Audrey Hepburn never really looked like a movie star -- at least, not the public image of a movie star.

She was elfin, with a thin frame and small features. Her sex appeal was due, in large part, to her seeming vulnerability (an illusion, actually). And unlike the stereotypical movie star who never strayed far from Hollywood or New York, Hepburn not only traveled the globe, but did humanitarian work on several continents.

Perhaps her affinity to the less fortunate came from being born in the wrong place (Ixelles, Belgium) at the wrong time (1929). That meant she reached her late childhood years just as Europe was descending into war. Herr mother was a baroness working on her second marriage and her father worked for an insurance company. Both were Fascist sympathizers.

Despite her theoretical affinity with German politics, however, Hepburn's mother moved her and her two half brothers to Amheim, Netherlands in 1939 to avoid a Nazi occupation. A year later, the Netherlands also fell to Hitler.

Somehow, through the chaos, young Audrey developed her skills as a ballerina. She even performed secretly to raise money for the Dutch resistance.

In 1948, Hepburn moved to London, where she gradually morphed from dancer to model to actress. Her first on-screen appearance was in an educational film, Dutch in Seven Lessons. That was followed by several musical theater performances, which served only to convince Hepburn that her voice needed strengthening.

Once that happened, and she decided to explore opportunities in America, career advancement came rapidly. Hepburn's first big break came when she was chosen for the ferature role in the Broadway play Gigi. Then she played a ballerina in Secret People, which allowed her to demonstrate her dancing ability. The Hollywood moguls took notice, and famed director William Wyler invited Hepburn to test for the female lead opposite Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday, even though Elizabeth Taylor was said to have the inside track for the part.

By the time Hepburn's test was over, Wyler was charmed.

"She was absolutely enchanting," he later said.

So enchanting was Hepburn in that role, in fact, that she won an Academy Award in what was her first major American film. Ironically, she never won another, despite four subsequent "Best Actress" nominations.

Hepburn was not an especialy prolific performer. She chose her roles with the same care she used for her wardbrobe, and most of them turned out to fit her very nicely.

Her other Oscar nominations came for Sabrina, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Charade, and Wait Until Dark. The signature role of her career, however, may have been as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, a film for which she earned the leading role despite being a non-singer and 17 years older than the stated age of her character. Nevertheless, she pulled it off.

Hepburn was married twice, to actor/producer Mel Ferrer and Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti. Both marriages ended in divorce.

Her last film role was in They all Laughed, in 1979, after which she became a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Children's Fund, a job that took her all over the world.

Audrey Hepburn died relatively young, from cancer, on Jan. 20, 1993.