Hollywood icon died virtually penniless in flat despite Frank Sinatra intervention

Legendary Hollywood beauty Ava Gardner left Tinseltown in her mid 40s in 1968 to relocate to London where she would spend the rest of her life until her death in 1990. However far from living in luxury the star resided in a small flat and at one point was so broke she condsidered selling her jewels.

Although she continued to act - her final role was in a 1986 TV movie called Maggie - in the later years of her life, she approached writer Peter Evans to ghostwrite her autobiography. Explaining why she was keen to tell her story she said: "I either write the book or sell the jewels." Sadly for Ava's bank balance, the book never made it to shelves in her lifetime. Her principles won out when she learned Peter had once been sued by her ex-husband and still close friend Frank Sinatra to whom she was married from 1951 until 1957. Her friendship with the author cooled, and he left the project. The book, in a different form, wouldn't see the light of day until after his death in 2012 when his notes and sections of his draft of the autobiography, which he based on their taped conversations, were published in the book Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations.

This financial hiccup came despite her status as one of Hollywood's most glamorous leading ladies.

Roles in movies such as Mogambo, which saw her nominated for an Academy Award, had ensured her status as one of the biggest stars of the era. However during this period, stars were not paid per film and rather were salaried employees of the studio.

Ava also never received any alimony from any of her three husbands, preferring to be finacially independent as she had been since arriving in Hollywood at 18 years of age.

Indeed she once joked she was the only ex-wife her first husband, Mickey Rooney, who she was married to for nine months, from 1942 to 1943, wasn't supporting.

Ava seemed to overcome the financial issue which had pushed her into telling her story and managed to keep her head above water, even paying for her own funeral before her death.

While not totally broke when she died, she was unable to work after suffering a stroke in 1986 which left her partially paralysed.

Ex-husband Frank came to her aid, insisting she visited a certain specialist in Los Angeles and she refused, but Frank was persistent. She relented and allowed him to pay for a medically staffed private jet to fly her to Los Angeles, visit the specialist, and return to London. Despite Frank's generousity it is believed Ava could have paid for the treatment herself at that point in her life.

She died at home from bronchial pneumonia on January 25, 1990 after having a final cigarette and glass of champagne, according to her housekeeper.