Ava Gardner Biography

Ava Gardner (born December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress.

Ava Lavinia Gardner was born in the small farming community of Brogden, Johnston County, North Carolina, the last of seven children of poor tobacco farmers; her mother was a Baptist of Scottish descent, while her father, Jonas Bailey Gardner, was an Irish Catholic.

Ava Gardner made several movies before 1946, but it wasn't until she starred in The Killers that she became known as a s-- symbol and hot movie star. She was married to Mickey Rooney when she was only 19 years old in 1941 (they divorced in 1943), then to Artie Shaw from 1945 to 1946, and to Frank Sinatra from 1951 to 1957. She was said to be the "true love" of Sinatra. She was also regarded as one of the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood. She also had affairs with the Spanish bullfighters Luis Miguel Dominguin and Mario Cabré, industrialist Howard Hughes, and actor George C. Scott, in the mid-1960s.

Ava Gardner was nominated for an Oscar for 1953's Mogambo. She lost to Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday. Many thought Gardner's greatest performance was as Maxine Faulk in The Night of the Iguana, for which she was not even nominated. Grayson Hall, as the hysterical Miss Judith Fellowes, however, was nominated, albeit in the best supporting actress category.

Gardner also had a recurring role as Ruth Galveston on the television series Knots Landing (1985).

After a stroke in 1989, which left Ava Gardner partially paralyzed and bedridden, Frank Sinatra paid all her medical expenses. She died of pneumonia in London, England at the age of 67 in 1990.

Ava Gardner is interred in the Sunset Memorial Park, Smithfield, North Carolina; the town of Smithfield now has an Ava Gardner Museum.

Ava Gardner is portrayed by Kate Beckinsale in The Aviator (2004), a film by Martin Scorsese about Howard Hughes. In the 1998 Movie "The Rat Pack" she was portrayed by Deborah Kara Unger.

Trivia

Ava Gardner is known to have convinced Mercedes Benz, through mishap, to re-design the 300SL "Gullwing"'s doors as more conventional swing-outs in 1962, after she rolled hers, and could not exit.
Ava Gardner met author J.R.R. Tolkien at Oxford University in November 1964. Neither was aware of the fame of the other.
Ava Gardner publically admitted to having had an abortion.

Film List

Fancy Answers (1941) (short subject)
H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941)
Sunday Punch (1942)
We Do It Because- (1942) (short subject)
This Time for Keeps (1942)
Kid Glove Killer (1942)
Calling Dr. Gillespie (1942)
Mighty Lak a Goat (1942) (short subject)
Reunion in France (1942)
Pilot #5 (1943)
Hitler's Madman (1943)
Ghosts on the Loose (1943)
Young Ideas (1943)
Du Barry Was a Lady (1943)
Swing Fever (1943)
Lost Angel (1943)
Three Men in White (1944)
Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)
Maisie Goes to Reno (1944)
Blonde Fever (1944)
Music for Millions (1944)
She Went to the Races (1945)
Whistle Stop (1946)
The Killers (1946)
Singapore (1947)
The Hucksters (1947)
One Touch of Venus (1948)
The Bribe (1949)
The Great Sinner (1949)
East Side, West Side (1949)
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951)
My Forbidden Past (1951)
Show Boat (1951)
Lone Star (1952)
The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)
Knights of the Round Table (1953)
Ride, Vaquero! (1953)
The Band Wagon (1953) (cameo)
Mogambo (1953)
The Barefoot Contessa (1954)
Bhowani Junction (1956)
The Little Hut (1957)
The Sun Also Rises (1957)
The Naked Maja (1959)
On the Beach (1959)
The Angel Wore Red (1960)
55 Days at Peking (1963)
On the Trail of the Iguana (1964) (short subject)
Seven Days in May (1964)
The Night of the Iguana (1964)
The Bible (1966)
Vienna: The Years Remembered (1968) (short subject)
Mayerling (1968)
Tam Lin (1970)
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)
Earthquake (1974)
Permission to Kill (1975)
The Blue Bird (1976)
The Cassandra Crossing (1976)
The Sentinel (1977)
City on Fire (1979)
The Kidnapping of the President (1980)
Priest of Love (1981)
Regina Roma (1982)