Ava Gardner Net Worth

Ava Gardner's Quotes

• All I ever got out of any of my marriages was the two years Artie Shaw financed on an analyst's couch.
• I have only one rule in acting--trust the director and give him heart and soul.
• When I lose my temper, honey, you can't find it any place.
• I don't understand people who like to work and talk about it like it was some sort of goddamn duty. Doing nothing feels like floating on warm water to me. Delightful, perfect.
• I must have seen more sunrises than any other actress in the history of Hollywood.

Interesting Facts about Ava Gardner

1. In 1995 she was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#68).
2. Her singing voice in Show Boat (1951) was dubbed by Annette Warren, although her voice is left in on the soundtrack album.
3. Daughter of Jonas Bailey (1878-1938) and Mary Elizabeth Gardner (1883-1943). Both were born, raised, married and died in North Carolina.
4. The youngest of seven children. Her older siblings were Raymond, Melvin ("Jack"), Beatrice ("Bappie"), Elsie Mae, Inez, and Myra.
5. Her early education was sketchy; by 1945 she had read two books, the Bible and "Gone with the Wind." In later life she more than made up for this lack by continual self-education.
6. She sang in her own voice for The Killers (1946) but in all MGM films her singing voice was dubbed (much to her disgust).
7. Flamenco became one of her favorite pastimes after she learned it for The Barefoot Contessa (1954); increasingly proficient and needing little sleep, she often danced all night.
8. In a promotion for The Little Hut (1957), a small island in Fiji was renamed Ava Ava and leased to a contest winner.
9. Under contract at MGM from 1941-58.
10. There is an Ava Gardner Museum of memorabilia in Smithfield, NC. She is buried at Sunset Memorial Park.
11. She spent her final years as a recluse in her London apartment--her only companions were her longtime housekeeper Carmen Vargas and her beloved Welsh Corgi, Morgan. Two strokes in 1986 left her partially paralyzed and bedridden. Although she could easily afford her medical expenses, Frank Sinatra wanted to pay for her to visit a specialist in the US, and she allowed him to make the arrangements for a medically-staffed private plane. Her last words (to her housekeeper Carmen) were, "I'm so tired", before she died of pneumonia at age 67. Vargas took her body home to her native North Carolina for private burial. None of her ex-husbands attended.
12. After her death in 1990, her longtime housekeeper, Carmen Vargas, and her dog, a Welsh Corgi named Morgan, were taken in by her former co-star Gregory Peck.
13. Once met J.R.R. Tolkien and neither knew why the other was famous.
14. Ex-daughter-in-law of Joe Yule (Mickey Rooney's father).
15. Was a good friend of Kathryn Grayson and Lena Horne, despite the fact that Ava and Lena both competed for the part of Julie LaVerne in Show Boat (1951).
16. When shooting Earthquake (1974), she surprised director Mark Robson by insisting that she do her own stuntwork, which included dodging blocks of concrete and heavy steel pipes.
17. A statue of her from The Barefoot Contessa (1954) was given to Frank Sinatra as a gift. He kept it in his backyard garden well after their divorce. When he married Barbara Marx, she forced him to get rid of it.
18. During the first two years of her marriage to Frank Sinatra, he was at the lowest point of his career. She often had to loan him money so he could buy presents for his children. He went broke in 1951, and she had to pay for plane tickets for him so that he could go with her to Africa, where she was shooting Mogambo (1953). This all changed after he won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance in From Here to Eternity (1953).
19. Once named "The World's Most Beautiful Animal" (in a 1950s publicity campaign).
20. Placed #25 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest American female screen legends.