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Born Audrey Kathleen Ruston in Ixelles, a municipality in Brussels, Belgium, she was the only child of Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston, an Englishman and his second wife, the former Baroness Ella van Heemstra, a Dutch aristocrat who was a daughter of a former governor of Dutch Guiana. The future actress's father later appended the surname of his maternal grandmother Kathleen Hepburn to the family's, and her surname became Hepburn-Ruston. She had two half-brothers, Jonkheer Arnoud Robert Alexander "Alex" Quarles van Ufford and Jonkheer Ian Edgar Bruce Quarles van Ufford, by her mother's first marriage to a Dutch nobleman, Jonkheer Hendrik Gustaaf Adolf Quarles van Ufford. She was a descendant of King Edward III of England and Scottish consort James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, from whom Katharine Hepburn may have also descended.
Hepburn's father's job with a British insurance company meant that the family travelled often between Brussels, England, and The Netherlands. From 1935 to 1938, Hepburn attended a private academy for girls in Kent. In 1935, her parents divorced and her father, a Nazi sympathizer, left the family. She later called this the most traumatic moment of her life. Years later, she located him in Dublin through the Red Cross. She stayed in contact with him and supported him financially until his death. In 1939, her mother moved her and her two half-brothers to their grandfather's home in Arnhem, Netherlands. Hepburn attended the Arnhem Conservatory from 1939 to 1945 where she trained in ballet, along with the standard school curriculum.
By 1944, Hepburn had become a proficient ballerina. She secretly danced for groups of people to collect money for the underground movement. She later said, "the best audience I ever had made not a single sound at the end of my performance."
In 1945, after the war, Hepburn left the Arnhem Conservatory and moved to Amsterdam, where she took ballet lessons with Sonia Gaskell. In 1948, Hepburn went to London and took dancing lessons with the renowned Marie Rambert, teacher of Vaslav Nijinsky, one of the greatest male dancers in history. Hepburn eventually asked Rambert about her future. Rambert assured her that she could continue to work there and have a great career, but that her height (5'7") coupled with her poor nutrition during the war would keep her from becoming a prima ballerina. Hepburn trusted Rambert's assessment and decided to pursue acting, a career in which she at least had a chance to excel.
Her acting career started with the educational film, Dutch in Seven Lessons. She then played in musical theatre in productions such as High Button Shoes and Sauce Piquante. Hepburn's first role in a motion picture was in the British film One Wild Oat, in which she played a hotel receptionist. She played several more minor roles in Young Wives' Tale, Laughter in Paradise, The Lavender Hill Mob and Monte Carlo Baby. During the filming of Monte Carlo Baby, Hepburn was chosen to play the lead character in the Broadway play Gigi that opened on 24 November 1951. The writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette upon first seeing Hepburn reportedly said, "Voilà! There's our Gigi!" She won a Theatre World Award for her debut performance, and it had a successful six-month run in New York City.
From Hepburn's Roman Holiday screentest, which was also used in the promotional trailer for the film. Her first significant film performance was in the 1952 film Secret People, in which she played a prodigy ballerina. Naturally, Hepburn did all of her own dancing scenes. Hepburn's first starring role and first American film was opposite Gregory Peck in the Hollywood motion picture Roman Holiday. Producers initially wanted Elizabeth Taylor for the role, but director William Wyler was so impressed by Hepburn's screen test that he cast her in the lead. Wyler said, "She had everything I was looking for: charm, innocence and talent. She also was very funny. She was absolutely enchanting, and we said, 'That's the girl!'" The billing was to have Gregory Peck's name above the title in large font with "introducing Audrey Hepburn" beneath. After filming had been completed, Peck called his agent and had Hepburn's name given equal billing with his. He predicted that she would win the Oscar. Hepburn and Peck bonded during filming, and there were rumors that they were romantically involved; both denied it. Hepburn, however, added, "actually, you have to be a little bit in love with your leading man and vice versa. If you're going to portray love, you have to feel it. You can't do it any other way. But you don't carry it beyond the set." Because of the instant celebrity that came with Roman Holiday, Hepburn's illustration was placed on the cover of TIME, September 7, 1953.
After filming Roman Holiday for four months, Hepburn went back to New York and did eight months of Gigi. The play was performed in Los Angeles and San Francisco in its last month. She was given a seven-picture contract with Paramount with twelve months in between films to allow her time for stage work.
Hepburn would later call Roman Holiday her dearest movie, because it was the one that made her a star.
Next she filmed Billy Wilder's Sabrina with Humphrey Bogart and William Holden. Hepburn was sent to fashion designer Givenchy to decide on her wardrobe. When told that "Miss Hepburn" was coming to see him, Givenchy famously expected to see Katharine Hepburn. He was not disappointed with Audrey, however, and they formed a lifelong friendship and partnership. During the filming of Sabrina, Hepburn and Holden became romantically involved and she hoped to marry him and have children. She broke off the relationship when Holden revealed that he had had a vasectomy.
