Audrey Kathleen Hepburn (née Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress. Recognised as a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend from the Classical Hollywood cinema, inducted into the International Best Dressed Hall of Fame List, and is one of a few entertainers who have won competitive Academy, Emmy, Grammy and Tony Awards.

Born into an aristocratic family in Ixelles, Brussels, Hepburn spent parts of her childhood in Belgium, the UK, and the Netherlands. She attended boarding school in Kent from 1936 to 1939. With the outbreak of World War II, she returned to the Netherlands. During the war, Hepburn studied ballet at the Arnhem Conservatory, and by 1944 she was performing ballet to raise money to support the Dutch resistance. She studied ballet with Sonia Gaskell in Amsterdam beginning in 1945 and with Marie Rambert in London from 1948.

Hepburn began performing as a chorus girl in West End musical theatre productions and then had minor appearances in several films. She rose to stardom in the romantic comedy Roman Holiday (1953) alongside Gregory Peck, for which she became the first actress to win an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award for a single performance. In that year, she also won a Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Play for her performance in Ondine.