1929.

On May 4, Audrey Kathleen van Heemstra Ruston is born in Brussels to a Dutch mother, Ella van Heemstra and British father, Joseph Hepburn-Ruston. She has two older step-brothers—by Ella's previous marriage—Alexander and Ian, who are eight and four years her senior, respectively. Her father's work means that he is often abroad, and her early years are spent travelling between London and Brussels, Arnhem, and The Hague.

1934.

At age 5 Audrey is sent to boarding school in England by her mother. Ella arranges for her to spend holidays with a coal miner's family to further immerse her in English language and customs.

1935.

Audrey's father walks out on the family, leaving no forwarding address. He will settle in England. Audrey would relate her father's disappearance as "the most traumatic event in my life."

Audrey begins to take ballet classes, her desire to dance first kindled by being taken to several ballet performances in Brussels as a very small girl.

1938.

Her parents formally divorce. At Audrey's pleading her father is given visitation rights but he subsequently fails to exercise them.

1939.

Preceding the outbreak of WWII, Ella wrongly considers neutral Holland safer than the risk of staying in England, and moves Audrey back to live with the family in Arnhem.

Audrey is forced to quickly learn Dutch, her being fluent only in English at this time. Years later, when asked if she felt more Dutch or English, she said she leaned towards English "because I was more English than Dutch when I went to Holland" in 1939.

1940.

In May German troops and artillery march through Arnhem. Dutch resources are exploited fully for the German war machine and, in time, virtually all of the van Heemstra family's property will be confiscated: property, homes, bank accounts, securities and even jewelry.

Due to her British citizenship, and fear of internment, Ella warns Audrey not to speak English in public: "My mother was worried about [my] speaking English in the streets with Germans all around."

At this time, in England, Joseph Ruston is among hundreds of fascist or pro-Nazi activists imprisoned without trial—this unknown to his wife and daughter.

1941.

Audrey begins her first serious ballet training under Winja Marova at the Arnhem School of Music. She will study there through to mid 1944, becoming the teacher's star pupil in the process.

Food rationing becomes increasingly severe. By spring it is hard to get the single weekly rationed egg, let alone meat; and by summer there is no tea of coffee. During winter, the fuel shortage means that only one room per home is allowed to be heated.

1942.

Audrey's Uncle and four others are executed by the Nazis purely for publicity and retribution for a Dutch underground attempt to blow up a train. Audrey witnesses other such reprisals in Arnhem: "We saw young men put against the wall and shot, and they'd close the street and then open it and you could pass by again...Don't discount anything awful you hear or read about the Nazis. It's worse than you could ever imagine."

Alexander goes underground to avoid being rounded up to work in forced labor for the Germans. But Ian is caught and is sent to work fourteen hours a day in a munitions factory in Berlin or—for all his family knows at this time—to his death.

Ella and Audrey, now on their own, are taken in by her grandfather, Baron van Heemstra, and Ella's widowed sister, in nearby Velp.

1943.

Despite the occupation Audrey draws herself more deeply into music and dance, finding an outlet for her talents in a series of "blackout performances," done in secret with locked windows and drawn blinds, which also serves as a fundraising activity for the Resistance. During the war Audrey also acts as a courier and occasional secret messenger for the Resistance, as children often did, carrying messages and illegal leaflets stuffed in socks and shoes.

1944.

Sufficiently advanced in her dancing, Audrey helps instruct the youngest students in the School. She also earns her family money by giving under-the-table private lessons. Eventually, however, food becomes so scarce that it weakens Audrey enough so that she must stop dancing temporarily.

The Battle of Arnhem begins on September 17. After several days fighting the victorious Germans order all citizens to leave within twenty-four hours or risk being shot on sight. Ella and her daughter watch the exodus from the relative safety of the Baron's villa: "It was human misery at its starkest -- masses of refugees on the move...hundreds collapsing of hunger... We took in forty, but...there was literally nothing to eat."

Winter, 1944-45.

The fifteen-year-old Hepburn starts dancing again, giving classes in one of the rooms of the house. But soon, the Germans order everybody out. "It was unspeakably hard to turn [them] into the cold night. Even my brother, who was hiding there, had to leave."

Audrey appears with other students at Arnhem's municipal theater in a recital that wins attention from a magazine critic, who writes: "She seems obsessed by a real dance rage, and already has a respectable technical proficiency."