In 1954, Audrey went back to the stage to play the water sprite in Ondine in a performance with Mel Ferrer, whom she would wed later that year. During the run of the play, Hepburn was awarded the Golden Globe for "Best Motion Picture Actress" and the Academy Award for Best Actress, both for Roman Holiday. Six weeks after receiving the Oscar, Hepburn was awarded the Tony Award for Best Actress for Ondine. Hepburn is one of only three actresses to receive a Best Actress Oscar and Best Actress Tony in the same year.
By the mid 1950s, Hepburn was not only one of the biggest motion picture stars in Hollywood, but also a major style icon. Her gamine and elfin appearance and widely recognized sense of chic were both admired and imitated. In 1955, she was awarded the Golden Globe - World Film Favorite - Female.
Having become one of Hollywood's most popular box-office attractions, Audrey Hepburn co-starred with major actors such as Humphrey Bogart in Sabrina, Fred Astaire in Funny Face, Maurice Chevalier and Gary Cooper in Love in the Afternoon, George Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany's, Cary Grant in the critically acclaimed hit Charade, Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady, Peter O'Toole in How to Steal a Million, and Sean Connery in Robin and Marian. Many of these leading men became very close to her. Rex Harrison called Audrey his favourite leading lady; Cary Grant loved to humor her and once said, "all I want for Christmas is another picture with Audrey Hepburn;" and Gregory Peck became a lifelong friend. After her death, Peck went on camera and tearfully recited her favorite poem, "Unending Love" by Rabindranath Tagore. Some believe Bogart and Hepburn did not get along, but this is untrue. Bogart got along better with Hepburn than anyone else on set. She later said, "Sometimes it's the so-called 'tough guys' that are the most tender hearted, as Bogey was with me."
 Funny Face in 1957 was one of Hepburn's favorite movies to film because she got to dance with Fred Astaire. 1959's The Nun's Story was one of her most daring roles. Films in Review stated, "her performance will forever silence those who have thought her less an actress than a symbol of the sophisticated child/woman. Her portrayal of Sister Luke is one of the great performances of the screen."
In 1963, Hepburn starred in Charade, her first and only film with Cary Grant, who had previously withdrawn from the starring roles in Roman Holiday and Sabrina. In 1964, Hepburn starred in My Fair Lady which was said to be the most anticipated movie since Gone with the Wind. Hepburn was cast as Eliza Doolittle instead of then-unknown Julie Andrews, who had originated the role on Broadway. The decision not to cast Andrews was made before Hepburn was chosen. Hepburn initially refused the role and asked Jack Warner to give it to Andrews, but when informed that it would either be her or Elizabeth Taylor, who was also vying for the part, she accepted the role. Hepburn recorded singing vocals for the role, but subsequently discovered a professional "singing double" Marni Nixon had overdubbed all of her songs. She walked off the set after being told, but returned early the next day to apologize for her behavior.
Wait Until Dark in 1967 was a difficult film. It was an edgy thriller in which Hepburn played the part of a blind woman being terrorized. In addition, it was produced by Mel Ferrer and filmed on the brink of their divorce. Hepburn is said to have lost 15 pounds under the stress. On the bright side, she found co-star Richard Crenna to be very funny, and she had a lot to laughs about with director Terence Young. They both joked that he had shelled his favorite star 23 years before; he had been a British Army tank commander during the Battle of Arnhem. Hepburn's performance was nominated for an Academy Award.
From 1967 onward, after fifteen highly successful years in film, Hepburn acted only occasionally. After her divorce from Ferrer, she married Italian psychiatrist Dr. Andrea Dotti and had a second son, after a difficult pregnancy that required near-total bed rest. After her eventual separation from Dotti, she attempted a comeback, co-starring with Sean Connery in the period piece Robin and Marian in 1976, which was moderately successful. She reportedly turned down the tailor-made role of a former ballerina in The Turning Point. (Shirley MacLaine got the part.) Hepburn finally returned to cinema in 1979, taking the leading role in Sidney Sheldon's Bloodline. Author Sidney Sheldon revised his novel when it was reissued to tie into the film, making her character older to better match the actress' age. The film was a critical and box office failure.
Hepburn's last starring role in a cinematic film was with Ben Gazzara in the comedy They All Laughed, directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Although a critical success, the film was overshadowed by the murder of one of its stars, Bogdanovich's girlfriend, Dorothy Stratten; the film was released after Stratten's death but only in limited runs. In 1987, she co-starred with Robert Wagner in a tongue-in-cheek made-for-television caper film, Love Among Thieves which borrowed elements from several of Hepburn's films, most notably Charade and How to Steal a Million. The TV-film, which also starred Jerry Orbach as a villain, was only a moderate success, with Hepburn being quoted that she appeared in it just for fun.
Hepburn's last film role, a cameo appearance, was an angel in Steven Spielberg's Always, filmed in 1988. This film was also only moderately successful. In the final months of her life, Hepburn completed two entertainment-related projects: she hosted a television documentary series entitled Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn, which debuted on PBS the day of her death, and she also recorded a spoken word album, Audrey Hepburn's Enchanted Tales featuring readings of classic children's stories, which would win her a posthumous Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children.
She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1652 Vine Street.
