On 11 June, 2003, the U.S. Postal Service added another collectible postage stamp to its Legends of Hollywood commemorative stamps series with their dedication of the first class 37-cent Audrey Hepburn stamp. Hepburn appears on the 9th stamp in the popular Legends of Hollywood stamp series.

The Career of Audrey Hepburn

According to the USPS Press Release, Audrey Hepburn was born in 1929 in Brussels, Belgium. She was the daughter of a British man and a Dutch baroness. Much of her childhood was spent in England, but she moved with her mother to the Netherlands in 1939, where she and her family spent five years under the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II.

Audrey Hepburn's film career, as reported by the Internet Movie Database, began with We Go to Monte Carlo (1951). Roles came quickly to Hepburn and in 1953 she won an Oscar for Roman Holiday. Her performances in Sabrina (1954), The Nun's Story (1959), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), and Wait Until Dark (1967) also received Academy Award nominations.

Hepburn's career wasn't limited to the silver screen. She excelled on Broadway, earning a Tony for her performance in Ondine (1954).

Audrey Hepburn died of cancer on 20 January, 1993 at her home in Tolochenaz, Switzerland.

USPS Audrey Hepburn Stamp Design

As told in the USA Philatelic: Beyond the Perf, Issue 008, the white background of the Hepburn stamp was not part of artist Michael Deas' design. His original translucent background was too difficult to reproduce, so the portrait was instead made in silhouette. Additionally, Hepburn's son, Sean Ferrer, wanted a bump in Hepburn's nose articulated because his mother was "a beautiful package of imperfections".

The selvage art (or the art in the surplus margin around the sheet of stamps), also created by Michael Deas, portrays Hepburn in her role for Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961).