Ava Gardner

One of the best and greatest movie stars was Ava Gardner. Extraordinary person and actress, she was practically catalogued as a goddess because of her great beauty. She shined all the time in the cinema, and the newspapers also adored her. She was known as “the most beautiful animal in the world” alluding to men’s wild side. Its imposing character, its beauty and its presence made her look like a fatal attraction, since it was impossible to pass unnoticed before so much beauty. She didn’t have much acting experience when she started her career, but she acted in numerous supporting roles until she got her first starring role in the movie Signal Stop. She was never the kind of woman who wanted to be a mother, who suffered or who was kind. Her thing was to attract the opposite sex.

Biography of Ava Gardner

Ava Lavine Gardner was born on December 24, 1922 in the town of Grabtown located in North Carolina. Her mother was known by the name of Mary Elizabeth, and her father was Jonas Bailey Gardner. She was born on a tobacco plantation, where she learned to use the local language and walk barefoot, a completely rural area.

When she turned 18, her brother-in-law had taken a picture of her next to a window in his New York photo studio and the picture caught MGM’s attention, bringing her very quickly to Hollywood and signing a contract to make a film based on her beauty. She had no acting experience, and her first 17 roles in movies were single-line. Sometime after making his first leading role in the movie called Stop Signal recorded in 1946, MGM lent it to Universal to make her first movie known as Outlaws in which she played an exceptional role.

Ava Gardner and Howard Hughes

Gardner befriended businessman and pilot Howard Hughes in the early and mid-1940s, and the relationship lasted until the 1950s. She stated in her autobiography, Ava: My Story, that she was never in love with Hughes, but she was in and out of his life for about 20 years. It was Hughes’ trust in Ava Gardner that kept their relationship alive. She described him as “painfully shy, completely enigmatic, and more eccentric than anyone I had ever met”.

Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra

The great love of Frank Sinatra, famous American singer was Ava Gardner, she was the reason for his divorce, establishing one of the first scandals in the puritan America of the time. Her love for her was so great, that he even put her in first place, rather than her songs and music. His fights throughout the time they were together were very intense, he even threatened to take his life if she did not return with him, and he even had a pill overdose after a fight he had with the actress. They got married in November 1951 and practically became his driver and errand boy. After a few years, she suspected that he was cheating on her and filed for divorce. Sometime later, Sinatra tried to get her marriage back, but she was already dating someone else in Spain.

Ava Gardner in Spain

She lived a passionate life in Spain, lover of bulls and bullfighters, alcohol and parties were part of her daily routine. In Spain, she shot the film “Pandora and the Wandering Dutchman“. What attracted her the most were Spanish men, and for this reason she had a great list of lovers. She knew Spain for work reasons, because she came to the place to shoot a film in 1950 and her first love arose from the script she played.

In Pandora, there was a person with bullfighting role, this role was played by Mario Cabré, who was a real-life bullfighter, poet and actor. He dedicated himself to making Ava fall in love and he did it. After that first contact, she decided to stay and live in Spain, fleeing from her past relationship with Frank Sinatra.

Death

Ava Gardner spent her last few years locked up in her London apartment. Her only companions were her housekeeper Carmen Vargas and her beloved Welsh Corgi, Morgan. She was partially paralyzed and bedridden after two strokes in 1986. Although Gardner could easily pay for her medical expenses, Frank Sinatra wanted to pay for her to see a specialist in the United States, and she allowed him to make arrangements for her to travel in a private plane with medical personnel. Her last words were for her housekeeper: “I’m so tired,” before she died of pneumonia when she was 67. Her housekeeper took Ava’s body to her native North Carolina for private burial.