'Stars didn’t shine brighter': Behind the lens of unseen Audrey photographs

Stars don’t come much more perfectly formed, or perfectly talented, than Audrey Hepburn. Gamine, elegant and stylish, the Belgium-born actor, who died 26 years ago, is as adored today as she was in her lifetime.

Audrey’s charms made her irresistible to photographers, and big names queued up to take her picture. Featured here are portraits by four of them.

Audrey Hepburn photographed by Douglas Kirkland.Credit: Douglas Kirkland/Iconic Images/ACC Art Books

The images, included in the new book Always Audrey and chosen by photographic historian and curator Terence Pepper, have never been published before. Whether taken on set, in a studio or at her Italian villa, they confirm why Audrey’s image has had a grip on us ever since.

Sir Norman Parkinson

Audrey adopted Bimbaw while she was filming War and Peace in Italy.Credit: The Norman Parkinson Archive/Iconic Images/ACC Art Books

There’s a picture of a pink-couture-clad Audrey, then aged 26, looking coquettishly over her shoulder in front of a burst of pink flowers that’s one of the most famous images of the actor.
It was shot by Vogue star photographer Norman Parkinson (1913-1990) at Villa Rolli, just outside Rome, which Audrey rented while filming King Vidor’s 1956 version of War and Peace.

“Parkinson captured various set-ups and outfits,” says Terence Pepper, who spent six months with the photographer in 1981 prior to an exhibition of his work at the National Portrait Gallery in London, where Pepper was curator of photographs. “But for me, the one that stands out by a mile is
her in the black-and-white capri pants with the donkey – Bimba.”

Audrey adopted Bimba while living at the villa and used to pull the donkey in a cart when she went to the market. “The donkey image remained one of Parkinson’s favourites.”

Parkinson also photographed Audrey in 1952, during her run as Gigi on Broadway. Engaged to shoot the ingénue actor for US Vogue, he captured her first in the frilled nightdress that was part of her costume, then in full couture, a sequence of pictures published for the first time in Always Audrey. Even at that young age, Audrey knew how to deliver – and then some.

Milton H. Greene

The American photographer Milton H. Greene (1922-1985) was 29 when Life magazine commissioned him to capture Audrey at the beginning of her career, in 1951. Audrey, then 22, was starring on Broadway in Gigi at the time. She posed for Greene in her sailor-themed costume, kicking, smiling and leaping playfully.

Milton H. Greene's son Joshua: “She was always very present in photographs. There is always a sense of her listening, wanting to connect."Credit: Milton H. Greene/Iconic Images/ACC Art Books

Greene was smitten and a brief affair ensued, one that morphed into a lifelong friendship when the romance had run its course. He would shoot her again two years later on the set of her film Sabrina in Malibu, California. Pictures that Greene took of Audrey, by then a movie star, adjusting her
scarf and lying on the sand, and one of her pretending to mop her beach bungalow, accompanied a feature in Look magazine in which she was proclaimed actress of the year.

“She was always very present in photographs,” says Greene’s son, Joshua. “There is always a sense of
her listening, wanting to connect.”

Greene photographed Audrey for a third time, in 1954, and arranged for her and her co-star (and soon-to-be husband) Mel Ferrer to have supper with him and his wife, Amy, at his New York studio. Audrey turned up in a black leotard, cashmere sweater and cashmere overcoat “her usual stunning self, and my mother, she was eight months pregnant with me at the time,” says Joshua.

Greene and Audrey Hepburn developed a lifelong friendship.Credit: Milton H. Greene/Iconic Images/ACC Art Books

“She told me she felt almost embarrassed to be in Audrey’s presence, so she took Audrey aside
and asked her if she wouldn’t mind keeping her coat on. Of course Audrey agreed – she was always classy; it was never about the ego with her, and I think that was quite wonderful.”

Terry O'Neill

By the mid-1960s, the British photographer Terry O’Neill had already been on the sets of such classic films as Goldfinger and The Ipcress File, and taken portraits of Elizabeth Taylor and Brigitte Bardot.

Audrey Hepburn plays cricket on the beach during a break from filming Stanley Donen's Two for the Road in 1966.Credit: Terry O'Neill/Iconic Images/ACC Art Books

Even so, he says, recalling the moment he was invited to take pictures on the set of How to Steal a Million, “having the opportunity to work with Audrey, well, that was a break I just didn’t want to miss. Stars didn’t shine much brighter than Audrey.”

Following her success in Sabrina, Funny Face and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Audrey was one of the most famous women in the world. “She was always photographed as the iconic, stylish beauty, but she had an impish sense of humour and could get really frisky. There were rumours of an affair – sparks were certainly flying – and I thought they [Audrey and co-star Peter O’Toole] had terrific chemistry in front of the camera, both mine and the director’s.”

A year later, O’Neill was invited to St Tropez, to the set of Two for the Road. During a break between scenes, someone set up a beach cricket game. “Audrey jumped right in, picked up the bat and started to play. I hope these portray what she was like off-camera … one of the most kind and generous people I’ve ever worked with. She lit up a room and never took a bad picture. I can’t say enough good things about Audrey. I was lucky to be there."'

In Malibu, California.Credit: Milton H. Greene/Iconic Images/ACC Art Books

Douglas Kirkland

“Audrey was kind of a trooper,” says the US-based photographer Douglas Kirkland, 85. “She was never late, she worked very hard. And she knew the camera – she understood every nuance of it … I wish there were more Audrey Hepburns today.”

Kirkland first photographed Audrey, then 36, in 1965, on the Paris set of How to Steal a Million. He was the hottest name in the business at the time, having secured the now infamous shots of Marilyn Monroe wearing nothing but a sheet. “Looking at the images,” he says, “there is a brilliance that comes from within Audrey … It was a luminosity that she projected.

The shoot holds special significance for Kirkland as it was where he met his wife, Françoise. “I was helping [my mother, the film’s publicist] mark contact sheets,” she says, “and in walked Douglas.

“He was tall and incredibly good-looking, and he sat down, put his feet up, placed his arms behind his head and promptly went to sleep. I guess he was jet-lagged. When he woke up, he stretched, rubbed his eyes, then looked at me and said, ‘Would you like to go out to dinner?’ ”

The following day, Françoise broke up with her boyfriend. “I told him, ‘C’est fini,’ and Douglas and I have been together ever since.”

Kirkland finishes the story. “We often say, ‘Thank you, Audrey, for introducing us.’ ”

This article appears in Sunday Life magazine within the Sun-Herald and the Sunday Age on sale October 27.