1945.

March, and Audrey barely escapes as German soldiers round up young women to staff their military kitchens. Her hiding place is back at home where she stays indoors for the next month.

Holland is liberated on Audrey's sixteenth birthday, May 4. Audrey would later recall the earlier liberation of Arnhem by Canadian troops: "We whooped and hollered and danced for joy. I wanted to kiss every one of them. The incredible relief of being free—it's something that's very hard to verbalize. Freedom is more like something in the air. For me, it was hearing soldiers speaking English instead of German, and smelling real tobacco smoke again from their cigarettes."

Audrey is now five-foot-six and weighs ninety pounds, and suffering from asthma, jaundice and other diseases due to malnutrition, including anemia and severe edema. Also, her metabolism is permanently affected, initiating a life-long mission to gain weight, as well as erroneous rumours of eating disorders for years to come.

Alexander emerges from underground hiding, followed soon by the arrival of Ian who has walked most of the way from Berlin. Audrey would say: "We lost everything, of course—our houses, our possessions, our money. But we didn't give a hoot. We got through our lives, which was all that mattered."

Ella reapplies herself to Audrey's career, and decides to relocate them both to Amsterdam. Audrey starts studying there with Sonia Gaskell, the leading name in Dutch ballet. Audrey can't pay for the lessons, but Gaskell thinks she deserves a chance, and she becomes a very serious pupil. "Sonia taught me that if you work really hard, you'd succeed, and that everything had to come from the inside."

1946.

Audrey is chosen to dance with Gaskell's top student star in a matinee performance at Amsterdam's Hortus theatre. Wrote a critic: "She didn't have a lot of great technique, but she definitely had talent."

Audrey is introduced by a friend to a photographer, at whose studio she begins to do some posing, quickly developing a natural feel for it. At this stage, largely ignorant of the film world, Audrey's ambitions lie in dance.

1948.

With her mother, Audrey visits London briefly where she auditions for the celebrated Marie Lambert ballet school. She is accepted with scholarship, however her enrollment is postponed due to lack of funds.

Back in the Netherlands, Audrey performs a screentest for a pair of freelance Dutch filmmakers, who give her her first small film role—that of a stewardess—in the film Nederlands in Zeven Lessen (Dutch in Seven Lessons).

Late in the year, Audrey and her mother leave for London to partake of her scholarship. Ella would try to track down Ruston in England but fail. Ella supports them through a series of humble jobs, and finally obtains a job—combined with a flat—managing a block of Mayfair flats. Meanwhile Rambert generously takes Audrey into her home, housing and feeding her there for six months. Audrey concentrates totally on dance until the need for money leads her to weekend work as a model.

Despite her ambitions for the ballet, Audrey increasingly acknowledges that because of her limitations—her height and comparative lack of training—that her future is not to be in the ballet. Audrey declines an offer from a company for an overseas tour and instead tries out for the chorus line of High Button Shoes. Audrey is one of the ten—out of a thousand that try-out—that get the job. She has one line, "Have they all gone?". The show runs for 291 performances.

1949—50.

After being noticed in High Button Shoes, Audrey is cast in Sauce Tartare. After 433 performances the play is refreshed as Sauce Piquante—in which Audrey returns to a bigger part. She would also do a "bit of TV" at this time. Marcel le Bon, a young French singer in Sauce Piquant becomes her first serious boyfriend, if only briefly. In between the two Sauces, Audrey works to develop her performing skills with choreography and elocution lessons.

Audrey is offered by Associated British Pictures Corp. a major role in Laughter in Paradise, however she only signs after the bookings for a show fall through and le Bon leaves for America. By now she is only able to secure a small part as "cigarette girl."

Audrey performs another small part in One Wild Oat, and then goes on to a small role in Young Wives' Tale. She is then loaned out to Ealing Studios for The Lavender Hill Mob. The film is named best film of 1951, although Audrey's contribution goes unnoticed by the studio.

Shortly after finishing The Lavender Hill Mob, Audrey finds a serious relationship in 28 year-old James Hanson, multimillionaire scion of a Yorkshire trucking family. Audrey's mother thinks him a good stable match for her.

1951.

Audrey gets a major supporting role in The Secret People. The role utilises her ballet skills and one dramatic scene evokes memories of the Arnhem bombing. During this production she is offered her next role: Nous Iron à Monte Carlo, shot on location on the French Riviera.

