Adieu Audrey

Book excerpt: She was living evidence that fairy tales are real and that angels can come down to earth. It was Colette who discovered the too tall and too thin girl with expressive eyes, then a complete unknown, and made her the lead in the 1951 Broadway production of Gigi. Her film triumphs were all the more astonishing since she didn't match the usual Hollywood clichés. Petite, almost androgynous, and with a disarming naturalness, she had a worldwide impact on fashion and beauty trends and was enthusiastically welcomed as an alternative to the sex bombs and pin-up girls of the 50s. This book, with an essay by Klaus-Jürgen Sembach, is dedicated to Audrey Hepburn who died in 1993. It includes the best film stills, portraits, and private photographs by well-known and by unknown photographers from all over the world who have provided us with an immortal image of Hollywood's most endearing star.