Ava Gardner, 67 (1922-1990) US Actress

[Music] but what he walk at touch me and you all lived on money my heart was gone when I saw her she was one of the world's most celebrated beauties she didn't think she was a sex symbol but Frank thought so men fell at her famously bare feet but none brought Ava Gardner lasting happiness and she was searching for that one person and always ended up with the wrong guy on screen she was an unapproachable goddess but when the cameras stopped rolling no film star was more down to earth than Ava Gardner whose dramatic screen roles paled in comparison with her own passionate life she really had a life that seemed to people to be very much a movie star's life romances with glamorous people tempestuous marriages passion Spain gypsies drinking Ava Gardner a great beauty unfulfilled love always searching for the love that was just out of reach Ava lavinia Gardner was born on Christmas Eve 1922 in a North Carolina town so small it wasn't even on the map grab town was nothing more than the farmhouse in which Ava was born a few tenant small tenant houses a cotton gin and a tiny little Church she was the baby of a family she had four older sisters and an older brother when she was born her mother was 39 so Ava was quite a mid-life surprise Ava's father was a poor tenant farmer who worked hard to bring up his six children Ava's house had no indoor plumbing so in modern standards they were might be considered poor but they were certainly rich in love of a close family she was very very loved and probably spoiled she was mischievous and she was outside all the time and she loves to be barefooted at home Ava repaid her parents affection with strict obedience but with friends the feisty tomboy loved to swear chew tobacco and take on any dare regardless of the danger she would climb the water tower by the Brogden school and and she was a daredevil she had many playmates one of them that she adored was a little black boy named Cheyne they worked in the tobacco fields together and she was always colorblind and would become very defensive of anyone who tried to mistreat her little playmate but Ava's happy childhood was blighted when fire destroyed the family's farm the penniless gardeners left North Carolina for Virginia where Ava's mother found work as a cook meanwhile her father's health was deteriorating and in 1938 he died at the age of 59 the 15 year old and her family were forced to move again but wherever Ava went the warm-hearted teenager soon made friends she come to stay with me at my house and she always liked to ride the school bus and when she could off the school bus she put her shoes in our mailbox she loved going barefoot and when I stayed with her her mother always tucked us both in and kissed us goodnight but Ava was growing up and her protective mother laid down the law when it came to boys Ava came home with a young man one night and he gave her a kiss on the porch well pretty soon the door opened and Kabang slam here came mrs. Garland Ava had one crush that her mother didn't discourage both of them adored Clark Gable and the other film stars whose performances offered escape from their humdrum lives [Music] I think her fantasies for herself were more about being a big band singer she always wanted a singing people who led the big bands were big romantic stars like the Artie Shaw Ava also had more realistic goals she intended to become a secretary than Mary and achieve her ultimate dream of motherhood every chance she got to go see a baby anywhere near she went and wanted to hold it and play with it she was my babysitter she had the greatest maternal instinct I think I've ever seen for a person didn't have a child she'd get down on the floor with him and play all sorts of little games and and she always was available if I wanted her to babysit now there was no money exchanged she just did it because she wanted to cuz she just loved him so much in 1940 the seventeen-year-old achieved good marks on a secretarial course at nearby Atlantic Christian College but Ava's life was about to take a dramatic turn [Music] she went up to New York to visit her sister Pappy that sister she was closest to she never been in New York before she was very excited bobby was married to a photographer and he took her picture she had on a big picture hat it was a little looked a little like Scarlett O'Hara because Gone with the Wind had just come out that year he put the picture in the window of his photography shop and someone from MGM saw the picture and asked her to test MGM was the most successful and powerful film studio in the world home to more stars than were in the heavens according to studio publicity during her New York screen test the astonished Ava could barely speak when she did the MGM talent scout could barely understand her accent was so thick they couldn't understand a word she said so they say just forget that just walk back and forth so it was a silent test but based on her beauty she was offered an MGM contract for Ava a studio contract and a wage of $50 a week seemed an amazing once-in-a-lifetime opportunity but her ailing mother was fiercely opposed so badly she said this is