This Is How Much Ava Gardner Was Worth When She Died
Gardner's beauty cinched the MGM contract. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, studio head Louis B. Meyer reportedly said, "she can't act. She can't talk. She's terrific. Sign her." Gardner had a thick North Carolina drawl and didn't immediately strike anyone as a glamorous actress.
MGM tutored her in acting, poise, and elocution. The studio started her out in bit parts, mostly as eye candy. After five years as a glorified extra, Gardner starred in The Killers in 1946. Soon, she started being cast in other movies, including The Barefoot Contessa, in which she co-starred with Humphrey Bogart, and Mogambo, with Clark Gable. That film earned her an Academy Award nomination in 1953. Two years later she was nominated for a Golden Globe for The Night of the Iguana.
While she was gaining accolades and box office successes for her films, people were more interested in Gardner's love life. She married Mickey Rooney shortly after she moved to Hollywood. The two divorced after Gardner claimed Rooney had been unfaithful and "mentally cruel" to her. She also married bandleader Artie Shaw. Gardner was also linked romantically with Howard Hughes and Ernest Hemingway.
But it Gardner's marriage to Frank Sinatra that fascinated people. Their relationship was tumultuous. Sinatra left his wife for Gardner, but the two kept fighting and frequently broke up. They finally divorced in 1957. Their relationship remains one of the most enduring stories in Hollywood.
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