During the shoot, in a chance encounter with the film crew in a hotel lobby, Colette sees Audrey and thinks her perfect for the lead role in her Gigi. Although Audrey's subsequent reading is disappointing, she gains the part at Colette's insistence.

Audrey screen tests in London for the lead role of the princess in William Wyler's Roman Holiday. Wyler views her performance later and finds her irresistable. Now signed for a Hollywood movie as well as a Broadway play, Audrey leaves on her own—the first time without her mother—for New York.

Gigi rehearsals begin in October, however Audrey's auditions are substandard. After much hard work, and much-needed vocal coaching, she steadily improves, even up till opening night. The majority of newspapers give low marks to the play but kudos to Audrey.

During Hanson's visit for the Gigi premiere, Audrey accepts his diamond ring to formalise their engagement. His work is split between NYC, Toronto, and Britain, and during Gigi he and Audrey spend a lot of time together.

After her Gigi success, Audrey resumes her voice coaching, and her dance instruction—at the Tarassova School of Ballet in New York City. In an interview, Audrey credits dance for giving her the discipline to learn her first lead acting role in Gigi so quickly.

1952.

On May 31, Gigi closes early in New York since Paramount is eager to get started on Roman Holiday, for which there is a narrow shooting schedule. Audrey goes straight to Rome immediately after closing night, with her wedding—having been planned for between the play and film that spring—postponed.

Roman Holiday is completed in September and Audrey learns much from the experience: When asked later how much she had learned from Wyler, she would say "almost everything." On this film Audrey begins her life-long collaboration and friendship with Edith Head.

Wedding plans are put off again as Audrey goes straight into the American road tour of Gigi, lasting eight months. Midway through Audrey announces her engagement over. It is an amicable split, and they continue to see each other. Audrey would say that her desire to give up at least a year after marriage to just being her husband's wife made it being impossible to give up her career, which she has worked on so hard for.

1953.

Roman Holiday opens in the U.S. in August, and audiences and critics love it. Audrey's "look" becomes all the rage and is followed by fashion magazines everywhere.

In London in July for the British opening of Roman Holiday, Audrey first meets Mel Ferrer at a fête hosted by her mother. Mel is twice-divorced, a father of four, an actor, stage and film director and twelve years her senior. The chemistry between them is instant and they would fall in love.

September, and Audrey begins shooting Sabrina on Long Island. The nine-week shoot is followed by time in Hollywood for retakes. On this film Audrey begins her lasting relationship with Givenchy, who designs the fashion costumes worn by Sabrina.

Ferrer sends Audrey the script for Broadway's Ondine, in which he hopes to have them both star. She loves it and agrees to the role, securing Mel as costar.

At the end of Sabrina, and before the start of Ondine rehearsals two weeks later, Audrey moves back to New York, where her mother later arrives soon after.

1954.

Ondine premiers on February 18th to rave reviews. Audrey now learns she has been nominated for an Academy Award for Roman Holiday, and on March 25 she is awarded Best Actress. Three days after and Audrey is awarded again: the Tony award for best stage actress in Ondine.

Three months into Ondine, Audrey is suffering from exhaustion, smoking a pack of cigarettes a day and fifteen pounds underweight. On advice from her doctors to rest she quits, and so Ondine closes on July 3 after 157 performances. At the end of the month she flys to an alpine resort Switzerland, where after a week of media imprisonment she finally finds respite at a villa in Bürgenstock.

August, and Mel Ferrer flies to Switzerland and formerly proposes, and Audrey accepts—over Ella's objection. On September 24 they are married in a civil cermony at Buoche, on the shores of Lake Lucerne. The next day they repeat their vows at a religious ceremony in a chapel below the mountain at Bürgenstock. After a four-day honeymoon near Bürgenstock she and Mel enjoy a week together near Cinecitta Studios, Italy, where he was filming La Madre. They return to Bürgenstock where they learn that Audrey is now pregnant. For the rest of her life Audrey would now call Switzerland her home.

In November Audrey makes her first return to Holland on the invitation of the League of Dutch Military War Invalids for a five-day fundraising tour.

1955.

February, and Audrey receives her second her second Oscar nomination, for Sabrina, but loses to Grace Kelly in A Country Girl.

