Roman Holiday
Encyclopedia
Roman Holiday is a 1953 romantic comedy
Romantic Comedy
Romantic Comedy can refer to* Romantic Comedy , a 1979 play written by Bernard Slade* Romantic Comedy , a 1983 film adapted from the play and starring Dudley Moore and Mary Steenburgen...

 directed and produced by William Wyler
William Wyler
William Wyler was a leading American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.Notable works included Ben-Hur , The Best Years of Our Lives , and Mrs. Miniver , all of which won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, and also won Best Picture...

 and starring Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...

 and Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...

. It was written by John Dighton
John Dighton
John Dighton was a successful British playwright and screenwriter.Dighton wrote for the stage until 1936, when he made the transition to films...

 and Dalton Trumbo
Dalton Trumbo
James Dalton Trumbo was an American screenwriter and novelist, and one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of film professionals who refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 during the committee's investigation of Communist influences in the motion picture industry...

, though with Trumbo on the Hollywood blacklist
Hollywood blacklist
The Hollywood blacklist—as the broader entertainment industry blacklist is generally known—was the mid-twentieth-century list of screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other U.S. entertainment professionals who were denied employment in the field because of their political beliefs or...

, he did not receive a credit; instead, Ian McLellan Hunter
Ian McLellan Hunter
Ian McLellan Hunter was an English screenwriter, most noted for fronting for the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo as the credited writer of Roman Holiday in 1953. Hunter was himself later blacklisted.-Roman Holiday:...

 fronted for him. Trumbo's credit was reinstated when the film was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 in 2003.

Hepburn won an Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...

 for her performance; the screenplay and costume design also won.

In the 1970s, both Peck and Hepburn were approached with the idea of a sequel, but the project never came to fruition. The film was remade for television in 1987 with Tom Conti
Tom Conti
Thomas "Tom" Conti is a Scottish actor, theatre director and novelist.-Early life:Born Thomas Conti in Paisley, Renfrewshire, he was brought up Roman Catholic, but he considers himself anti-religious...

 and Catherine Oxenberg
Catherine Oxenberg
Catherine Oxenberg is an American actress known for her performance as Amanda Carrington on the 1980s American prime time soap opera Dynasty. The daughter of HRH Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, Oxenberg is a descendant of the Serbian Karađorđević dynasty.-Early life:Though born in New York City,...

, who herself came from a European royal family.

Plot

Ann (Hepburn) is the crown princess of an unspecified country. She is on a widely publicized tour of several European capitals, including Rome. One night, she is overwhelmed by the strenuous demands of her official duties, for which her day is tightly scheduled. Her doctor gives her a sedative to calm her down and help her sleep, but she secretly leaves her country's embassy to experience Rome by herself.

The sedative eventually takes effect and she falls asleep on a bench, where Joe Bradley (Peck), an expatriate American reporter working for the Rome Daily American
Rome Daily American
Rome Daily American was an English language daily newspaper published in Rome, Italy which operated from 1946 to 1986.-History:It was started by three GIs taking advantage of the discontinuation of the publication in Europe of Stars and Stripes, the American Military newspaper which had been...

, finds her. Not recognizing her, he offers her money so that she can take a taxi home, but a very woozy "Anya Smith" (as she calls herself) refuses to cooperate. Joe finally decides, for safety's sake, to let her spend the night in his apartment. He is amused by her regal manner, but less so when she appropriates his bed. He transfers her to a couch without awakening her. The next morning, Joe hurries off to work, leaving the princess still asleep.

When his editor, Mr. Hennessy (Hartley Power), asks why he is late, Joe lies to him; he claims to have attended a press conference for the princess. Joe makes up details of the alleged interview until Hennessy informs him that the press conference had been canceled because the princess had suddenly "fallen ill". Joe sees a picture of her and recognizes that it is the same young woman who is in his apartment. Joe immediately sees the opportunity before him and proposes an exclusive interview for $5000, Hennessy agrees but bets Joe $500 that he will not succeed.

Joe hurries home and, hiding the fact that he is a reporter, he offers to spend the day with Anya, showing her Rome. He also surreptitiously calls his photographer friend, Irving Radovich (Eddie Albert
Eddie Albert
Edward Albert Heimberger , known professionally as Eddie Albert, was an American actor and activist. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid.Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing...

