Jewel roles

As jewellery show All That Glitters brings bling to the BBC. MARION MCMULLEN looks at the sparkling days of Hollywood glamour

1961

Cast in stone: Breakfast At Tiffany’s saw Audrey Hepburn as the charismatic, tiara-wearing Holly Golightly. Holly insisted: “You could always tell what kind of person a man thinks you are by the earrings he gives you.”

1944

Sparkling wit: Ava Gardner’s beauty and humour made her one Hollywood’s most desirable women. She was married to Mickey Rooney, Frank Sinatra and Artie Shaw and once said: “Deep down, I’m pretty superficial.”

1955

Glam rocks: American star Rita Hayworth was born Margarita Carmen Cansino. She found fame in movies like Gilda and Pal Joey and said: “I like having my picture taken and being a glamorous person”

1967

Think big: Oscar-winning movie star Elizabeth had one of Hollywood’s biggest jewellery collections. She attended this social function wearing an elaborate headdress of pearls, a bejewelled dress and an emerald necklace. She once declared “Big girls need big diamonds.”

1945

Pearls of wisdom: Gone With The Wind star Dame Olivia de Havilland opted for pearls when she posed for this studio portrait. The silver screen legend passed away in France two years ago at the age of 104.

1955

Diamonds are forever: Hungarian star Zsa Zsa Gabor married nine times and said: “I have never hated a man enough to give his diamonds back.”

1951

Jewel in the crown: One of Grace Kelly’s last movies before her marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco was Alfred Hitchcock’s jewellery heist movie To Catch A Thief, opposite Cary Grant. Her character teases “Diamonds ... the only thing in the world you can’t resist”.

1953

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend:

Marilyn Monroe sang about a love of gems in the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes . She once said: “We are all of us stars and we all deserve to twinkle.”