In March, Audrey has a miscarriage. She and Mel grieve privately.

The Ferrers both sign under producer Dino De Laurentiis for War and Peace. In spring they go to Italy where shooting begins on July 4. Because of the ten-hour days, and her miscarriage and general frailty, Audrey would later call her role of Natasha the toughest role she ever did. Although the film will receive generally negative reviews, many reviewers praise her portrayal of Natasha.

Audrey is now deluged with script offers, most of which either fall through for whatever reason or she rejects—including two dozen from Associated British. Her next film project will instead be Funny Face, with Fred Astaire.

1956.

Funny Face is shot in three months in Hollywood, followed by a month in Paris. Audrey and Mel are together the whole time while Ella, based in London, makes several trips to visit her daughter in Paris. Now included in her contract, Givenchy designs all of Audrey's film clothes.

Audrey returns home for four weeks rest before Love in the Afternoon, again with Billy Wilder. She is coupled with Gary Cooper—twenty-eight years her senior. During the shoot in Paris Audrey makes trips on weekends to the south of France to join Mel, where he is filming The Vintage.

Audrey leaves Europe to spend Christmas at La Quinta, a desert resort near Palm Springs, with Mel and his children, Pepa and Mark.

1957.

January, and the Ferrers begin work on the television movie Mayerling, which takes a week of rehearsal then two weeks taping at the NBC studios. Mayerling airs February 4, and although it garners a large audience the reviews are bad. On the basis of its failure NBC will reject several other proposed Hepburn-Ferrer team productions. From now on Ferrer thinks of himself more a producer/director rather than costar of the partnership.

In need of a rest, Audrey chooses to reject all movie offers while she accompanies her husband to Spain and Mexico for the shooting of The Sun Also Rises. Among those films she would reject is The Diary of Ann Frank, which she finds "too painful" and too close to her wartime experiences. Audrey, urged by Mel, signs for The Nun's Story as her next film, which is to be soon followed by Mel's own project to star Audrey, Green Mansions.

1958.

Filming for The Nun's Story begins in Rome's Cinecitta Studios, and then followed by the difficult stint on location in the Belgian Congo. For the conclusion of the shoot, back in Rome, the crew works is forced to work around Audrey for a time as she is bedridden with kidney stones, partly due to dehydration from working so long in the Congo. The film will open on July 18, 1959, and make more money that any other Warner Brothers film to date. Hepburn is named Best Actress of 1959 by the New York Film Critics and its British equivalent, however the film wins none of the eight Oscars it is nominated for, including Audrey for Best Actress.

Immediately after the conclusion of The Nun's Story shoot, Audrey begins Green Mansions in Hollywood. Mel has already spent several months with a crew in British Guiana and Venezuela shooting backgrounds. The film is completed in November and eventually released prior to the The Nun's Story. The film fails with both critics and audiences—with Mel as director getting the blame—and fails to recoup its investment.

The Ferrers return to Bürgenstock for a rest, during which time Audrey again finds herself pregnant.

1959.

Audrey's next film is The Unforgiven, shot in Mexico. During the shoot she falls off a horse and breaks her back. She is hospitalized with four broken vertebrae, torn muscles in her lower back and a badly sprained foot. Ferrer immediately joins her as well as Audrey's Hollywood physician and Marie-Louise Habets—the real-life Sister Luke, whom she had gotten to know during The Nun's Story—who takes personal nursing charge of her. After a month, and with the help of an orthopedic brace, Audrey is able to complete the film. When released in April, 1960, the film is mostly panned by critics.

After The Unforgiven, Audrey returns to Bürgenstock for the duration of her baby's term. But, soon after, she miscarries again due to her fall during The Unforgiven. Mel would call it "a tragedy" and said, "it has broken her heart and mine". Audrey goes into a deep depression, losing weight and smoking heavily.

Less than six months later, and Audrey is pregnant again. She refuses all work until the baby is born, turning down West Side Story, The Cardinal, plus a later-shelved Hitchcock film, No Bail For The Judge. She finally accepts Breakfast at Tiffany's, to be commenced only after the birth.

1960.

On January 17, in Lucerne, Switzerland, Audrey Hepburn gives birth to Sean Ferrer. He is baptized in the same chapel and by the same pastor who had married Audrey and Mel six years earlier.

