The Diary of Anne Frank
Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett's stage adaptation of the bestselling diary of Anne Frank, on which the film was based, premiered in October 1955 to salutary reviews and stunned audiences. Kenneth Tynan, who attended the 1956 Berlin premiere described it in his review as 'the most drastic emotional experience the theater has ever given me. It had little to do with art, as the play is not a great one, yet in its effect, in Berlin, at that moment of history, transcended anything that art has learned yet to achieve. It invaded the privacy of the whole audience. European audiences who remembered the Nazi occupiers were forced to confront the reality which faced many of their fellow civilians: persecution, expulsion, deportation, and death.

Its success immediately suggested a film adaptation and on May 20, 1957 Anne Frank's father Otto Frank (the sole survivor of his immediate family) signed a contract with 20th Century Fox giving his approval and shooting started the following spring with a 3 million dollar budget.

It was hoped that the cast of the original stage production would reprise their roles on film, and Joseph Schildkraut and Gusti Huber did return, but Susan Strasberg who had played Anne, declined, and the search for an actress to play the lead began. The role was offered to Natalie Wood, who also declined. Otto Frank's first choice was Audrey Hepburn who was born the same year as Anne and had also lived through the war in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands. She had read Anne's diary in Dutch shortly before it was published in 1947 and felt devastated by it. In spite of a personal meeting with Otto Frank she too turned down the lead role as she felt too old to play a teenager and that the experience of reliving the war would be too traumatising. Hepburn however remained friends with Otto Frank until his death in 1980 and became patron of the Anne Frank Educational Trust UK. After much searching the lead role went to teenaged model Millie Perkins and the remaining cast were secured.