her great chance I'll go with her and make sure everything's okay and so they boarded a train for Hollywood it turned her life upside down it was almost as if she was transported to another planet [Music] the number-one quality they wanted in contract actors at MGM was malleability and they wanted people who did not resist being changed if I had a you know have language lessons diction lessons her hair was changed they did everything they could to her apart from surgery to make her look like what they thought a star should look like and one of the side effects which was not intended was that it made her feel inferior maybe she wasn't talented maybe she wasn't good enough it made her feel like there was something wrong with the real her if everyone wanted to change everything about her the tobacco farmer's daughter from North Carolina was awed and intimidated by the luxury of the MGM system we would have limousines taking us from stage to stage if I couldn't believe her luck in landing a contract with MGM where she was being treated like a star she was very cooperative we did photographic sessions we had to pose cheesecake and she would put up with it because it was part of being roomed for a star the 18 year olds remarkable Beauty turned heads even at MGM among those mesmerized was the studio's number one star 20 year old Mickey Rooney they were taking her around the lot and seeing what was being filmed and he was doing a comedy scene where he was dressed like Carmen Miranda she came onto the set and I went bang it was just incredible she was a beautiful lady and I asked her for a phone number and she said no and I said please and she will all right you can call me so I called her and I asked her out for dinner and she said no I don't want to go with you mappy advised ava make him work for it don't give in right away we had dinner and four more dates and five more dates then I asked her to marry me Ava was also not wanting to do anything that her mother wouldn't approve of but Mickey Rooney was very persistent and he ended up actually marrying her though they needed louie be mayor's permission sooner or later the studio Ava and they all gave in and we were married in Ballard California just even my mother and her mother and 1,400 press agents [Music] [Applause] even I would like to thank everybody for their many good wishes especially our boss mr. Louis Beamer thank you very much [Music] within a year Ava Gardner had gone from total obscurity to being the wife of one of the world's most famous men 19 year-old Ava would have preferred to stay at home and start a family but MGM had hired her to work in 1942 she nervously began her apprenticeship with a string of small roles in B movies in 1943 MGM loaned Ava to low-budget monogram pictures for the slapstick comedy ghosts on the loose starring Leo Dorsey Hunt's halt and Bela Lugosi I hope you don't mind darling oh no darling anything you want to do is alright with me once she was walking around past a neighborhood theater and ghosts on the loose was on the marquee and it said ghosts on the loose starring Ava Gardner she said it was the first and last time she kind of got a thrill out of being a movie star that rush of boy now I'm there but Ava had little confidence in her talents as an actress an opinion no one could overturn over never thought that she was a very good actress she never gave herself credit for being a good actress but if Ava was insecure about acting she wasn't shy about facing problems at home after one year her marriage to Mickey Rooney was in trouble she went into marriage thinking it would be somewhat like her parents marriage she wanted to stay home and cook fried chicken for Mickey he wanted to go out partying she had a temper and if we'd go out and I'd look at anybody here say hello she'd leave the table and I couldn't find her she was convinced that he was not faithful and so she filed for divorce I'm sure that Ava tried her best and I tried my best but it just didn't work out and it it was very sad for Ava her decision to divorce was an admission of failure then her self-confidence was further damaged by the death from cancer of her beloved mother my grandmother died on that same day Ava's divorce came through and it was a very very sad time for her Malik had been her rock all through the years and it was a devastating blow to her after losing both her parents Ava felt even more out of place amid the tinsel of Hollywood she tried to hide her insecurities with alcohol having a glass of champagne or vodka would relax her fears of insecurity when she walked into a room she would feel so insecure that she would feel like crawling under the rug until she got to the other side of the room drinking calms her nerves before going before the camera and so she continued to dream especially in times when she had so many heartaches but Ava wasn't afraid to stand up to unwanted admirers even if they inspired fear in others the most persistent was billionaire aviator and film producer Howard Hughes who became obsessed with the gorgeous starlet Howard used was like the man who came to dinner in Avery's life he just would never go away he had all the