AQUANETTA Aquanetta was a B-rated movie actress (born as Mildred Davenport) in Ozone, Wyoming in 1921. She was nicknamed the "Venezualan Volcano" by Universal Studios. She starred in Tarzan and the Leopard Woman (1946). Acquanetta also had small parts in Arabian Nights (1942), Jungle Woman (1944), Dead Man's Eyes (1944), Lost Continent (1951) and The Legend of Grizzly Adams (1990). In the 1950s, she moved to Phoenix and married the owner of a local Phoenix car dealership. She achieved local celebrity status with numerous ads for their dealership. She also had her own TV program, "Acqua's Corner", that accompanied the Friday Night Movies. Acquinetta also authored a book in 1974 called "The Audible Silence". This well-written poetry book is about life, love, and Indian jewelry (she was of Arapaho decent). She was often seen in her trademark long black braids and beautiful silver & turquoise jewelry. Acquinetta used her celebrity and charming personality to support/raise money for a number of cultural groups and charities including: Mesa Lutheran Hospital, the Heard Museum, the Phoenix Indian School, Stagebrush Theatre, and the Phoenix Symphony.

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 Abandoned her film career after her marriage to car dealer Jack Ross in the late 1950s. They settled in Mesa, AZ, where she appeared quite frequently in her husband's local dealership commercials on TV. They divorced in the 1980s.

Appeared in an impressive three-page spread in the 24 August 1942 issue of Life magazine.

Interviewed in Tom Weaver's book, "Science Fiction Stars and Horror Heroes" (McFarland & Co., 1991).

Although Universal Pictures tried to present her as an exotic Hispanic, naming her "The Venezuelan Volcano", she was actually born near Cheyenne, Wyoming. Her mother was an Arapaho Indian and her father was white.

Claimed that her father's grandfather "was the illegitimate son of the King of England".

She passed away of Alzheimer's complications in Ahwatukee, Arizona on August 16, 2004 at the age of 83. She leaves behind four sons who adored her: Jack Ross Jr. 45, Lance Ross 50, Tom Ross 47 and Rex Ross 43. She is also survived by her brother, Horace Davenport, 85, a retired Pennsylvania judge.

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Filmography
 1990 The Legend of Grizzly Adams
 1953 Take the High Ground!
Bar Girl (uncredited)
 1951 Callaway Went Thataway
Native Girl with Smoky (uncredited)
 1951 Lost Continent
Native Girl
 1951 The Sword of Monte Cristo
Felice
 1946 Tarzan and the Leopard Woman
Lea, the High Priestess
 1944 Dead Man's Eyes
Tanya Czoraki
 1944 Jungle Woman
Paula Dupree - the Ape Woman
 1943 Captive Wild Woman
Paula Dupree
 1943 Rhythm of the Islands
Luani (as Burnu Acquanetta)
 1942 Arabian Nights
Ishya (uncredited)

Ref: IMDB

AQUANETTA Acquanetta (July 17, 1921 – August 16, 2004), nicknamed "The Venezuelan Volcano," was a B-movie actress known for her exotic beauty.

Early years
The facts of Acquanetta's origins are not known with certainty. Although accounts differ (some giving her birth-name as Mildred Davenport, from Norristown, PA), Acquanetta claimed she was born Burnu Acquanetta, meaning “Burning Fire/Deep Water”, in Ozone, Wyoming. Orphaned from her Arapaho parents when she was two, she lived briefly with another family before being taken in by an artistic couple with whom she remained until she made the choice to live independently at the age of fifteen. Other accounts suggest her ethnicity was African American; her career was followed closely by the African American press.
According to the 1940 US Census, she had 5 siblings, including a sister, Kathryn Davenport, and a brother, Horace Davenport, who was, according to the Pennsylvania Bar Association, "the first African-American judge in Montgomery County."

Film career
Acquanetta started her career as a model in New York City[2][5] with Harry Conover and John Robert Powers. She signed with Universal Studios in 1942 and acted mostly in B-movies, including Arabian Nights, The Sword of Monte Cristo, Captive Wild Woman and Jungle Woman, in which Universal attempted to create a female monster movie franchise with Acquanetta as an ape.
After her contract with Universal expired, Acquanetta signed on with Monogram Pictures but did not appear in any movies; she then signed with RKO where she acted in her only big-budget movie, Tarzan and the Leopard Woman.

Personal life
In 1948, Acquanetta and “Mexican-Jewish millionaire” Luciano Bashuk had a son, Sergio, who died in 1952 at age 4, after the couple's bitter divorce in 1950, where she lost her suit for half his fortune when no record of their marriage could be produced.
In 1950, Acquanetta married painter and illustrator Henry Clive and returned to acting.

She retired from movies and became a disk jockey for radio station KPOL (AM) in Los Angeles in 1953. After she married Jack Ross, a car dealer who ran for governor of Arizona in 1970 and 1974, the couple settled in Mesa, Arizona, and she returned to a degree of celebrity by appearing with Ross in his local television advertisements, and also by hosting a local television show called Acqua's Corner that accompanied the Friday late-night movies. The couple were prominent citizens, donating to the Phoenix Symphony and the construction of Mesa Lutheran Hospital and founding Stagebrush Theatre. She and Ross had four children, and divorced in the 1980s. In 1987, Acquanetta sold the Mesa Grande ruins to the city of Mesa.

Acquanetta also wrote a book of poetry, The Audible Silence, illustrated by Emilie Touraine (Flagstaff, Arizona): Northland Press, 1974. She did not smoke, and did not drink alcohol, tea, or coffee.

In 1987, the all-girl band The Aquanettas adopted (and adapted) their name from hers.

Acquanetta succumbed to complications of Alzheimer's disease on August 16, 2004, at Hawthorn Court in Ahwatukee, Arizona. She was 83.

An apocryphal Phoenix legend has Acquanetta, upon learning of her husband's infidelity, filling the interior of his Lincoln Continental convertible with concrete.

Reference: Wikipedia