Ava Gardner, a mythical actress, femme fatale who knew how to make men give in and fuel fantasies, was often compared to Marilyn Monroe in brunette version. A great seductress, she has multiplied amorous conquests to the point of being called a cannibal and a couple breaker. Although she has acted in about sixty films, little is credited with her talent and she has only received one Oscar nomination. One of her ex-husbands even said publicly that she had bird brains. However, Ava Gardner was able to retire from Hollywood by getting famous men to walk around while also making her mark on the cinema.
Ava Gardner has captivated a generation with her sex appeal, her many lovers, and her huge public profile. What most didn’t know, however, was that she had very little confidence in herself and her acting abilities.
We find out in his new biography.
Although she was little educated, she said she was uneducated and admitted that she was easily dominated by the men she loved.
She is also said to have been very naive. With good reason, early in her career while signed to MGM, she didn’t even appear in the credits of the films she was in because of her Southern rural accent. She was used because of her beauty and mostly as an extra. It has to be awaited until he has acted in about fifteen uncredited films, so that eventually he is given small roles in films of little importance.
Photo courtesy of LettMotif Editions
peasant family
Originally from North Carolina in the United States, she began her career in the artistic world at the age of 18. Before that, she was training to be a shorthand typist.
She develops poverty during her childhood. His parents, who had seven children, are farmers who run a tobacco plantation. Her father died during her adolescence, but Ava will say that she had a happy childhood in a united family where she was not lacking in love and without lack of money.
One of his older sisters, Beatrice, lives in New York and is married to a professional photographer. When he visits his sister, photographer Larry Tarr is struck by Ava’s beauty and offers to take pictures. In his eyes, the pictures are so impressive that he exhibits them in the window of his studio. Spectacular twist! An MGM employee will notice them and a whole series of events will follow. She will do a screen test with one of the staff in charge of finding new talent.
Ava never dreamed of a career in cinema, but is willing to do anything to escape her fate as a secretary. She didn’t hesitate for a second to move to Hollywood and take diction classes to break her southern accent, following the recommendations of MGM studios, with whom she signed a contract at $2,500 a year for seven years.
beginning of success
No longer willing to be told that she is only being taken advantage of because of her beauty, she will take private acting lessons. His efforts will bear fruit. She eventually landed major roles in many films over the years. Most notably, it’s the movie Mogambo that sees her sharing the poster with Clark Gable again for gaining credibility and being nominated for an Oscar.
For Ava, her most notable film is The Barefoot Countess in 1954, in which she starred opposite Humphrey Bogart, particularly for the script, which reminds her of her own life as a woman from a poor background who had a remarkable will experience ascension while experiencing disillusionment in love.
One of his biggest commercial successes will be “The Knights of the Round Table”.
Over time, in her biography, we learn that Ava Gardner not only loses her naivety, but also does not allow herself to be dictated to in any way.
Free spirited femme fatale
Although Ava Gardner has never won an Oscar, she knew how to make men walk and will amass amorous conquests. She will publicly say how much she loves men and sex.
In addition to the triple marriage, there is already the actor, director, producer and screenwriter Mickey Rooney, then the clarinetist, musician and American jazz band leader Artie Shaw and none other than the famous singer and actor Frank Sinatra.
But aside from his marriages, we no longer count his romantic relationships. Among them is an important relationship with multi-billionaire Howard Hughes, who did everything he could to marry her, but the affair was so turbulent that Ava always refused. Also among her conquests are actors Howard Duff and Robert Taylor, with whom she starred in the film Vaquero and then The Knights of the Round Table. Also in attendance was actor, director and producer George Scott. While she settled in Spain, she also had a love affair with Prince Alfons von Hohenlohe-Langenburg, among others. His attitude toward men will earn him letters of threats and accusations from many Catholic priests.
career and people
There are certain paradoxes with Ava Gardner. Twice she broke off the conversation, saying she needed to advance her career. According to her account of the facts, clauses in her contracts indicated that she would behave in breach of contract in the event of pregnancy. She obeyed these rules.
On the other hand, when she fell in love, she stopped working and devoted herself body and soul to her love passions. It took up so much space that there was no room to work.
Despite all these men who died and for whom she sacrificed so much, as we learn in this bio, she ended her days alone and died of pneumonia in 1990 at the age of 67.