The shooting of Breakfast at Tiffany's takes place in New York, followed by some in Hollywood. It opens in October, doing less well than the studio hoped, although it does exert a significant cultural influence. For this role, Audrey will be nominated for her fourth Oscar but again not win.

1961.

Audrey next film is The Children's Hour, which reunites her with William Wyler. During the Hollywood shoot Audrey's dog, Mr. Famous, is run over on Wiltshire Boulevard. Mel quickly assuages her grief by presenting her with a new dog, Sam.

The Ferrers then return to Europe, with Mel departing soon after to Paris for a part in The Longest Day.

1962.

Audrey shoots Paris When it Sizzles in Paris. Hepburn and her lead, William Holden, are brought together to fulfill Paramount's contractual commitments. Wildy overbudget on completion, its creative failure means that it is shelved, only to be released two years later.

Audrey stays on in Paris for Charade. She is finally teamed up with costar Cary Grant, who has already twice rejected working with Audrey (Sabrina, Love in the Afternoon) as he had been uncomfortable with the age gap. The film will become her biggest box office hit to date.

1963.

After eight months working without a break, Audrey concludes the filming of Charade. The Ferrers regroup at home in Switzerland.

After months of negotiations between Kurt Frings, her agent, and Warner Brothers, Audrey gains the lead role in My Fair Lady. The decision is controversial: producer Jack Warner determines that Audrey Hepburn is a better choice for such a costly film than Broadway's lead, Julie Andrews—at this time a virtual cinematic unknown. Having recorded vocal tracks for the film herself, Audrey is shocked to find out that she will be dubbed, by Marni Nixon. This dogs her to the Oscars where she fails to receive a nomination in the Best Actress category, eventually won by Julie Andrews in her film debut, Mary Poppins.

1964.

Audrey receives erroneous news of her father's death. Investigating the rumours, Mel discovers that he is living in Dublin, and he and Audrey visit him there. Ruston is familiar with his daughter's fame despite their separation, and at age 74 was married again—to a woman thirty-odd years his junior. The reunion is bittersweet, but from that time Audrey sends him a monthly check until he dies, two decades later.

1965.

Audrey teams up again with director William Wyler, in Paris, for How to Steal a Million. On completing the shoot the Ferrers exchange their Bürgenstock home for one in the village of Tolochenaz-sur-Morges. It is called "La Paisible," which translates as 'the peaceful place.' They also purchase a winter home in Marbella.

Audrey finds herself pregnant again, but a month later miscarries.

1966.

After turning down many scripts offered her, Audrey accepts Two for the Road. The film utilizes Audrey in nearly every scene and she has no time with her family. Mel elects to stay at home with Sean, and works on a deal with Frings to secure Wait Until Dark for his wife.

1967.

Audrey shoots Wait Until Dark, with her husband as producer. Emotionally, the film is difficult as Audrey is privately coping with the disintegration of her marriage. Also, she works so hard that she loses almost fifteen pounds while filming. The film opens later in the year to great success, and Audrey's fifth (and final) Oscar nomination follows.

Audrey and Mel argue over the future of her career: He wants her to make more movies; while Audrey looks forward to spending more time with Sean. Sadly, at this time, another pregancy follows which again ends in miscarriage.

The Ferrers plan another Mayerling together—with Mel producing the film starring Audrey opposite Omar Sharif. Audrey doesn't want to work again so soon with her husband so Mel instead casts Catherine Deneuve. Audrey stays at home with Sean while Mel works on the film.

September, and the announcement comes that Audrey and Mel are living apart. Audrey doesn't wish to continue work and so asks Frings not to send her any more scripts.

1968.

On November 21 the Ferrer's divorce is announced. Details are kept secret, but Audrey retains custody of Sean and the home in Tolochenaz.

1969.

On January 18 Audrey marries Italian psychiatrist-neurologist Andrea Dotti whom she met on a private cruise in June of the previous year. There is no formal honeymoon and the couple settle down in Rome, with Sean enrolled in a bilingual school there. Audrey retains La Paisible as a weekend retreat and summer home, its staff supervised by Baroness van Heemstra who now lives there year-round.

Four months into marriage Audrey discovers she is pregnant. She retreats to La Paisible to take extra precaution against the worst.

1970.