), to tag along to secretly take pictures. However, Anya declines Joe's offer and leaves.

Enjoying her freedom, on a whim, Anya gets her hair cut short in a barbershop. Joe follows and "accidentally" meets her on the Spanish Steps
Spanish Steps
The Spanish Steps are a set of steps in Rome, Italy, climbing a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the Trinità dei Monti church at the top. The Scalinata is the widest staircase in Europe...

. This time he convinces her to go with him, and they spend the day seeing the sights, including the "Mouth of Truth", a face carved in marble which is said to bite off the hands of liars. When Joe pulls his hand out of the mouth, it appears to be missing, causing Anya to scream. He then pops his hand out of his sleeve and laughs. (Hepburn's shriek was not acting—Peck decided to pull a gag he had once seen Red Skelton
Red Skelton
Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American comedian who is best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing...

 do, and did not tell his co-star beforehand.)

Later, Anya shares with Joe her dream of living a normal life without her crushing responsibilities. That night, at a dance on a boat, government agents finally track her down and try to escort her away, but a wild melee breaks out and Joe and Anya escape. Through all this, they gradually fall in love, but Anya realizes that their relationship cannot continue. She finally bids farewell to Joe and returns to the embassy.

During the course of the day, Hennessy learns that the princess is missing, not ill as claimed. He suspects that Joe knows where she is, and tries to get him to admit it, but Joe claims to know nothing about it. Joe decides not to write the story. Initially, Irving plans to publish his photographs, but then reluctantly decides not to do so.

The next day, Princess Ann appears at the postponed news conference, and is alarmed to find Joe and Irving among the members of the press. Irving takes her picture with the same miniature cigarette lighter/camera he had used the previous day. He then presents her with the photographs he had taken that day, discreetly tucked in an envelope, as a memento of her adventure. Joe lets her know, by allusion, that her secret is safe with them. She, in turn, works into her bland statements a coded message of love and gratitude to Joe. She then departs, leaving Joe to linger for a while, contemplating what might have been.


Cast

Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...

 
as Joe Bradley
The role was originally written with Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...

 in mind. Grant declined, believing he was too old to play Hepburn's love interest (though he played opposite her ten years later in Charade.) Peck's contract gave him solo star billing
Billing (film)
Billing is a performing arts term used in referring to the order and other aspects of how credits are presented for plays, films, television, or other creative works...

, with newcomer Hepburn listed much less prominently in the credits. Halfway through the filming, Peck suggested to Wyler that he elevate her to equal billing — an almost unheard-of gesture in Hollywood.
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...

 
as Princess Ann ('Anya Smith')
This role was originally written for Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...

. Hepburn was cast after a screen-test. After she had performed a dignified, subdued scene from the film, the director called "cut", but the cameraman left the camera rolling, capturing the young actress suddenly become animated as she chatted with the director. The candid footage won her the role; some of it was later included in the original theatrical trailer for the film, along with additional screen test footage showing Hepburn trying on some of Anya's costumes and even cutting her own hair (referring to a scene in the film). Roman Holiday was not Hepburn's first American acting job—she appeared on a 1952 CBS Television Workshop
CBS Television Workshop
CBS Television Workshop was a 1952 television series famous for an early appearance of Audrey Hepburn and James Dean.On 13 January 1952, in the very first episode, a dramatized 30 minute version of Don Quixote starring Boris Karloff and directed by Sidney Lumet, Grace Kelly made an appearance as...

production of Rainy Day in Paradise Junction—but it was her first major role, one which introduced her to the general public.


