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Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 - January 25, 1990) was an Academy Award nominated actress listed as one of the greatest stars of all times by the AFI.She was born in North Carolina, USA in 1922. She was the youngest of seven
children (she had two brothers, Raymond and Melvin, and four sisters Beatrice,
Elsie Mae, Inez and Myra) all born in a poor tobacco farm. Ava loved being barefoot
and playing with boys.
She was real tomboy. When Mr and Mrs Gardner lost their property they had to
work to feed their children. He worked in a sawmill and she worked as a cook and
housekeeper in a dormitory for teachers. When Ava was 13, they moved to
Newport News (a city Ava had very bad memories of) and later to Wilson where
Molly, Ava's mom, held a boarding house.
It was at that time, in 1938, that Ava's father Jonas Gardner died of pneumonia.
Later in life she would often think of him when she fell sick of the same disease and
ultimately died of it as well.
Ava attended secreterial classes. With her older sister living in New York, she
thought that she would have a bigger chance of finding a job there. By that time Ava
was already a very pretty young girl and her fascinating beauty started to show.
In 1941, she went to New York to visit her sister Beatrice, whom
she called Bappie. Bappie's husband at that time, dazzled by his sister-in-law's
amazing beauty, just like anyone else, took some pictures of her and later
displayed it in the front window of his shop. This picture changed her life.
This picture was spotted by Barnard "Barney" Duham who came in Tarr's shop
asking for the girl on the picture's number and said "Somebody should send her
info to MGM" . Bappie and her husband did so immediately and MGM gave her a
screen test. Ava would later say that after seeing her screen test L.B. Mayer said:
"She can't talk! She can't act! She's sensational!"
Even if her screen test wasn't the best, MGM gave her a contract right a way.
Director L. Altman who directed her screen test said that with her close up every
man in the room fell madly in love with her.
Ava Gardner's early career consisted of making bit parts and cheesecake pictures,
which made her become one of the top pin up girls during WWII.
But it was her private life that changed mostly during her early Hollywood years.
Bappie left her husband to follow her baby sister to the coast. They lived together
when one of the greatest male stars of the MGM block fell madly in love with Ava.
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney (September 23. 1920- ) is a child star who survived all decades in
show business. Together with Judy Garland he was one of the greatest stars of the
1930s. It is reported that when he first saw Ava he was practicing an impersonation
of Carmen Miranda for a movie.
They got married on January 10, 1942 in California. At first the studio did everything
they could to stop them from getting married. The couple insisted and the studio
finallly let them do. From their honeymoon they certainlly started to see, specially
Ava, that their way of perceiving marriage was rather different. She wanted to be by
her husband, when Mickey preferred golf and comming to his bride only at night.
Back home, things only got worse. He started partying every night and Ava didn't
specially think of marriage as such. A year later, 1943, the young couple divorced.
When Mickey published his autobiography, Rooney rhapsodized about Ava's
performance in bed, though upon hearing this Ava said:
"Well honey, he may have enjoyed the sex, but goodness knows I didn't!"
Even after their sepration and divorce, Ava and Mickey still had some encounters
before he went to war. Later that year, she stopped seeing Mickey because she
had met a man with whom she fell madly in love.
Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw (May 23. 1910 - December 30. 2004) born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky was
an American Jazz clarinetist and bandleader. He is widely considered to be one of
the greatest clarinetists of his time. He is also the author of both fiction and
non-fiction writings.
When Ava met Artie, she was immdiatly under the spell. He was one of the most talented
musicians of their time and a very intelligent man. Without mentionning of course,
his dark good looks that had other several famous ladies fall for him including Judy
Garland and Lana Turner, his ex-wife.
The reasons that made his marriage to Lana Turner a failure were the same
reasons that made Ava's second marriage even more disastrous than the first.
Artie loathed the movies and glamour in general. He often humiliated her making
her feel dumb and useless. At this time, Ava's career was still resumed in taking
cheesecake pictures and playing bit parts while Artie was a huge star.
But during their marriage her career would change forever. Not knowing what to do
with their sexy brunette, MGM loaned her to Paramount for a movie with mostly
unknown actors. The Killers.
In 1946, the movie The Killers with Burt Lancaster made her a star.
By this time her marriage with Artie was falling to parts. He suddenly decided he wanted
to go to New York and get closer to the jazz world over there, but Ava had just
started to be famous and didn't want to go.
They soon separated and later the couple divorced.
Ava truly loved Artie and feeling so rejected by him made her swear to herself to
never let a man make her feel this way again.
As to forget it all, together with her sister Bappie, she started partying.
