Audrey Hepburn: An Intimate Portrait Hardcover – October 1, 1993
by Diana Maychick 
 
A biography of the screen legend, based on more than one hundred interviews with family and friends, discusses her early years, her personal life, her work opposite Hollywood's greatest leading men, and her tireless work for UNICEF
 
From Publishers Weekly
Drawing heavily on interviews with the actress at her home in Switzerland during the last year of her life, Maychick's biography focuses on the film actress's life off-screen. Born to a family of Dutch nobility, Hepburn endured serious privation during WW II, performed courier duties for a Resistance organization headed by her mother, struggled against anorexic tendencies throughout her life and hated being the center of attention even as an international star. Maychick ( Meryl Streep ) examines Hepburn's marriages to actor Mel Ferrer and Italian psychiatrist Andreas Dotti and her affairs with such leading men as William Holden, Ben Gazzara and Albert Finney. The account of her career is a bland, uncritical chronicle of one dazzling performance after another. On the whole, however, this is a chatty, sympathetic portrait. Hepburn (1929-1993) found a measure of peace toward the end of her life through her relationship with Dutch actor Robert Wolders and her work for UNICEF as ambassador-at-large. Photos. First serial to Cosmopolitan.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
One of this book's most touching revelations regards the role of Hepburn and her family in the Dutch resistance during World War II. In these chapters, Maychick writes with depth and passion about Hepburn's youthful deprivation, dangerous encounters, and heroic contributions. What follows, however, is a sincere but one-dimensional account of Hepburn's rise to stardom despite battles with self-esteem and recurring anorexia; her often unhappy personal life, hallmarked by tragic miscarriages and problem marriages; and her tireless work on behalf of UNICEF. The latter portion of the book reads more like a tribute than an in-depth biography, chronologizing Hepburn's life through a mixture of details and quotes. Yet fans and movie buffs will find this of definite interest, for large entertainment collections.
- Carol J. Binkowski, Bloomfield, N.J.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
 
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