Eddie Albert
Eddie Albert
Edward Albert Heimberger , known professionally as Eddie Albert, was an American actor and activist. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid.Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing...

as Irving Radovich
Hartley Power
Hartley Power
Hartley Power was an American-born British film and television actor. He is best remembered for two roles: "Sylvester Kee" the ventriloquist who is shot and almost killed by "Maxwell Frere" as a rival for his "dummy"'s affections in Dead of Night; the chief of the news agency that Gregory Peck...

as Hennessy, Joe's editor
Harcourt Williams
Harcourt Williams
Harcourt Williams was an English character actor.-Selected filmography:* Henry V * Brighton Rock * Hamlet * No Room at the Inn * The Lost People...

as the Ambassador of Princess Ann's country
Margaret Rawlings
Margaret Rawlings
Margaret Rawlings was a distinguished English stage actress, born in Osaka, Japan, daughter of the Rev George William Rawlings and his wife Lilian . She died two weeks three days before her 90th birthday....

as Countess Vereberg, Ann's principal lady-in-waiting
Lady-in-waiting
A lady-in-waiting is a female personal assistant at a royal court, attending on a queen, a princess, or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman from a family highly thought of in good society, but was of lower rank than the woman on whom she...

Tullio Carminati
Tullio Carminati
Tullio Carminati was an Italian actor most famous for roles in The Cardinal, One Night of Love, and El Cid. He also appeared in the movie, Roman Holiday....

as General Provno
Paola Borboni
Paola Borboni
Paola Borboni was an Italian film actress whose career spanned nine decades of cinema. She also made a substantial contribution to theatre....

as the Charwoman
Laura Solari
Laura Solari
Laura Camaur , known by the stage name Laura Solari, was an Italian film actress.-Early life:Laura Camaur was born on 5 January 5, 1913, in Trieste, then part of Austria-Hungary. She was the daughter of sculptor and artist Antonio Camaur and his wife, Maria Taucer...

as Secretary




Wins

  • Academy Award for Best Actress
    Academy Award for Best Actress
    Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...

     (Audrey Hepburn
    Audrey Hepburn
    Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...

    )
  • Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White
    Academy Award for Costume Design
    The Academy Award for Best Costume Design is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for achievement in film costume design....

     (Edith Head
    Edith Head
    Edith Head was an American costume designer who won eight Academy Awards, more than any other woman.-Early life and career:...

    )
  • Academy Award for Writing (Motion Picture Story) (Dalton Trumbo
    Dalton Trumbo
    James Dalton Trumbo was an American screenwriter and novelist, and one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of film professionals who refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 during the committee's investigation of Communist influences in the motion picture industry...

    )
  • BAFTA Award for Best British Actress (Audrey Hepburn)
  • Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actress — Drama (Audrey Hepburn)
  • New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
    New York Film Critics Circle Awards
    New York Film Critics' Circle Awards are given annually to honor excellence in cinema worldwide by an organization of film reviewers from New York City-based publications. It is considered one of the most important precursors to the Academy Awards....

     (Audrey Hepburn)
  • Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Comedy
    Writers Guild of America, East
    Writers Guild of America, East is a labor union representing writers of television and film and employees of television and radio news. The 2006 membership of the guild was 3,770....

     (Ian McLellan Hunter and John Dighton
    John Dighton
    John Dighton was a successful British playwright and screenwriter.Dighton wrote for the stage until 1936, when he made the transition to films...

    )


Nominations

  • Academy Award for Best Picture
    Academy Award for Best Picture
    The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...

  • Academy Award for Best Director (William Wyler
    William Wyler
    William Wyler was a leading American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.Notable works included Ben-Hur , The Best Years of Our Lives , and Mrs. Miniver , all of which won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, and also won Best Picture...

    )
  • Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
    Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
    Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...

     (Eddie Albert
    Eddie Albert
    Edward Albert Heimberger , known professionally as Eddie Albert, was an American actor and activist. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid.Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing...

    )
  • Academy Award for Writing (Motion Picture Story) (Dalton Trumbo
    Dalton Trumbo
    James Dalton Trumbo was an American screenwriter and novelist, and one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of film professionals who refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 during the committee's investigation of Communist influences in the motion picture industry...

    )
  • Academy Award for Best Art Direction
    Academy Award for Best Art Direction
    The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...

     (Hal Pereira
    Hal Pereira
    Hal Pereira was an American art director and production designer....

     & Walter H. Tyler
    Walter H. Tyler
    Walter H. Tyler was an American art director. He won an Academy Award and was nominated for eight more in the category Best Art Direction.He was born in Los Angeles, California and died in Orange County, California...

    )
  • Academy Award for Best Cinematography
    Academy Award for Best Cinematography
    The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...