In the early 1950s she was engaged to the young James Hanson. She called it "love at first sight;" however, after having her wedding dress fitted and the date set, she decided the marriage would not work, due to the demands of their careers that would keep them apart most of the time.
Hepburn married twice: to American actor Mel Ferrer and to an Italian doctor, Andrea Dotti, and had a son with each—Sean in 1960 by Ferrer, and Luca in 1970 by Dotti.
Hepburn met Mel Ferrer at a party hosted by Gregory Peck. She had seen him in the film Lili and was captivated by his performance. Ferrer later sent Hepburn the script for the play Ondine and Hepburn agreed to play the role. Rehearsals started in January 1954 and Hepburn and Ferrer were married on September 24. Hepburn claimed that they were inseparable and were very happy together, despite the insistence from gossip columns that the marriage would not last. She did, however, admit that he had a bad temper. Ferrer was rumored to be too controlling of Hepburn and was called her Svengali. William Holden was quoted as saying, "I think Audrey allows Mel to think he influences her."
Before having their first child, Hepburn had two miscarriages, the first in March of 1955. In 1959, while filming The Unforgiven, she broke her back after falling off a horse onto a rock. She spent weeks in the hospital and later had a miscarriage that was said to have been induced by physical and mental stress. While she was resting at home, Mel Ferrer brought her the fawn from the movie Green Mansions to keep as a pet. They called him Ip, short for Pippin. In 1965, she had another miscarriage. Hepburn was much more careful when she was pregnant with Luca in 1969; she rested for months and passed the time by painting before delivering Luca by caesarean section. Hepburn had her final miscarriage in 1974. Hepburn is famous for the poem "Time Tested Beauty Tips", which she used to recite to her sons. The poem includes verses such as, "For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day", and, "For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry." The poem is popularly attributed to her, but it was in fact written by Sam Levenson.
 Hepburn had several pets, including a Yorkshire Terrier named Mr. Famous, who was hit by a car and killed. To cheer her up, Mel Ferrer got her another Yorkshire named Assam of Assam. She also kept Ip; they made a bed for him out of a bathtub. Sean Ferrer had a Cocker Spaniel named Cokey. When Hepburn was older, she had two Jack Russell Terriers.
The marriage to Ferrer lasted 14 years, until 5 December 1968; their son was quoted as saying that Hepburn had stayed in the marriage too long. In the later years of the marriage, Ferrer was rumored to have had a girlfriend on the side, while Hepburn was rumoured to have had an affair with her younger Two for the Road co-star Albert Finney. She denied the rumours, but director Stanley Donen said, "with Albert Finney, she was like a new woman. She and Albie have a wonderful thing together; they are like a couple of kids. When Mel wasn't on set, they sparkled. When Mel was there, it was funny. Audrey and Albie would go rather formal and a little awkward. The couple separated before divorcing. During their separation, Hepburn lost weight. She met Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti on a cruise and fell in love with him on a trip to some Greek ruins. She believed she would have many children, and possibly stop working. She married him on 18 January 1969. Although Dotti loved Hepburn and was well-liked by Sean, who called him "fun", Dotti had affairs with younger women. The marriage lasted 13 years and ended in 1982, after Luca and Sean were old enough to handle life with a single mother. Though Hepburn had broken off all contact with Ferrer (she would only speak to him twice in the remainder of her life; at Sean's graduation and first wedding), she remained in touch with Dotti for the benefit of Luca.
At the time of her death, she was the companion of Robert Wolders, a handsome Dutch actor who was the widower of film star Merle Oberon. She met Wolders through a friend, in the later stage of her marriage to Dotti. After Hepburn's divorce was final, she and Wolders started their lives together, although they never married. In 1989, after nine years with him, she called them the happiest years of her life. "Took me long enough", she said in an interview with Barbara Walters. Walters then asked why they never married. Hepburn replied that they were married, just not formally. They planned UNICEF trips together. At every one of her speeches, he would watch and sometimes shed tears.
In 1992 Audrey began to feel abdominal pains. She went to specialists and received inconclusive results, so she decided to have it examined while on a trip to Los Angeles in October. On November 1, doctors conducted a laparoscopy surgery and discovered abdominal cancer that had spread from her appendix. The cancer had grown slowly over the course of several years, and metastasized not as a tumor, but as a thin encasing over her small intestine. The pains that Hepburn felt were a result of spasms in the ileum of her small intestine. The doctors removed one foot of intestine, and Hepburn was placed on an intravenous drip of total parenteral nutrition. After the intestinal scar had healed, Hepburn went through 5-fluorouracil Leucovorin chemotherapy. A few days later, she had an occlusion. Medication was not enough to dull the pain, so on December 1, she had a second surgery. After one hour, the surgeon decided that the cancer had spread too far and could not be removed.
As Hepburn was unable to tolerate a commercial flight, Givenchy arranged for socialite Bunny Mellon to send her private jet to L.A. and take Hepburn home to Switzerland. Mellon filled the cabin with flowers. Audrey Hepburn died of colon cancer (more specifically appendiceal cancer) on 20 January 1993, in Tolochenaz, Vaud, Switzerland, and was interred there. She was sixty-three.
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