Ava Gardner
Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' attention in 1946 with her performance in Robert Siodmak's film noir The Killers. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in John Ford's Mogambo (1953), and for best actress for both a Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award for her performance in John Huston's The Night of the Iguana (1964). She was a part of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Ava Gardner
January 25, 1990 (aged 67)
Sunset Memorial Park, Smithfield, North Carolina
Actress
1941–1986
Myra Pearce (sister)
During the 1950s, Gardner established herself as a leading lady and one of the era's top stars with films like Show Boat, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (both 1951), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), The Barefoot Contessa (1954), Bhowani Junction (1956) and On the Beach (1959). She continued her film career for three more decades, appearing in the films 55 Days at Peking (1963), Seven Days in May (1964), The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966), Mayerling (1968), The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), Earthquake (1974) and The Cassandra Crossing (1976). And in 1985, she had the major recurring role of Ruth Galveston on the primetime soap opera Knots Landing. She continued to act regularly until 1986, four years before her death in 1990, at the age of 67.
In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Gardner No. 25 on its greatest female screen legends list.[1]
Early life[edit]
Ava Lavinia Gardner was born on December 24, 1922, in Grabtown, North Carolina,[2] the youngest of seven children. She had two older brothers, Raymond Allison (1908–1911) and Jonas Melvin Gardner (1911–1981), and four older sisters, Beatrice Elizabeth Cole (1903–1993), Elsie Mae Creech (1904–1987), Edna Inez Grimes (1906–1981), and Myra Merritt Pearce (1915–2005).[3] Her parents, Mary Elizabeth "Molly" Gardner (née Baker) and Jonas Bailey Gardner, were poor tobacco sharecroppers.[4] She was of English and Scots-Irish ancestry.[5][6][7]
She was raised in the Baptist faith of her mother. While the children were still young, the Gardners lost their property, and Molly received an offer to work as a cook and housekeeper at a dormitory for teachers at the nearby Brogden School that included board for the family and where Jonas continued sharecropping tobacco and supplemented the dwindling work with odd jobs at sawmills.[4] In 1931, the teachers’ school closed, forcing the family to finally give up on their property dreams and move to Newport News, Virginia, where Molly found work managing a boarding house for the city's many shipworkers.[4] While in Newport News, Jonas became ill and died from bronchitis in 1938, when Ava was 15 years old. After her father's death, the family moved to Rock Ridge near Wilson, North Carolina, where Molly ran another boarding house for teachers. Ava attended high school in Rock Ridge and she graduated from there in 1939. She then attended secretarial classes at Atlantic Christian College in Wilson for about a year.[8]
Personal life[edit]
Marriages[edit]
Soon after Gardner arrived in Los Angeles, she met fellow MGM contract player Mickey Rooney; they married on January 10, 1942. The ceremony was held in the remote town of Ballard, California because MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer was worried that fans would desert Rooney's Andy Hardy movie series if it became known that their star was married. Gardner divorced Rooney in 1943, citing mental cruelty;[17] privately blaming his gambling and womanizing, she didn't ruin his on-screen image as the clean-cut, judge's son Andy Hardy that the public adored.[18][19]
Gardner's second marriage was equally brief, to jazz musician and bandleader Artie Shaw, from 1945 to 1946. Shaw previously had been married to Lana Turner. Gardner's third and last marriage was to singer and actor Frank Sinatra from 1951 to 1957. She later said in her autobiography that he was the love of her life. Sinatra left his wife Nancy for Gardner, and their marriage made headlines.[20]
Accolades[edit]
Gardner was nominated for an Academy Award for Mogambo (1953); the award was won by Audrey Hepburn for Roman Holiday. Her performance as Maxine Faulk in The Night of the Iguana (1964) was well reviewed, and she was nominated for a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe. Additionally, Ava Gardner won the Silver Shell for Best Actress at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in 1964 for her performance in The Night of the Iguana.[47]
Gardner in The Killers (1946)
Gardner as Cynthia Green in The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)
Studio publicity photo approx. 1952–54
Mogambo (1953) cast with (L-R) Donald Sinden, Grace Kelly, Clark Gable, Denis O'Dea, Gardner and Philip Stainton