     (Franz Planer
    Franz Planer
    Franz Planer, A.S.C. was a cinematographer born in Karlsbad, Austria-Hungary ,-Biography:...

     & Henri Alekan
    Henri Alekan
    Henri Alekan was a French cinematographer.-Life:Henri Alekan was born in Montmartre in 1909. At the age of sixteen he and his brother became travelling puppeteers. A little later he started work as third assistant cameraman at the Billancourt studios. He then spent a short time in the army,...

    )
  • Academy Award for Best Film Editing (Robert Swink
    Robert Swink
    Robert Swink was an American film editor who worked on nearly sixty projects during a career that spanned forty-six years....

    )
  • BAFTA Award for Best Film from any source
  • BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor — (Eddie Albert)
  • BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor — (Gregory Peck
    Gregory Peck
    Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...

    )
  • DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures
    Directors Guild of America
    Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...

     (William Wyler)

Accolades

In 1999, Roman Holiday was selected for preservation in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...

 by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

 as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...

 Lists
  • AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs - Nominated
  • AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions - #4
  • AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - Nominated
  • AFI's 10 Top 10
    AFI's 10 Top 10
    AFI's 10 Top 10 honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres. Presented by the American Film Institute , the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008....

     - #4 Romantic Comedy

Tributes and references in popular culture

  • The film inspired the lyrics of Deep Blue Something
    Deep Blue Something
    Deep Blue Something is an American rock band best known for its hit single "Breakfast at Tiffany's." The group was founded in 1992 in Denton, Texas by University of North Texas students Todd and Toby Pipes, Clay Bergus and John Kirtland...

    's "Breakfast at Tiffany's
    Breakfast at Tiffany's (song)
    "Breakfast at Tiffany's" is the title of a song recorded by American rock band Deep Blue Something. Originally appearing on the album 11th Song, it was later released in 1994 on their album Home...

    ", but the author, Todd David Pipes, thought that one of Hepburn's other films would make a better song title.
  • At least two different orchid
    Orchidaceae
    The Orchidaceae, commonly referred to as the orchid family, is a morphologically diverse and widespread family of monocots in the order Asparagales. Along with the Asteraceae, it is one of the two largest families of flowering plants, with between 21,950 and 26,049 currently accepted species,...

     cultivars share this name, Epc. Joseph Romans 'Roman Holiday' and Blc. Empress Worsley 'Roman Holiday'.
  • The "Mouth of Truth" scene was shown in the 2006 film You, Me and Dupree
    You, Me and Dupree
    You, Me and Dupree is a 2006 romantic comedy film directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, written by Mike LeSieur, and produced by Mary Parent, Scott Stuber, and Owen Wilson....

    , with Dupree stating that the trick always gets him even though he knows it's coming. The joke is also used in the film Only You
    Only You (1994 film)
    Only You is a 1994 romantic comedy film written by Diane Drake and directed and coproduced by Norman Jewison. It stars Marisa Tomei as a young woman who searches for a man whom she believes is her soulmate and Robert Downey Jr. as a young man she meets along the way...

    and the 2007 film National Treasure: Book of Secrets. The scene was replicated in many Indian language films, the noteworthy being Director Shankar's Tamil blockbuster- 'Kadhalan' which was a loose adaptation of the film itself.
  • In the Japanese anime series ".hack//Sign
    .hack//SIGN
    .hack//Sign is an anime television series directed by Kōichi Mashimo and produced by studio Bee Train and Bandai Visual, that makes up one of the four original storylines of the .hack franchise...

    ", the character Tsukasa reenacts the Mouth of Truth scene, and comments that his mother was fond of the movie.
  • In the Japanese anime movie Paprika (2006 film), the chaotic dreams of Detective Toshimi Konakawa are represented by quickly changing film scenes, one of which is the iconic fight at the dance with government agents from the film.
  • In the Japanese anime series "Strike Witches
    Strike Witches
    is a mixed-media project originally created by Humikane Shimada via a series of magazine illustration columns. It was later adapted into two light novel series, three manga series, an anime OVA, a televised anime series and various video games. The story revolves around teenage girls who are...

    " (season 2), the movie is heavily referenced over the course of the episode "My Romagna", including the Mouth of Truth scene.

External links

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