Ava Gardner
Hailing from South Carolina, Ava Gardner had a southern accent, which MGM apparently thought was incomprehensible at the time! Regardless, they still signed her, and after she worked for five years, her big break finally came when she starred in The Killers, a 1946 noir film. This started her rise to stardom, and she went on to have an impressive career in show business spanning fifty years. However, her smoking habit began catching up with her in the ‘80s and in 1986, she suffered emphysema and stroke, which eventually left her paralyzed. She died of pneumonia in 1990.
Ava Gardner
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