Luca Dotti is born on February 8 in a Caesarean delivery. Audrey settles into motherhood, and despite later reports of her nightclubbing husband being in the company of other women, she would claim a happiness and contentment in her role as a Roman wife and mother.

Although "retired" Audrey announces a willingness to act, but only in Rome. She turns down Forty Carats and Nicholas and Alexandria because she thinks herself too old. Finally she becomes more interested in her husband's profession, accompanying him on lectures and other job-related missions.

In rare a excursion into show business Audrey works on a UNICEF television special, and in the next year on a series of Japanese wig commercials.

In 1974 Audrey suffers her fifth miscarriage.

1975.

After rejecting many scripts, Audrey is finally brought out of her "retirement" by Robin and Marian, to star opposite Sean Connery.

Robin and Marian is filmed in Spain, in six weeks—a pace she is unaccustomed to in her experience from earlier films. Her return will be welcomed by fans and critics alike, although reviews of the film are mixed.

Once the movie is completed, the couple start to receive anonymous kidnapping threats for Sean and Luca. For safety, Audrey relocates them to Switzerland. Soon afterward, there is an attempt to abduct Dr. Dotti as he leaves his clinic but his cries attract security guards which foils the attempt. Audrey needs no further inducement to remain in Tolochenaz.

1976.

Audrey flies to the U.S. for the dual purpose of the Robin and Marian premiere at Radio City Music Hall and her appearance at the American Film Institute's honoring of seventy-three-year-old William Wyler.

Dr. Dotti joins her later at the Academy Awards ceremony, at which Audrey—greeted on stage by a standing ovation from her peers—presents the Best Picture Oscar to producer Michael Douglas for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Robin and Marian brings Audrey offers, including A Bridge Too Far and Richard's Things, which for one reason or another she turns down.

1979.

During their marriage Dotti's role as husband continues to include going out with young women; and, embarrassingly, his outings are duly recorded in the newspapers. Although confidantes know of Audrey's unhappiness, she would continue to protect their marriage by insisting that they had their differences and, like any couple, that they were "basically happy."

Audrey agrees to star in the Sidney Sheldon thriller, Bloodline. After shooting, Audrey returns to Rome.

1980.

Audrey decides on a small role in Peter Bogdanovich's comedy, They All Laughed, filmed in Manhattan. Sean Ferrer doubles as production assistant and has a small acting role.

September, and Dotti's stepfather announces the long-anticipated news that the marriage between Audrey and Dr. Dotti is officially ended. Audrey has already met Robert Wolders with whom she finds much common-ground, from mutual interests to similar European backgrounds.

News of her father's serious illness brings Audrey and Wolders closer together as he accompanies her on the emotionally difficult trip to Dublin to visit him for the last time. He dies three days after their arrival.

Wolders would eventually move in with Audrey at La Paisible. By now Audrey is looking after her elderly mother, now a frail invalid.

1982.

The Dotti divorce is finalized, although Audrey doesn't make any attempt to legalize her relationship with Wolders.

Wolders accompanies Audrey to Los Angeles for the American Film Institute Tribute to Fred Astaire, as well as to other parts of the world on other missions.

1984.

On August 26, Baroness Ella van Heemstra dies at La Paisible at the age of eighty-four. It leaves Audrey bereft: "I was lost without my mother. She had been my sounding board, my conscience. She was not the most affectionate person—in fact there were times when I thought she was cold—but she loved me in her heart, and I knew that all a long. I never got that feeling from my father, unfortunately."

1985.

Sean Ferrer is married, making Audrey a mother-in-law, although the relationship only lasts until 1989. Audrey attends the ceremony with Wolders, while Mel is also present in the company of Lisa, his wife of fourteen years. As parents of the groom, Audrey and Mel dance together for the first time in seventeen years.

1986.

Audrey is among notables interviewed for Directed by William Wyler, a well-received documentary tribute produced by Wyler's daughter.

1987.

Audrey makes the television movie, Love Among Thieves, opposite Richard Wagner. It attracts mostly negative reviews and is Audrey's last starring role.

Audrey is officially appointed Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF, an organization she'd previously helped with fundraising events. With both sons now living away from home (Luca is now living with his father in Rome), the role reflects her ability to now devote herself more fully to this work.

In her new UNICEF role, accompanied by Wolders, Audrey visits Macao and then Japan, after which requests pour in from UNICEF committees all over the world requesting her appearances. Before the end of the year she also visits Ireland.

