A farm girl from Grabtown, North Carolina, with the poise and presence of Nefertiti, Ava Gardner was dubbed “the World’s Most Beautiful Animal” by the press, and few doubted it. After a tumultuous marriage to Frank Sinatra—her third; Mickey Rooney and Artie Shaw were her first two husbands, respectively—she left Hollywood at the height of her fame, tore through Madrid like a wildfire, and settled sedately in London, a star and a dame to the end. She would have turned 99 this past week.
