I think I’d known, long ago, about Ava Gardner being a corgi devotee, but it was so cool to see her with hers in these pics from Architectural Digest (via AppleNews)!

1. A lifelong love of corgis

When (Frank) Sinatra gifted Gardner a Pembroke Welsh corgi for her birthday, the Killers actress developed a lifelong affection for the breed and kept one by her side for the rest of her years. The corgi pictured here in 1952 was Rags, the dog given to her by her then husband. Over the years, Rags was succeeded by another corgi of the same name, followed by Cara and, finally, Morgan. Morgan outlived Gardner and was taken in by her close friend Gregory Peck after the star’s death in 1990.

2. London calling

Gardner is shown here in London taking a stroll with her Welsh corgi, Morgan. The actor moved to the city a year before this 1969 snap following a tax dispute with the Spanish government. Gardner felt comfortable in London because neither the press nor the citizens ever hounded her while walking the streets. “If Spain hadn’t gotten in the way,” she wrote in her memoir, “I might have moved there first.” Her Knightsbridge flat was her home base for 22 years. The dwelling’s floor-to-ceiling French doors, which opened onto a balcony overlooking the garden square, were here favorite feature. “Morgan uses one of them as his office,” she explained in her memoir, “barking salutations at everyone who passes by.””

\[Excerpts from “Ava Gardner at Home: The Golden Age It-Girl’s Off-Set Life in 10 Photos” by Michelle Duncan\]

Ava Gardner and her corgis