Sitting in a Swedish restaurant in 1958 across from Otto Frank – the father of Jewish schoolgirl Anne (whose diary about life under Nazi occupation during World War II has sold more than 30 million copies) – Audrey Hepburn took a deep breath as she steeled herself to utter some of the hardest words she’d ever have to say. The former businessman was working with Hollywood director George Stevens to turn his late daughter’s memoir into a film and there was no-one he wanted to portray his beloved Anne more than her. So far Hepburn had resisted, but he hoped meeting in person would change her mind. “Otto, it’s been wonderful spending this time with you but I’m afraid I can’t do this movie,” Hepburn regretfully told him. “I just can’t.”
While the gamine beauty who charmed the world on the silver screen mightn’t have appeared to have much in common with the teen who’d