money in the world at his disposal but they never had any kind of real relationship Howard Hughes pursued her often all for 20 years and Ava said she never really cared that much for Howard they had big fights she hit him on the head after one argument with an enormous Bell and knocked him out and according to her was so angry at him that she would have killed him if someone hadn't stopped her Hugh's fought a losing battle twenty-three-year-old Ava was in love with another charismatic celebrity bandleader Artie Shaw equivalent of a rock star Ava grew up loving his music Ava seemed to like very confident men he was very self-confident 34 year old Shaw had already been married four times his past wives included Lana Turner Ava's friend the band leader wasn't ready for another marriage so this time the increasingly independent Ava began a passionate romance without a wedding ring Artie and Ava secretly moved in together an act that could have destroyed her career until in 1945 they tied the knot [Music] that same year the struggling actress was loaned to Universal Pictures for an intriguing film noir based on a story by Ernest Hemingway in The Killers gartner played an irresistible fan fatale who double-crosses an adoring thief played by Burt Lancaster in his film debut Jake tells me you're a fighter do you like the fights I'm fine I've never seen one no kidding I hate brutality mr. Anderson the idea of two men beating each other to a pulp makes me help the killers was a key film for her she's talked about it as the first film that she really enjoyed acting in she played a very beautiful very glamorous character for the first time she just really blew people away with the way she looked you know I collect hate you because of me he's no fool he sees what's happened why did you ever go back to him kitty maybe because I hate it I'm poisonous we to myself and everybody around me I'd be afraid to go with anyone I love for the harmik dude she more less had a romance with a camera she just related to the camera so well very calmly and for most any angle you're not meeting [Music] released in 1946 the killers was a critical and commercial hit and its success made MGM realized that 24 year-old Ava Gardner had the makings of a star although Ava Gardner had grabbed Hollywood's attention with her performance in The Killers the actresses home life was again in turmoil she felt dominated and intellectually intimidated by her husband Artie Shaw despite her best efforts at self education he insisted that she began reading all these classic books but still she felt like she did not come up to his his level at all and that was very disappointing for her he caught her reading a book or forever amber which was a big bestseller at the time you know he wanted her reading Schopenhauer or god knows what so he threw forever amber across the room the coda to that story is that after he divorced Ava he married the writer of forever amber in 1946 jaws stunned his Ava by asking for a divorce it was one of the most painful periods in her life but as Gardner faced another heartbreak she also began one of her most enduring friendships marrying Jordan entered Ava's world as housekeeper under sistent we just hit it off like that she was like my sister when I went in for the interview she said do you know how to make martini and I said martini no and she said well I can show you and from then on I was there within a year Ava's life was getting back on track in 1947 she was amazed to be cast opposite her childhood idol Clark Gable in the big-budget romantic comedy the hucksters you could be a lot of help to a guy like Nathan you way would've been this way Angele my secretary mr. Norman are you shorting him some people like [Music] MGM now considered Ava ready for stardom in one touch of Venus she literally became a screen goddess playing Venus to robert Walker's lovestruck mortal come here to me just look at a most beautiful girl in Hollywood with the perfect figure and face Ava Gardner in one touch of Venus the romantic thriller the bribe paired Ava with heartthrob Robert Taylor their on-screen passion continued in private despite Taylor's marriage to Barbara Stanwyck but it was Ava's next affair that made headlines around the world Gardner had first met Frank Sinatra when she was married to Mickey Rooney by 1949 Ava was twice divorced and the married Sinatra had plummeted from superstar to a near husband Frank's career was pretty much rock bottom he could barely get a nightclub engagement at that time Frank was having an affair with Lana Turner and Ava and Lana were good friends Lana said Frank will never marry anybody because Nancy has Sam sold up said he's had me Dingling all this time although the Catholic singer vowed he would never leave his wife Frank and Ava began a wild and reckless affair and when they were spotted at a Houston nightclub even MGM couldn't control the storm that followed [Music] Ava received hostile and threatening letters branding her a homewrecker the nature of the two people made a lot of headlines they were both rambunctious both dynamite and both highly emotional you put two sticks of dynamite together and you get an