Ava Lavinia Gardner was born on December 24, 1922 in Grabtown, North Carolina. She was the youngest of six children of Mary Elizabeth and Jonas Gardner, an impoverished cotton and tobacco farmer. Gardner’s father lost his farm when she was two, and the family moved to Newport News, Virginia, where he worked in a sawmill and her mother ran a boarding house.
At age 18 went to New York City, where she took a screen test. Her extraordinary beauty won her a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios.
In Hollywood she received acting and diction lessons while playing bit roles in a score of minor motion pictures in the 1940s.
Her first important role was opposite Burt Lancaster in The Killers (1946), and she went on to starring roles in such films as The Hucksters (1947), One Touch of Venus (1948), Show Boat (1951), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), and The Barefoot Contessa (1954). Her husky voice and seductive personal presence had made her one of the best-known American actresses by the early 1950s...(scroll down).
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- Name: Ava Gardner
- Birth name: Ava Lavinia Gardner
- Profession: Actress
- Date of Birth: 24 December 1922
- Place of Birth: Grabtown, North Carolina, USA
- Height: 5' 6" (1.68 m)
- Spouses:
Frank Sinatra (7 November 1951 - 5 July 1957) (divorced)
Artie Shaw (17 October 1945 - 25 October 1946) (divorced)
Mickey Rooney (10 January 1942 - 21 May 1943) (divorced)
- Died: 25 January 1990
- Place of Death: Westminster, London, England, UK. (bronchial pneumonia)
- Interred: Smithfield, North Carolina in the Gardner family plot
"Deep down, I'm pretty superficial"
- AVA GARDNER
BIOGRAPHY: FRAGMENTS FROM A LIFE
But Gardner was not content to be typecast as a "sex symbol," and her sensitive characterizations in such pictures as Mogambo (1953), Bhowani Junction (1956), On the Beach (1959), and The Night of the Iguana (1964) received critical praise. She was nominated for an Academy Award in 1953 for her performance opposite Clark Gable in Mogambo. Gardner left Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1958 and became an independent actress. She continued to appear in films through the 1960s and '70s, though usually in less-important roles than before. Gardner's typical screen persona was that of an earthy, free-spirited, and irreverent woman of the world. In 1968, Ava moved to London, where she would live for the rest of her life. Ava had suffered a couple of strokes which did slow her down somewhat but not for her zest for life. She continued to work on her autobiography entitled Ava, My Story, which was concluded before she died in London, on January 25, 1990 of pneumonia at the age of 67. She never got to see the book in final print. Ava was laid to rest in Smithfield, North Carolina in the Gardner family plot. An Ava Gardner Museum is located there.
She was married three times, to the actor Mickey Rooney, the bandleader Artie Shaw, and the singer Frank Sinatra.
Pandora & the Flying Dutchman Review/Gallery
It's Ava, It's Awesome ... It's Here - Ava Gardner Wall of Film Posters
Mogambo
Ava Gardner Dvds|Books @ Amazon.com
| Ava Gardner Posters | Photos
Ava Gardner autographs, photographs and more @ ebay.com (direct link to photographs) - just checked and a bigger selection than i have seen everywhere else
Filmography
F I L M & T V
- Harem (1986) (TV) .... Kadin
- Knots Landing (1979) TV Series .... Ruth Galveston (1985)
- Long Hot Summer, The (1985) (TV) .... Minnie Littlejohn
- A.D. (1985) (mini) TV Series .... Agrippina
... aka A.D. - Anno Domini (1985) (mini) - Regina Roma (1982) .... Mama
... aka Regina (1982) (USA: video title) - Priest of Love (1981) .... Mabel Dodge Luhan
- Kidnapping of the President, The (1980) .... Beth Richards
- City on Fire (1979) .... Maggie Grayson
- Sentinel, The (1977) .... Miss Logan
- Cassandra Crossing, The (1976) .... Nicole Dressler
... aka Cassandra Crossing (1976) (Italy) (West Germany)
... aka Treffpunkt Todesbrücke (1977) (West Germany) - Blue Bird, The (1976) .... Luxury
