Chapter Forty-Six of Keeping Score In America: Audrey Hepburn
By Michael Moriarty
web posted May 12, 2014
No one has conveyed my own philosophy of life with greater charm or more endearing simplicity than Audrey Hepburn.
The possibility that touring the world for UNICEF could make Audrey Hepburn happy?
Audrey Hepburn, during the drama of her life, became, in its last act, a saint.
She would most likely laugh at my saying that… but… well… that's the power of a woman whose mere glance from the screen carries a beauty that can put me instantly into tears.
She can become so excruciatingly perfect!
She, as with last week's subject for my ESR article, Eva Cassidy, has, for me at least, become a living memory of the superhuman!
The only woman I know who could please two of the most spoiled and frequently impossible men of both film and the theater: Cary Grant and Rex Harrison.
Both daydreamed of working with Audrey Hepburn forever!
The Little Girl In The Grown-Up's Clothes
And Jewelry
Inexhaustibly childlike enthusiasm!
An elfin wood sprite with the flying speed of a jet plane!!
Then, At Times, Fashion's Goddess
Truman Capote, author of Breakfast At Tiffany's, wanted Marilyn Monroe for the role of a professional escort, better known as expensive prostitute.
Once Audrey Hepburn was cast, the entire Capote image of his own creation was gone!
Gone with the studio executives vision: they wanted a comedy.
How much heart-warming laughter can you inspire with the life of a prostitute?
With Hepburn's first appearance in a classic black dress?!
And later the saccharine sweetness of the mega-hit song, Moon River?!
What saved the studio producers from their own rewrites of Breakfast At Tiffany's?
Audrey Hepburn.
A Breathtakingly Impenetrable Mystery
Despite being a beleaguered child of World War II… or perhaps because of that experience… yes, because of it, no one had a more realistic grasp of human reality than Audrey Hepburn. Yet, in the greatest of American traditions, she "pursued" her "happiness" with unrelenting energy.
With that classic allure, ebullience and ever-present mystery to her soul, she still brings countless hours of magic into our lives.
As I've already said about her and about Eva Cassidy, God sends angels down from heaven to reassure us of human dignity.
Thanks to miracles like Audrey Hepburn and Eva Cassidy, Divine Grace and Divine Gracefulness do exist! 
Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies. Contact Michael at rainbowfamily2008@yahoo.com. He can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/@MGMoriarty.