explosion that blatantly asked her are you sure you love that guy he's so skinny and she assured me that she loved him very deeply and I think she always did she was the love of his life and he was the love of her life I once said what about Nancy Frank and he said well I'll always love Nancy because she's the mother of my children he did love Nancy but Ava was the great love of his life in 1950 27 year-old Ava Gardner received the most challenging role of her career so far she was cast as an alcoholic singer in MGM's lavish film of the Broadway musical showboat it co-starred Kathryn Grayson Howard keel and Marge and Gower champion and it featured one of America's most popular music scores doing showboat we had such fun she was she was so fun she had a great sense of humor full of hell and a great gal to be with she was open to anything swore all applaud times when Thomas invited me we'd sit and have a little tequila now then mr. Mayer said no drinking on the set so they said the Katie can I keep the booze in your dressing room and often I couldn't get in because they were drinking the tequila I'm having her own parties they wouldn't come out so we tell all the locks changed and Ava stop stop - you little sob you've changed all the locks you give me my booze so I did but despite her drinking Ava also worked hard and she was eager to sing showboats famous songs Frank had coached her extremely well and she sounded wonderful and today there would be no question that it would be her own voice but in those days each department wanted perfection she knew she wasn't the world's greatest singer but she felt she could do a good job and by all reports she did do a solid job but the people at MGM they said not good enough when they dubbed her singing in [Music] that was I think a personal disappointment singing was what she had fantasized about more than acting as a compromise Ava's singing voice was used on showboats original soundtrack album but man [Applause] although the film was a huge hit MGM's rejection of her vocals further undercut Ava sense of self-worth I said Ava you're a wonderful actress she's I can't act from sour grapes and you can act you're a fine actress and she said I know what I am and what I'm not but Ava's spirit was lifted by good news Frank and Nancy Sinatra had agreed to divorce and in 1951 Gardner was thrilled to marry for the third time she was convinced that this marriage would last her happiness was evident on the set of her next film the snows of Kilimanjaro paired Gardner with Gregory Peck in Ernest Hemingway's story of a tragic love affair please [Music] Thanks I'm Cynthia Cynthia green certain that's nice when did you come in nomads ago I'll be Ava as a performer to be was unique I think that she had deep passion which we know and she was able to show that but show it naturally darling there's a war going on there's a war going on here - right here at this table there's a dandy little war going on darling you shouldn't drink too much no no I shouldn't do a lot of things too much I should love you too much I'm awfully bad for you she was encased with this gift of sensuality will you be kind to me I think I'm not afraid of you [Music] a gamble the new word in motion picture entertainment the following year MGM sent Ava to Africa to co-star once a game with Clark Gable in Mogambo I want you I'm looking I'm sitting over here I look with you Vernon laughs where she kind of allowed herself to kind of have fun with the part to bring more of her personality into it where she just kind of felt all the hell with it you know this is the way I am Ava's earthy performance inspired her best reviews to date and her only Oscar nomination for Best Actress but Gardner remained insecure about her abilities after a year of marriage to Frank Sinatra she was becoming unhappy she wanted a family and the sad thing is that it almost happened she got pregnant with her husband with the man she loved Frank Sinatra and it just didn't seem right to her his career wasn't quite where it should have been Frank was traveling a lot it just didn't feel like it was the time was right for her to have children so after they finished Mogambo after they wrapped she went to London and had an abortion by making the decision on her own Ava had taken a great risk in the relationship when Sinatra found out about the abortion he was furious their marriage was also collapsing under the weight of their common weakness jealousy people are always looking at them they were always looking at people the other one saying why are you looking at that person are you looking at that burden they had a fight she hears a gunshot from his room what he had done apparently was fire a gunshot into the mattress with the aim of upsetting her and this enraged her even more she had Howard Hughes with secret detectives fallin Frank and brain in these reports showing them to Ava what Frank's doing so that didn't help in 1953 Ava used her star power to get Sinatra an audition for the big-budget drama From Here to Eternity Frank got the part and won an Oscar reviving his career lot of emphasis but his success just seemed to unavoidably add another stress to