AUDREY HEPBURN - GAZZARA REVEALS SAD HEPBURN ROMANCE

Dating Hollywood icon AUDREY HEPBURN was one of the saddest times actor BEN GAZZARA can remember - because she was such a haunting beauty, convinced she wasn't a good actress.

The couple fell in love on the set of BLOODLINE in the late 1970s and enjoyed a brief affair as their marriages collapsed, but Gazzara still has mixed emotions about the time he spent with the big screen beauty.

He says, "She was unhappy in her marriage and hurting; I was unhappy in my marriage and hurting and we came together and we gave solace to each other and we fell in love but it was impossible.

"She had a life in Europe and Switzerland and where you will. I'm in LA with another life. Life got in the way of romance."

Gazzara spent much of the romance trying to convince a far from confident Hepburn that she was a great actress.

He recalls, "We were having a drink in Munich, where we were shooting a picture called Bloodline and she told me, `Do you know Ben, I never thought I was a good actress.'

"She was so self-effacing and that's why, on the screen, she was so genuine because what you saw on the screen you saw in life - that smile and the way she lit up a room. She just had it."