Ava et Elizabeth

Elizabeth Taylor photographed in 1956.

"Sometimes she would do a scene particularly well. I would thank her and she would fall in my arms and say, 'Christ, you know I can't act.' And I'd say, 'What is it then? It's just as good as acting.' But she never believed me... Ava is like Marilyn. She's really frightened. She would cry a lot, she had no confidence in herself, she felt she couldn't act, she had no home, no base, no family, she missed them terribly, she felt she'd missed out in life. It was hard to believe her unhappiness. When you looked at her, even then, she was...the most beautiful human being in the world." — Nunnally Johnson, who directed Ava in "The Angel Wore Red" (1960). Photo of Ava is a still from the film.

“Elizabeth didn’t know the meaning of fear.” – Kathy Ireland Photo by Roddy McDowall c. 1964.

Elizabeth Taylor at her fourth wedding (tonEddie Fisher) in Las Vegas, 1959. Photo by Bob Willoughby.

Ava Gardner, actual Goddess, photographed without makeup.

Ava Gardner photographed by Norman Parkinson for Vogue, 1953. The photos in this shoot were taken at the castle in Tossa de Mar, Spain.

Ava Gardner, Number 1 Swooner. ⚾️

Elizabeth Taylor photographed by David Steen in her dressing room at Elstree Studios in England during the filming of "The V.I.P.s" (1963). She is wearing her Bvlgari emerald-and-diamonds earrings which were a gift from Richard while they were in Rome filming Cleopatra. Photo © David Steen.

Ava Gardner in Seville, Spain, at Rancho el Rocío. In the photo on the right, she is talking to Rafael Peralta. 1957.

Elizabeth Taylor at the David di Donatello Awards in Rome, 1962. Photo by Elio Sorci.

Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra on their honeymoon at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba in Havana, 1951.

'In London she was setting out to make a new life. To make a new Ava Gardner. In departing from Spain she had wanted to leave behind the furies that had directed her behavior for so long. "By that time in her life she was really very tired of stardom," said Spoli Mills, Ava's close friend for the last 30 years of her life. "It had overwhelmed her. She started out a very shy person and a lot of what had happened to her she found very embarrassing. When she came to London she really just wanted to become a normal person again. An anonymous person. She wanted to walk down the street and not be bothered. She wanted peace. She didn't want to think about being beautiful, about having to live up to that legend. She wanted to walk her dog in the park and not give a damn about how she looked." — Love Is Nothing by Lee Server.

16-year-old in her hometown of London, 1948.