... aka Sinyaya ptitsa (1976) (Soviet Union: Russian title) - Permission to Kill (1975) .... Katina Petersen
... aka Executioner, The (1975/I) (USA) - Earthquake (1974) .... Remy Royce-Graff
- Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, The (1972) .... Lily Langtry
- Tam Lin (1970) .... Michaela Cazaret
... aka Ballad of Tam-Lin, The (1970)
... aka Devil's Widow, The (1972) (USA)
... aka Devil's Woman, The (1970)
- Mayerling (1968) .... Empress Elizabeth
- Bibbia, La (1966) .... Sarah
... aka Bible, The (1966) (USA)
... aka Bible... In the Beginning, The (1966) (USA) - Night of the Iguana, The (1964) .... Maxine Faulk
- Seven Days in May (1964) .... Eleanor 'Ellie' Holbrook
- 55 Days at Peking (1963) .... Baroness Natalie Ivanoff
- Angel Wore Red, The (1960) .... Soledad
... aka Sposa bella, La (1960) (Italy) - On the Beach (1959) .... Moira Davidson
- Naked Maja, The (1959) .... Duchess of Alba
... aka Maja desnuda, La (1959) (Italy) - Sun Also Rises, The (1957) .... Lady Brett Ashley
- Little Hut, The (1957) .... Lady Susan Ashlow
- Bhowani Junction (1956) .... Victoria Jones
- Barefoot Contessa, The (1954) .... Maria Vargas
... aka Contessa scalza, La (1954) (Italy) - Knights of the Round Table (1953) .... Queen Guinevere
- Mogambo (1953) .... Eloise Y. 'Honey Bear' Kelly
- Ride, Vaquero! (1953) .... Cordelia Cameron
- Snows of Kilimanjaro, The (1952) .... Cynthia Green
... aka Ernest Hemingway's The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) (USA: complete title) - Lone Star (1952) .... Martha Ronda
- Show Boat (1951) .... Julie LaVerne
- My Forbidden Past (1951) .... Barbara Beaurevel
... aka Carriage Entrance (1951) (USA) - Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951) .... Pandora Reynolds
- East Side, West Side (1949) .... Isabel Lorrison
- Great Sinner, The (1949) .... Pauline Ostrovsky
- Bribe, The (1949) .... Elizabeth Hintten
- One Touch of Venus (1948) .... Venus, Goddess of Love/Venus Jones
- Hucksters, The (1947) .... Jean Ogilvie
- Singapore (1947) .... Linda Grahame/Ann Van Leyden
- Killers, The (1946) .... Kitty Collins
... aka Ernest Hemingway's The Killers (1946) (USA: complete title)
... aka Man Alone, A (1946) - Whistle Stop (1946) .... Mary
- She Went to the Races (1945) .... Hilda Spotts
- Three Men in White (1944) .... Jean Brown
- Music for Millions (1944) (uncredited) .... Musician
- Blonde Fever (1944) (uncredited) .... Bit Part
- Maisie Goes to Reno (1944) .... Gloria Fullerton
... aka You Can't Do That to Me (1944) (UK) - Two Girls and a Sailor (1944) (uncredited) .... Rockette with Pvt. Adams
- Lost Angel (1943) (uncredited) .... Hat Check Girl
- Swing Fever (1943) (uncredited) .... Receptionist
... aka Right About Face (1943) (USA) - Du Barry Was a Lady (1943) (uncredited) .... Vargas Calendar Girl
- Young Ideas (1943) (uncredited) .... Bit Part
- Ghosts on the Loose (1943) .... Betty Williams Gibson
... aka East Side Kids Meet Bela Lugosi, The (1943)
... aka Ghosts in the Night (1943) (UK) - Hitler's Madman (1943) (uncredited) .... Franciska Pritric a Student
... aka Hitler's Hangman (1943) - Pilot #5 (1943) (uncredited) .... Bit Part
... aka Pilot No. 5 (1943) - Reunion in France (1942) (uncredited) .... Marie (salesgirl)
... aka Mademoiselle France (1943) (UK)
... aka Reunion (1942) - Sunday Punch (1942) (uncredited) .... Ringsider
- Mighty Lak a Goat (1942) .... Girl at the Bijou box office
- Calling Dr. Gillespie (1942) (uncredited) .... Graduating Student at Miss Hope's
- Kid Glove Killer (1942) (uncredited) .... Car Hop
- We Were Dancing (1942) (uncredited) .... Bit Part
- This Time for Keeps (1942) (uncredited) .... Girl in Car lighting Cigarette
... aka Over the Waves (1942) (USA: TV title) - We Do It Because... (1942) (uncredited) .... Girl at Party
- H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941) (uncredited) .... Young Socialite
- Fancy Answers (1941) (uncredited) .... Girl at Recital
... aka Fancy Answers: What's Your I.Q. - No. 5 (1941) (USA: complete title)
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