their lives they have too many career demands they were too jealous the world's press wouldn't leave them alone after less than two years of marriage Sinatra and Gardner announced their separation in 1953 the divorce was finalized in 1957 but the bonds between them were never completely broken Frank she told me was her one true love they couldn't live together and they couldn't live without each other and that was the problem they were too much alive [Music] in 1953 30 year-old Ava Gardner escaped the heartache of her third failed marriage by traveling to Rome she was there to film the Barefoot Contessa co-starring Humphrey Bogart and written and directed by Oscar winner Joseph L mankiewicz Avis strongly identified with the story of a woman who goes from poverty to big screen celebrity and through a string of unhappy love affairs where are you after the dirt and her fact that it hasn't been good for you many ways it's been beyond my dreams like a fairy tale of this century a lot of people thought that my father was taking a big chance by by casting her even though she was a big star she had a reputation of being two-part star and one part actress but she was absolutely wonderful in the party for both you excite you as no motion picture before ever has she understood the yearnings men going crazy over her because she was beautiful with her beauty in a sense almost being a trap that made her life more unhappy they all worshiped the face the fame the figure of the world's most beautiful and I remember her as being the most direct person in the world and she said who wants to go to the movies tonight nobody did and she said bogie said now I'm just gonna have Sarah and she turned to me and she said you want to go to the movies stop I'm 12 years old I can the color of a Coke machine and she said let's go I'll have a car pick you up at 7:00 I couldn't believe it I said to my father Ava Gardner wants to take me to the movies I was in heaven Ava was eager to build a new life far from the glare of Hollywood Spain became her home a place where her passion for living could be indulged to the fullest she came into her own in Spain it was pretty heady stuff this was a place that she would move to number one to get away from Frank and to have a new life in Spain and of course the bullfighters helped Ava was a person that loved the nightlife - and so Spain everything was open at night the first night we got there she just wanted to show us the town and we went everywhere all to the flamenco places and she even danced with some of the full Minko dances nothing I got to go home and go to bed and she just she just kept on going she would go to the lowest dive and drink all night with peasants didn't matter to her once we went to mountains and we found some gypsies in this cave and we stayed in those caves two nights just passing drinking wine Ava embarked on a torrid affair with famed bullfighter Luis Miguel dominguin she also spent time with her friend Ernest Hemingway who was pleased when Ava starred in the 1957 film of his novel The Sun Also Rises the actress was perfectly cast in the part of Lady Brett Ashley an aristocratic beauty with a taste for alcohol bullfights and bullfighters [Applause] [Music] I'll egg another brandy please potato those funded always possible will you finish telling my fortune but it might take a little while since you say I will live so long I have to him financially secure and approaching her 40th birthday Ava chose to make fewer films most like the dramas on the beach and 55 days at Peking were filmed far from America the further Gardner was from Hollywood the more confident she felt as an actress she was getting to an age where playing women of the world was what people wanted a caster at and she enjoyed those roles women who had been around who understood what life was like she relaxed more in the roles you're a fantastic pool hustler Ava loved the night of the iguana based on Tennessee Williams play and co-starring Richard Burton and Deborah Carr will mr. Shannon be alright alright director John Huston shared Gardner's passion for the good life and a Mexican beach location offered plenty of opportunities for fun she liked to water-ski and I think they would sometimes have to go buy a small boat from one place to another and she would water-ski over night of the iguana I really saw Ava and her personality in this she became a little bit proud of Ava for a change she was always putting herself down and said she was an actress but I think she finally realized she was but Gardner's hard-won self-confidence was about to be shaken by the most volatile relationship of her life the Italian epic the Bible directed by John Huston paired 42 year-old Ava with actor George C Scott during production the two became lovers but according to Ava and others passion turned to violence they were both people with tempers and they were both heavy drinkers and there were several occasions where he really hit her very hard John Huston said really be careful the man I think is a killer he would just drink a fearful vodka and go all the way crazy she get most of that film in a body brace he had broken her shoulder and