Audrey Hepburn, the elegant waif who won filmgoers' hearts before going on to travel the world in T-shirt, khakis and sneakers working for needy children, has died at age 63.
Hepburn, who had undergone surgery for colon cancer last year, died Wednesday at her home in this small village on the shores of Lake Geneva, according to a relative who answered the door at the residence.Hepburn, with her high cheekbones, doe eyes and ravishing elegance, charmed the world as a renegade young princess seeking a taste of normal life in Rome - an Oscar-winning performance in "Roman Holiday" in 1953.
She became a UNICEF goodwill ambassador in 1986 and traveled for the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund until 1992, visiting camps of starving Somalis in Kenya and Somalia in September.
As a child, she had herself received help from the agency after surviving the last winter of World War II in Holland on a diet of mostly turnips.
A small, black-bordered death announcement posted on the Tolochenaz village notice board today said Hepburn's funeral service would be held in the town church on Sunday, followed by burial in the local cemetery.
Hepburn was born Audrey Hepburn-Ruston on May 4, 1929, near Brussels, Belgium.
Her mother took her to the Netherlands at the outbreak of World War II, thinking it would be safer than England. But Germany invaded in May 1940.
After the war, Hepburn won a ballet scholarship and went to London. Long-legged and fragile-looking, she was discovered as a model by fashion photographers in London and began studying acting.
Her break came when the French author Colette met her and insisted she play the part of Gigi when her novel of that name was adapted to the stage. The role took Hepburn to Broadway in 1951.
Another Broadway appearance in "Ondine" won her a Tony award the same spring that she got the Oscar for "Roman Holiday."
Her other Oscar-nominations were for "Sabrina" with Humphrey Bogart and William Holden in 1954, "The Nun's Story" with Peter Finch in 1959, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" with George Peppard in 1961, and "Wait until Dark" with Alan Arkin in 1967.
In 1964, she played Eliza Doolittle to Rex Harrison's Professor Higgins in "My Fair Lady."