Ava Gardner
Born: 1922-12-24 in Grabtown, North Carolina, USA
Died: 1990-01-25
Known For: Acting
Biography
Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress popular in the 1940s and 1950s. Considered one of the most iconic stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, she was ranked as the 25th greatest female screen legend by the American Film Institute. Initially cast in minor roles, her breakthrough came with the classic film noir The Killers (1946), which established her as a leading lady. Her career flourished in the 1950s with notable performances in films like Mogambo (1953), for which she received an Academy Award nomination, The Barefoot Contessa (1954), and The Night of the Iguana (1964), which earned her a BAFTA nomination. Off-screen, Gardner's personal life and progressive politics attracted significant attention. Her marriages to Mickey Rooney and Artie Shaw were gossiped about, but her tumultuous relationship with Frank Sinatra particularly headlined. Gardner was a strong supporter of racial equality and desegregation, and became a member of the NAACP in 1968. Gardner was a heavy smoker, which deteriorated her health as she grew older. She continued acting in minor roles in the 1980s before she suffered a stroke in 1986 and retired. Gardner moved to Spain and England, where she spent her final years before passing away from bronchopneumonia on January 25, 1990.
Filmography
2023
- Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields as Self (archive footage)
- Kennedy, Sinatra and the Mafia as Self (archive footage)
2022
- Rat Pack as Self (archive footage)
2020
- Beautiful Like a Poem as Self (archive footage)
2018
- Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood as Self (archive footage)
- Ava Gardner, the Gypsy of Hollywood as Self (archive footage)
2017
- Chavela as Self (archive footage)
- Ava Gardner: Life Is Bigger Than the Movies as Self (archive footage)
2015
- Iconic Couples of Hollywood as Self (archive footage)
2013
- Fallout as Self (archive footage)
2010
- Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff as Pandora Reynolds / Maria Vargas (archive footage)
- All Night Long as Self (archive footage)
2009
2006
- De Madrid a la Luna as Self (archive footage)
2003
- Året var 1953 as Self (archive footage)
- Frank Sinatra glömde aldrig Finspång as Self (archive footage)
1998
- Frank Sinatra: The Voice of the Century as Self (archive footage)
1994
- That's Entertainment! III as (archive footage)
1993
- Intimate Portrait as Self
1992
- Legends of the West as Lily Langtry in 'The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean' (archive footage) (uncredited)
1988
- John Huston: The Man, the Movies, the Maverick as Self (archive footage)
1985
- A.D. as Agrippina
- The Long Hot Summer as Minnie Littlejohn
1982
- Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid as (in "The Killers" / "The Bribe") (archive footage)
- Regina Roma as Mama
1981
- Priest of Love as Mabel Dodge Luhan
1980
- The Kidnapping of the President as Beth Richards
1979
- Knots Landing as Ruth Sumner Galveston
- City on Fire as Maggie Grayson
1977
- The Sentinel as Helen Logan
- Kolossal - The Magnificent Macisti as Self - Maria Cayetana, Duchess of Alba (archive footage)
1976
- The Cassandra Crossing as Nicole Dressler
- The Blue Bird as Luxury
1975
- Permission to Kill as Katina Petersen
1974
- Earthquake as Remy Royce-Graff
- That's Entertainment! as (archive footage)
1972
- The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean as Lily Langtry
1970
- The Ballad of Tam Lin as Michaela Cazaret
1968
- Mayerling as Empress Elisabeth of Austria
1966
- The Bible: In the Beginning... as Sarah
1964
- Seven Days in May as Eleanor Holbrook
- The Night of the Iguana as Maxine Faulk
- On the Trail of the Iguana as Self
1963
- 55 Days at Peking as Baroness Natalie Ivanoff
- La Rabbia as Self (archive footage)
1960
- The Angel Wore Red as Soledad
1959
- On the Beach as Moira Davidson
1958
- The Naked Maja as Maria Teresa, duchess of Alba, nicknamed Cayetana
1957
- The Sun Also Rises as Lady Brett Ashley
- The Little Hut as Lady Susan Ashlow
1956
- Bhowani Junction as Victoria Jones
1954
- The Barefoot Contessa as Maria Vargas
1953
- Mogambo as Eloise Y. Kelly
- The Band Wagon as Ava Gardner (uncredited)
- Ride, Vaquero! as Cordelia Cameron
- Knights of the Round Table as Guinevere
1952
- The Snows of Kilimanjaro as Cynthia Green
- Lone Star as Martha Ronda
1951
- Pandora and the Flying Dutchman as Pandora Reynolds
- Show Boat as Julie LaVerne
- My Forbidden Past as Barbara Beaurevel
1950
- What's My Line? as Self
- The Costume Designer as Self (archive footage)
- Screen Actors as Self (uncredited)
1949
- The Great Sinner as Pauline Ostrovsky
- The Bribe as Elizabeth Hintten
- East Side, West Side as Isabel Lorrison
1948
- One Touch of Venus as Venus
1947
- The Hucksters as Jean Ogilvie
- Singapore as Linda Grahame / Ann Van Leyden
1946
- The Killers as Kitty Collins
- Whistle Stop as Mary
1945
- She Went to the Races as Hilda Spotts
- I'm a Civilian Here Myself as Dream Girl (uncredited)
1944
- Twenty Years After as (archive footage)
- 3 Men in White as Jean Brown
- Blonde Fever as Minor Role (uncredited)
- Two Girls and a Sailor as Dream Girl (uncredited)
- Maisie Goes to Reno as Gloria Fullerton
1943
- Swing Fever as Receptionist (uncredited)
- Young Ideas as Co-ed (uncredited)
- Ghosts on the Loose as Betty
- Du Barry Was a Lady as Perfume Girl (uncredited)
- Lost Angel as Hat Check Girl (uncredited)
- Hitler's Madman as Franciska Pritric (uncredited)
1942
- Joe Smith, American as Undetermined Secondary Role (uncredited)
- Reunion in France as Marie, Parisian shopgirl (uncredited)
- Sunday Punch as Ringsider (uncredited)
- Calling Dr. Gillespie as Student (uncredited)
- Kid Glove Killer as Car Hop (uncredited)
- This Time for Keeps as Girl in Car Lighting Cigarette (uncredited)
- Mighty Lak a Goat as Girl at Theatre Boxoffice
- We Do It Because as Lucretia Borgia (uncredited)
1941
- Shadow of the Thin Man as Passerby at Racetrack (uncredited)
- H.M. Pulham, Esq. as Young Socialite (uncredited)
- Fancy Answers as Girl at Recital
- Strange Testament as Waitress (uncredited)