injured her ribs in her back she felt in danger of her life which you really felt this guy was going to kill her he talked her into going to Connecticut I hadn't heard from her and Ord I thought oh my god I called Frank Sinatra and I was just hysterical and he said Rini don't worry I will take care of it about two and a half hours later she walked in the door somebody went down and got her but she was so beaten up and bruised and that time it was terrible you [Music] after a decade of drinking partying and men 46 year-old Ava Gardner said goodbye to Spain and began a more sedate life in London but by 1972 as she entered her 50s life was increasingly lonely she loved her dogs very dearly they were her children that's what she told me what's there my babies have had a family she often said that that would have been her first choice but it was not in the cards for her and so she made the best of what she had Gardner knew that good film roles were scarce for women in their 50s she chose to act only when she needed money or to work with friends like John Huston director of the 1972 Western the life and times of judge Roy Bean yes it is ma'am they was wild being in those babies I did Snake River Rufus crowded a table yeah in 1974 Ava appeared alongside Charlton Heston in earthquake a disaster movie slammed by critics but successful at the box office [Music] is she more important than me or does Transpo Avenue that films like the Cassandra crossing in the Bluebird were second-rate most were roles that she did as she expressed it just for the loot honey just for the loot Ava preferred to relax in London or kick off her shoes with family and friends in her native North Carolina one day my daddy who was in his late seventies at the time he's asked how does it feel to be wrists so rich and famous and Havis smiled as she Luke dances a Chevy I'm just an old broad gets her picture taking a lot [Music] in 1985 the veteran actress took a guest role on the primetime soap opera Knots Landing despite Ava's nervousness she was a hit now you're ready Gregory you were brought up to be powerful and you loved it you wanted how do you know what I want because you like me too and you know as well as I do power Gregory real power you love it the cast just fell in love with Ava and begged her to make it a permanent role but she said look she had no idea those actors had to work that hard she was 62 years old and it was just way more work than she wanted to do at that point in life Ava did agree to appear in a TV pilot entitled Maggie starring her friends Stephanie powers but after filming Gardner suffered a stroke which cost her the use of her left arm depressed and frustrated the fiercely independent actress struggled to regain a normal life once we were walking in the park and I realized she was weak so she sat against the tree I sat down beside her which was a big mistake because one couldn't help the other at that point she was dead wait no that's too but anyhow she started laughing and she said barrini did you ever think that it would come to this and I said no never thought she said I didn't either she says is a [ __ ] in it I said yeah it's a [ __ ] like old atha and she said I'm a mess I don't want to live any longer I just want to say goodbye to you you've been a real friend and kept all of our secrets and I appreciate that and I love you goodbye and I I was it tears on the 25th of January 1990 one month after her 67th birthday Ava Gardner died in London of pneumonia four days later she was buried in North Carolina beside her parents she always said she wanted to come back home and be buried with Mama and Daddy Ava is is back home with the family one floral display at her funeral bore a simple note with my love Frances North Carolina has never forgotten Ava Gardner in the 1980s a local museum was opened in her honor she did go to the museum put her last this at home it was locked and she could not get in and someone that was with her said we'll get a key and let you see what's in there and she said I don't have to go in I know what's there I lived it Ava Gardner was a person who never completely felt us a success she had was deserved if this movie star stuff hadn't happened she might actually have been happier but she took life for what it was and she appreciated the ironies she was the most breathtaking honest funny person that you were a little bit in awe of but you could conceive of as being a real pal we were sisters and I remember her as a fine person who loved life as long as it was worth living being married Ava Gardner was one of the most memorable moments of my life and I wish her well wherever she is Ava had a great zest for life a lot of people go through this world and they exist truly my friend I can tell you that Ava Gardner lived [Music] at nine viggo mortensen but next at pioneer at billionaire industrialist and a film mogul did Howard Hughes really have it all or was there something missing [Music] you

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Keywords: Ava Gardner

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Length: 43min 1sec (2581 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 29 2018