1988.

Audrey spends much of the year on field-trip assignments for UNICEF—visiting some of the worst-affected places in the world. Much of this work is very hard, especially in third-world countries, where situations are frequently dangerous as well as rugged. In March, Audrey's first field-trip assignment is in Ethiopia, where the world's attention is desperately needed to help prevent millions from starving. In August, Audrey's visits Turkey, which is followed by another trip in October to South America.

Starting this year, and running each year until 1992, Audrey hosts with Roger Moore the Danny Kaye International Children's Special in Holland, which is broadcast worldwide and draws enormous donations.

1989.

In February, Audrey travels to Central America, pleading the case for children in a series of meetings with chief executives from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

In April, Audrey, representing UNICEF, testifies in Washington, D.C. before the House Select Subcommittee on Hunger. Just days after this, Audrey is in Sudan overseeing UNICEF's work there.

When asked once what she really did for UNICEF, she replied, "My task is to inform, to create awareness of the needs of children. It would be nice to be an expert on education, economics, politics, religions, traditions and cultures. I'm none of those. But I am a mother and will travel."

In October, for her next UNICEF work, Audrey travels first to Bangkok before going on to Bangladesh.

At the end of the year, Audrey agrees to a cameo role in Steven Spielberg's Always, playing an angel. It will be her last screen performance.

1990.

March, and Audrey performs in a series of benefit concerts for UNICEF, reading selections from The Diary of Anne Frank, integrated with an original orchestral work by Michael Tilson Thomas. It tours five U.S. cities, with a future performance with the London Symphony Orchestra taking place in 1991.

Audrey shoots the television series, Gardens of the World, beginning in Holland—the first of many different locations around the world.

In October Audrey makes another UNICEF field-trip, to Vietnam, which receives little coverage in the U.S.

Audrey's travels this year also take her to Norway to cohost the "Concert for Peace," with Jimmy Carter, Francois Mitterand and Nelson Mandela among the participants. She also speaks at UNICEF's Universal Child Immunization kickoff ceremony in Rome.

1991.

Audrey hosts the PBS Special The Fred Astaire Songbook. Gardens of the World also airs and Audrey makes an appearance at a Manhattan store to sign copies of the book which accompanies the series.

In June Audrey makes her second congressional appearance, to urge a boost in aid for Africa.

1992.

At the Academy Awards ceremony Audrey presents an honorary Oscar to Indian director Satyajit Ray.

September, and Audrey travels to war-torn Somalia. Audrey would later say, "I walked into a nightmare": the country is in anarchy, and most of the population starving.

After Somalia, Audrey and Rob return to Switzerland. Before her next few engagements, and a planned Mediterranean holiday, Audrey wishes to see Sean and so they fly to California, first staying with friend Connie Wald. Audrey's abdominal pains—which had begun perhaps as early as before their leaving for Somalia—had become intense, but her doctors had only suspected an amoebic infection. At the insistence of friends and family, Audrey undergoes testing at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Three days later, on November 2, Audrey is operated on for colon cancer.

Audrey's sons join her as she recovers from the surgery, however she wishes to spend Christmas back at La Paisible in Tolochenaz, and a private jet is arranged to take her back. Audrey will spend the last months of her illness at La Paisible, occasionally strong enough for short walks in her beloved garden.

Before leaving Los Angeles, Audrey receives news from the Screen Actors Guild that she is to be the January recipient of the SAG Achievement Award—later accepted on her behalf at the ceremony by Julia Roberts. When back in Switzerland, she receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom for 1992 for her UNICEF work, delivered in person by the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland.

1993

Around New Year's, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces that Audrey will be given the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the ceremony in April. It would be accepted on her behalf by Sean Ferrer.

On January 20, four months before her sixty-fourth birthday, Audrey Hepburn dies at home in her sleep.

She is buried in the cemetery at Tolochenaz-sur-Morges on January 24. In attendance at the funeral, as well as her two sons and Rob Wolders, are her brother Ian Quarles von Ufford, Dr. Andrea Dotti, Hubert de Givenchy, executives of UNICEF, actor friends Alain Delon and Roger Moore, and Mel Ferrer. Maurice Eindiguer, the pastor who had married Hepburn and Ferrer thirty-nine years earlier, presides over the funeral.