[Ellen Burstyn]]).<ref name=soundstage /> During the production, Hepburn and her co-star [[Mel Ferrer]] began a relationship, and were married on 25 September 1954 in Switzerland.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/2076351/Mel-Ferrer.html |title=Mel Ferrer |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |access-date=27 April 2017 |archive-date=23 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211123232443/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/2076351/Mel-Ferrer.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Audrey Hepburn - Studio Portrait (1957).png|thumb|upright|Publicity photo for ''[[Love in the Afternoon (1957 film)|Love in the Afternoon]]'' (1957)]]

Although she appeared in no new film releases in 1955, Hepburn received the Golden Globe for World Film Favorite that year.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.goldenglobes.org/browse/member/28367 |title=Hepburn's Golden Globe nominations and awards |publisher=Golden Globes |date=14 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100408051329/http://www.goldenglobes.org/browse/member/28367 |archive-date=8 April 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref> Having become one of Hollywood's most popular box-office attractions, she starred in a series of successful films during the remainder of the decade, including her BAFTA- and Golden Globe-nominated role as [[Natasha Rostova]] in ''[[War and Peace (1956 film)|War and Peace]]'' (1956), an adaptation of the [[War and Peace|Tolstoy novel]] set during the Napoleonic wars, starring [[Henry Fonda]] and her husband Mel Ferrer. She exhibited her dancing abilities in her debut [[musical film]], ''[[Funny Face]]'' (1957), wherein [[Fred Astaire]], a fashion photographer, discovers a beatnik bookshop clerk (Hepburn) who, lured by a free trip to Paris, becomes a beautiful model. Hepburn starred in another romantic comedy, ''[[Love in the Afternoon (1957 film)|Love in the Afternoon]]'' (also 1957), alongside [[Gary Cooper]] and [[Maurice Chevalier]].

Hepburn played Sister Luke in ''[[The Nun's Story (film)|The Nun's Story]]'' (1959), which focuses on the character's struggle to succeed as a nun, alongside co-star [[Peter Finch]]. The role produced a third Academy Award nomination for Hepburn, and earned her a second BAFTA Award. A review in ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' reads: "Hepburn has her most demanding film role, and she gives her finest performance",<ref>''Variety'' magazine. Staff writers. 31 December 1958. "The Nun's Story".</ref> while Henry Hart in ''[[Films in Review]]'' stated that her performance "will forever silence those who have thought her less an actress than a symbol of the sophisticated child/woman. Her portrayal of Sister Luke is one of the great performances of the screen."<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.audrey1.com/films/nun.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060214090022/http://www.audrey1.com/films/nun.html |archive-date=14 February 2006 |title=[''The Nun's Story'' review] |first=Henry |last=Hart |date=n.d. |magazine=[[Films in Review]] |via=Audrey1.org (fan site) |access-date=14 January 2008}}</ref> Hepburn spent a year researching and working on the role, saying, "I gave more time, energy, and thought to this role than to any of my previous screen performances".<ref name="nunsstory03.jpg">Hepburn quoted in {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-7HWAgAAQBAJ&q=%22i+gave+more+time%2C+energy+and+thought+to+this+role%22+hepburn&pg=PA174 |title=Fred Zinnemann and the Cinema of Resistance |first=J.E. |last=Smyth |page=174 |isbn=978-1617039645 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |year=2014 |access-date=25 December 2020 |archive-date=26 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231026173136/https://books.google.com/books?id=-7HWAgAAQBAJ&q=%22i+gave+more+time%2C+energy+and+thought+to+this+role%22+hepburn&pg=PA174#v=snippet&q=%22i%20gave%20more%20time%2C%20energy%20and%20thought%20to%20this%20role%22%20hepburn&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>

Following ''The Nun's Story'', Hepburn received a lukewarm reception for starring with [[Anthony Perkins]] in the romantic adventure ''[[Green Mansions (film)|Green Mansions]]'' (1959), in which she played [[Rima]], a jungle girl who falls in love with a Venezuelan traveller,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9805E3DB1038EF3BBC4851DFB5668382649EDE |newspaper=The New York Times |first=Bosley |last=Crowther |title=Delicate Enchantment of 'Green Mansions'; Audrey Hepburn Stars in Role of Rima |date=20 March 1959 |access-date=5 February 2017 |archive-date=1 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130901014703/https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9805E3DB1038EF3BBC4851DFB5668382649EDE |url-status=live }}</ref> and ''[[The Unforgiven (1960 film)|The Unforgiven]]'' (1960), her only [[Western (genre)|western film]], in which she appeared opposite [[Burt Lancaster]] and [[Lillian Gish]] in a story of racism against a group of Native Americans.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9800E2DD123AEF3ABC4F53DFB266838B679EDE |newspaper=The New York Times |first=Bosley |last=Crowther |title=Screen: "The Unforgiven': Huston Film Stars Miss Hepburn, Lancaster |date=7 April 1960 |access-date=5 February 2017 |archive-date=31 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130831221104/https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9800E2DD123AEF3ABC4F53DFB266838B679EDE |url-status=live }}</ref>