Iconic actress and philanthropist Audrey Hepburn was born on May 4, 1929 in Brussels, Belgium. To this day, Audrey remains one of Hollywood’s most loved stars, and she’s sometimes credited as the first legitimate non-blonde movie star in cinema history. She was well known for her beauty and grace on the screen, but she also became loved for her generosity off screen.

As a young girl, Audrey moved to England when her father’s job as an insurance agent meant the family needed to relocate. Due to the growing tensions in the world because of Hitler and the Nazis, Hepburn’s parents divorced in 1935. Her father was a Nazi sympathizer and all but wrecked the family with his ideology.

Although she was only 6 years old at the time, Audrey carried this traumatic experience with her for the rest of her life. She was forced to move again when the Nazi’s threatened invasion in 1939. She relocated to the Netherlands with her mother. Unfortunately, the Netherlands fell to Nazi occupation in 1940, so the family made the best of their surroundings and didn’t flee.

Audrey started attending ballet school in this time, and by 1944, as the war became more brutal and the Nazis were threatening to destroy the Netherlands, she was carrying around the trauma of seeing her uncle and cousin shot in the streets. Dance was to be an escape for Audrey; she would do anything to forget the horrors, if only for a moment.

A young Hepburn suffered physical illness during her childhood but fully recovered and kept up with dancing. After the war ended, Audrey moved to London and continued to practice ballet. However, she was extremely petite due to her meager upbringing, and ballet wasn’t on the cards. Instead, Audrey turned to acting.

She was able to land a few minor roles that really didn’t go anywhere fast, but she did manage to turn a few heads and eventually scored the role as Gigi in an on-state production. This was a phenomenal performance by the young actress, and she won an award from Theatre World for the Best Debut Performance. After that, she played a ballerina in the 1952 film Secret People.

Famous director William Wyler spotted Audrey while she was filming Secret People. He immediately thought to cast her in his film Roman Holiday alongside Gregory Peck. The film took off at the box office and Audrey won an Oscar for her performance. Instantly, she was part of Hollywood’s elite circle and was cast with every leading man of the era.

Audrey had married and started a family as her fame started to skyrocket. She was considered even more graceful for the fact she wasn’t part of the Hollywood scene. Audrey chose to stay secretive in her life throughout the 1950s and 60s. In 1961, Audrey played the role of Holly Golightly in her most famous film, Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

She starred in dozens of movies at the height of her fame, but after 1967, she started on the road to retirement and only showed up occasionally in movies. Audrey Hepburn died in 1993 from cancer at the age of 63.