She started to know the wonders of alcohol which helped her with her shyness.
She was renowned for partying all night long and comming to work the next morning
looking as gorgeous as if she had slept the entire night.
She had several lovers and was way ahead of her time. It was while partying that
she ended the night shooting the street lamps with a man's gun from his car. This man
would become the love of his life and together they would be the most mediatized couple
of the 40s.
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra (December 12, 1915 - May 14, 1998) was an
American singer and actor who was called "Ol' Blue Eyes" and "The Voice".
When Ava and Frank fell in love he was still married to Nancy, his first wife and his
children's mother. This is the 1950s. What is seen as normal today wasn't accepted
in those days. A man may have had several mistresses but he never let his wife.
But Ava wasn't just a mistress, as Nancy was to see. She became Frank's life.
They couldn't get off of each other...either because of their love or their hate
towards each other. Love was so strong between those two that the thin line
between love and hate was often crossed.
During their affair Ava went to Madrid, a city that would be very important to her life
later on, to shoot another very important picture in her career: Pandora and the
Flying Dutchman.
After being the sensation of the country, Frank's career was at its lowest and Ava's
was at its peak. Even with the whole country wishing Frank would go back to
Nancy (due to the tabloid press craze abour their affair), the inevitable just
happened.
As soon as he got divorced they got married on November 7, 1951. The press went
crazy with their wedding and they were followed around day and night.
Being married didn't mean being monogamous to any of them. They both had affairs
and one of Ava's known affair was with Mario Cabre her partner in Pandora and the
Flying Dutchman.
Later on, she went to Africa to shoot another very important movie (one of her best)
with Clark Gable and Grace Kelly, Mogambo (1953).
She had an nomination for the Academy Awards for best actress in a supporting role.
The shooting of Mogambo was in Africa. Since Frank Sinatra wasn't working at the
time he spent some time with her over there.
Ava's huge influence in Hollywood for being the hottest thing at that time, made him
land the part of Private Angelo Maggio in the hit movie From Here to Eternity.
He had to leave Africa to start shooting the movie. According to her autobiography
and to her biographer Lee Server, it was after Frank left that she found out she was
pregnant.
The reasons why Ava didn't keep the baby are not truly known. Some say it was
because the baby wasn't Frank's. Some others including herself, said that they
were too irresponsible for having a baby. Whatever reason it was, Frank was deeply
hurt by her move.
By the end of the movie, their marriage was doing badly. They finally separated after
only two years of marriage, but didn't divorce as yet. Another three years would go
by before their divorce was final.
Ava was tired of Hollywood and seized the first opportunity to leave it. MGM
proposed the part of Maria Vargas in the movie The Barefoot Contessa.
The story was wriiten after Rita Hayworth, but Rita refused it since the story was
too similar to her private life. Several other actresses refused the part, and,
according to Lee Server, Ava accepted it without having read the script, only
to get away from Hollywood and Frank.
The Barefoot Contessa became Ava's most glamourous and mythical movie.
After this movie, Ava decided to move to Madrid, Spain, in 1955 at age 33.
There she led the wildest life possible. She lives several years there making some
films from time to time
but concentrating more on her social life.
She lived in a beautiful home
Ava's relationships and wild lifestyle made her the tabloid queen of the 50s. She
married Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw and had a stormy marriage with Frank Sinatra.
Their complicated relationship inspired many wonderful song by Sinatra, the most
famous being "I am a fool to want you". They remained the loves of each other's lives even
if he remarried and she had many other love affairs after their separation.
She moved to Europe after divorcing Sinatra and lived in Madrid and in London where
she died in 1990.
Ava Gardner was once called "The world's most beautiful animal" for the publicity of
the movie The Barefoot Contessa.
| VITAL STATS | | Eye color:Green | | Height:5'6" (1.68 m) | Nickname(s):"The world's most beautiful animal"
Angel
Snowdrop
Avalah | | Notable feature(s): Her ravishing looks | Animals: Dogs. She always had a dog since Frank Sinatra gave her a corgi called
Rags. | Family:Born in North Carolina from a loving family then married Mickey Rooney,
Artie Shaw and the love of her life Frank Sinatra. | Resides in:In her acting years she lived in New York and Hollywood than later
moved to Europe living in madrid and London. | | Religious affiliations: Atheist. She didn't believe in religion. | | Political affiliation: | Personal interests/hobbies:Loved dancing Flamenco, smoking and drinking
heavily, Bullfighting, reading and partying. | | Charities/Causes: | | Other: She loved going barefoot and according to many people wasn't vain at all. | | |
silverwolf1129posted 516 days ago
