Fabulous Color Photos Of Audrey Hepburn From The 1950s

Audrey Hepburn spent the early 1950s building her name in a film industry that was still figuring out what to do with her. She was Belgian-born, ballet-trained, and unlike anyone Hollywood had seen before. Her features were sharp, her frame was slight, and her presence on camera was impossible to ignore. These early years before her major breakthroughs were captured in a series of vivid color photographs that show a young woman relaxed, unguarded, and full of life.

In 1951, photographers caught Hepburn in casual, outdoor settings — at the seaside, on rocks, carrying a shoulder bag along the shore. These weren’t staged studio portraits. They showed a 22-year-old woman comfortable in her own skin, dressed simply, and entirely at ease in front of the lens.

By 1953, Hepburn had her breakthrough. Roman Holiday paired her with Gregory Peck and earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress — a remarkable achievement for a debut leading role. The following year, Sabrina cemented her star status. That 1954 film, directed by Billy Wilder, cast her as a chauffeur’s daughter who returns from Paris transformed. Designer Hubert de Givenchy created her wardrobe, and the partnership between the two became one of the most celebrated in fashion history.

In September 1954, Hepburn married actor and director Mel Ferrer. The two had met while working on the Broadway production of Ondine. After the wedding, they spent time at the Bürgenstock resort in Switzerland — a lakeside mountain retreat above Lucerne. Photographers documented the couple on the resort’s golf course, capturing a rare glimpse of Hepburn off-duty and newly married.

The Bürgenstock became a recurring refuge for the couple. In 1955, Hepburn was photographed on the terrace of the Restaurant Hammetschwand at the resort’s summit — a dramatic vantage point above Lake Lucerne. That same year, she and Ferrer were also photographed riding horses near Rome, giving a glimpse into their life between film productions.

People magazine later named Hepburn one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world, and photos from 1955 make that easy to understand. Whether standing beside a flowering bougainvillea in a pink dress or photographed at the Lido nightclub in Paris, she carried herself with a naturalness that most stars had to work much harder to project.

In 1956, Hepburn took on one of her most demanding roles — Natasha Rostova in the epic war drama War and Peace, filmed in Italy. The production was massive in scale, and Hepburn’s publicity stills from the set show her in full period costume. That same year, she also began filming Funny Face alongside Fred Astaire, spending months on location in Paris.

Funny Face wrapped in 1957 and became one of her most visually celebrated films. On set, Hepburn was photographed in multiple looks — a wide-brimmed hat and white blouse, a floral-print day dress paired with a sun hat. Her Yorkshire terrier, Mr. Famous, frequently accompanied her during production and became a fixture in set photographs. That year also brought location work in France for Love in the Afternoon near the Chateau de Vitry in Gambais, and candid shots of Hepburn in Paris — reaching for a branch in the Bois de Boulogne, posing with a cat, and spending time with Ferrer at the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles.

The final two years of the decade brought her two very different projects. The Nun’s Story, filmed in 1958 and released in 1959, required Hepburn to spend extended time on set in religious costume. The role earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She followed it with Green Mansions in 1959, a jungle adventure film in which she played a mysterious forest girl named Rima.