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Ava Gardner: Frank Sinatra
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Gardner, Hollywood's reigning glamour queen in the late 1940s and early 1950s, came from North Carolina, one of six children of a poor farmer. She planned to become a secretary, but at age 18 a picture taken by her brother-in-law accidentally landed in MGM's casting department, and the studio signed her. Gardner's career reached its peak in the early 1950s. She was nominated for an Oscar in 1953 for Mogambo, in which she competed with Grace Kelly for Clark Gable's interest. She continued to make film and TV appearances throughout the early 1980s and appeared on the TV series Knots Landing in 1985. Gardner died in 1990 and Sinatra died in 1998.
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The book's subtitle, "Love Is Nothing," is at once deceptive and ironic because what Ava actually said was "love is nothing but a pain." Yet she lived most of her life as if love were everything. Her remark came after the three marriages and a number of affairs had all ended unhappily (though in the case of her third husband, Frank Sinatra, the relationship continued in differing ways until her death). When men said they loved you, she had found, it meant they wanted to possess you, to make you live by their rules. To love, it turned out... meant to ridicule, to exploit, to hurt, to violate (this was particularly true of her affair with George C. Scott, who twice beat her viciously, according to Server).
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After a lifetime of smoking, Gardner suffered from emphysema, in addition to an autoimmune disorder (which may have been lupus). After two strokes in 1986, which left her partially paralyzed and bedridden, Frank Sinatra paid the cost of her ($50,000) medical expenses. Her last words (to her housekeeper Carmen), were, "I'm so tired", before she died of pneumonia at the age of 67. After her death, one of Frank Sinatra's daughters found him slumped in his room, crying, and unable to speak. Ava was not only the love of his life but ... the inspiration for one of his most personal and magical songs, "I Am a Fool to Want You", recorded after their separation. Reportedly, a lone black limousine parked behind the crowd of 500 mourners at Ava's funeral.
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By now Ava was established as big star who appeared in large-budget, Cinemascope, colour productions shot on location with top directors like John Ford, George Cukor and Henry King. Cinema-goers responded by acknowledging that Ava was a more than adequate actress as well as being awesomely beautiful, and Ava became in the mid-1950s a major box-office attraction. However she did not achieve recognition from the critical establishment which continued for the rest of Ava's career to insist that she was merely a glamorous screen presence. They were supported in this by scandal and gossip magazines which delighted in printing stories that Ava was unhappy and was desperately searching for elusive fulfillment. Ignoring the fact that Ava had dumped Sinatra, they wrote routinely that she was pining for him. There were constant references to excessive drinking, although there was no deterioration in her looks to give credibility to such stories.
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After that short-lived union, Gardner quickly moved on to Artie Shaw, husband No. 2, Howard Hughes, Robert Mitchum and assorted flings before falling hard for then-married Frank Sinatra. The tempestuous pair battled and made up countless times, unable to live together for any sustained period. From that storied liaison, the eyes glaze over at the parade of matadors, young hunks and production lackeys in and out of her boudoir.
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Gardner made several movies before 1946, but it wasn't until she starred in The Killers that she became known as a movie star and sex symbol. She was married to Mickey Rooney at 19 years in 1941 (they divorced in 1943), then to Artie Shaw from 1945 to 1946, and to Frank Sinatra from 1951 to 1957. She was regarded as one of the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood.
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