Enchantment

July 17, 2006
Celebrity biographer Spoto (The Art of Alfred Hitchcock
) offers a sparkling, fawning life of the European gamine whom America took to instantly with her 1953 debut in Roman Holiday
. Hepburn (1929–1993) held the irresistible charm of a childlike star naïvely unaware of her appeal, from her first big break at age 22 when selected by Colette herself to play the Broadway version of Gigi. Born to a Dutch baroness and an English ne'er-do-well (and fascist sympathizer) who separated when she was six, Hepburn and her mother underwent horrendous deprivations during the Nazi occupation of Holland during WWII; her early ambition to become a ballet dancer was undermined by inadequate nutrition and training. Her early film successes flowed astonishingly, however, from Sabrina
, Funny Face
, Love in the Afternoon
, Breakfast at Tiffany's
and My Fair Lady
to attempts at roles with more gravitas, as in The Nun's Story
and Wait Until Dark
. Often paired with older, avuncular leads, Hepburn was viewed as unerotic, yet Spoto tracks her steamy relationships with playboys and co-stars, and marriage to American actor-director Mel Ferrer, who often acted as her Pygmalion. Her later work with UNICEF is sketched too briefly. Spoto's previous Hollywood biographies allow the author authoritative access to Hepburn.