A month before she passed away in 1990, Ava Gardner received a heartfelt magazine clipping and note from her dear friend Gregory Peck. “You are always on our minds. Try hard to get better,” Gregory wrote to her from Beverly Hills, signing off with love. This simple yet profound gesture encapsulated the deep bond the two legendary actors shared for nearly half a century.
A Lifelong Bond Forged in Hollywood
Gregory and Ava first crossed paths in 1948, a year that would mark the beginning of an enduring friendship. They starred together in three films and became what author Lynn Haney Trowbridge, who penned Gregory Peck: A Charmed Life, described as “great old pals.” Their connection ran deeper than the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. “He was someone she could really be herself with,” Trowbridge told Closer. “She didn’t have to put on a front. She could just be a small-town girl from North Carolina.”
From Humble Beginnings to Hollywood Legends
Despite their illustrious careers, both Gregory and Ava carried the weight of humble beginnings. Gregory grew up in California, bouncing between his divorced parents after they split when he was just six years old. To make ends meet during college, he worked as a janitor. On the other hand, Ava hailed from a sharecropping family in North Carolina and was the youngest of seven children. Her life took a dramatic turn at the age of 15 when her father passed away, leaving her mother to run a boarding house to support the family.
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When the two met at a Look magazine party in 1948, neither had yet reached the pinnacle of their careers. Gregory, who was married to his first wife, Greta, at the time, recalled their meeting fondly. “It was like we were young people from the same hometown,” he once said. “We struck up an immediate friendship. Ava was outspoken, and there was something refreshing about that.”
Collaborations That Defined Their Careers
Their first collaboration came soon after their initial meeting in the film The Great Sinner. On set, Gregory recognized Ava’s immense potential and encouraged her to believe in her talent. “He tried to encourage her to believe in her talent and work at it,” recalled Ava’s housekeeper Mearene Jordan in her book, Living With Miss G.
Three years later, the duo reunited for The Snows of Kilimanjaro, a film based on the iconic Ernest Hemingway short story. Ava delivered one of her finest performances in this movie. Gregory couldn’t help but gush about her growth as an actress. “She did things in Kilimanjaro that she could not have done three years earlier,” he praised.
A Friendship That Withstood the Test of Time
By the time they filmed On the Beach in 1959, Ava had formed a close bond with Gregory’s second wife, Veronique. The couple rented a home in Australia during the production that became a hub for the film’s cast, including Ava, Fred Astaire, and Anthony Perkins. Making the post-apocalyptic film was physically demanding, but Gregory admired Ava’s resilience. “There would be thousands of flies crawling on Ava’s forehead and in her hair,” he remembered. “She took it like a trouper, and we just kept plugging away.”
In the last three decades of her life, Ava lived primarily in London but stayed in touch with Gregory and Veronique. When she passed away from pneumonia at the age of 67, the couple adopted her beloved corgi, Morgan, and even hired her housekeeper to work for them. Gregory fondly remembered his dear friend, saying, “She was much better than she thought she was. She had no vanity about her talent. She did nothing that lowered her standards as an actress or as a lady.”
