Leading Ladies Ava Gardiner
Per Quinlan's Film Stars:
Srrikingly beautiful, green eyed brunette American actress, built by M G M into their last great sex symbol. She remained best as characters whose passionate natures ruled their destinies, but was also good at expressing cynicism and world weariness.
Ava Lavinia Gardner was born at Grabtown, NY in 1922. She was born on a tobacco farm in the rural South where she got her lifelong love of earthy language and going barefoot, Her parents, Jonas bailey and Mary Elizabeth Gardiner were poor cotton and tobacco farmers. She was the youngest of seven children ( two boys and seven girls). Her only documented ancestry was English.
She was visiting her sister Beatrice Tarr in New York in 1941, when Bernice's husband Larry, a professional photographer, took her picture. he was so pleased with the results that he displayed it in the window of his shop..
A Lowe's Theater legal clerk spotted the picture and said that the picture should be sent in to M G M. The Tarr's so did and she went to to an interview while she was still enrolled at Atlantic Christian College to the New York office of M G M. She met with Al Altman and afterwards was offered a standard contract. She left school for Hollywood in 1941 with her first order of business to provide her with a speech coach to remove her Carolina drawl.
With zero based acting experience her roles in her first 17 films were either one liners or bit parts.
In 1946 she made her starring debut in a "B" film called Whistle Stop.
The role that drew attention to her was in 1946 as Kitty Collins in The Killers.
Ms Gardiner starred in several high profile films from the 1950's to the 1970's such as Show Boat, The Snows Of Kilimanjaro, Bhowani Junctions, On The Beach and The Night Of The Iguana among others.
She was nominated for an Oscar as Best Actress for her work in the film Mogambo.
She is listed 25th among the American Film Institute's 25 Greatest Female Stars of Classic Hollywood.
Some of the film roles of Ava Gardiner were:
Shadow Of The Thin Man (1941) as Passerby At Racetrack
Hitler's Madman (1943) as Franciska Patric
Ghosts On The Loose (1943) as Betty
3 Men In White (1944) as Jean Brown
Maisie Goes To Rio (1944) as Gloria Fullerton
She Went To The Races (1945) as Hilda Spotts
Whistle Stop (1946) asMary
The Killers (1946) as Kitty Collins
The Hucksters (1947) as Jean Oglivie
Singapore (1947( as Linda Grahame/Ann Van Leydon
One Touch Of Venue (1948) as Venus
The Bribe (1949) as Elizabeth Hintten
The Great Sinner (1949) as Pauline Ostrovsky
East Side, West Side (1949) as Isabel Lorrison
Pandora And The Flying Dutchman (1951) as Pandora Reynolds
My Forbidden Past (1951) as Barbara Beaurevel
Show Boat (1951) as Julie LeVerne
Lone Star (1951) as Martha Rhonda
The Snows Of Kilimanjaro (1952) as Cynthia Green
Ride, Vaquero (1953) as Cordelia Cameron
Mogambo (1953) as Eliose Kelly
Knights Of The Round Table (1953) as Guinivere
The Barefoot Contessa (1954) as Maria Vargas
Bhowani Junction (1956) as Victoria Jones
The Little Hut (1957) as Lady Susan Ashlow
The Sun Also Rises (1957) as Lady Brett Ashley
The Naked Maja (1958) as Maria Cayentana, Duchess Of Alba
On The Beach (1959) as Moira Davidson
The Angel Wore Red (1960) as Soledad
55 Days At Peking (1963) as Baroness Natalie Ivanoff
Seven Days In May (1964) as Eleanor Holbrook
The Night Of The Iguana (1964) as Maxine Faulk
The Bible: In The Beginning..... (1966) as Sarah
Mayerling (1968) as Empress Elizabeth
The Devil's Widow (1970) as Micahela Cazaret
The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean (1972) as Lily Langtry
Earthquake (1974) as Remy
The Executioner (1975) as Katina Peterson
The Blue Bird (1976) as Luxury
The Cassandra Crossing (1976) as Nicole Dressler
The Sentinel (1977) as Miss Logan
City On Fire (1979) as Maggie Grayson
The Kidnapping Of The President (1980) as Beth Richards
Priest Of Love (1981) as Mabel Dodge Luhan
Regina Roma (1982) as Mama
A. D. (1985-TV Miniseries ) as Agrippina
The Long Hot Summer (1985-TV) as Minnie Littlejohn
Harem (1986-TV) as Kadin
Maggie (1986-TV) as Diane Webb
Ms. Gardiner appeared on TV for seven episodes of Knots Landing as Ruth Sumner Galveston in 1985
She was married and divorced three times. Her husbands included band leader Artie Shaw and actor Mickey Rooney.
Ava Gardiner passed away in 1990 from bronchial pnuemonia.
Ms. Gardiner was quite a looker and I enjoyed her best in the films Show Boat, Lone Star, Mogambo, Bhowani Junction, Earthquake, The Sun Also Rises, The Snows Of Kilimanjaro, Ride Vacquero and The Long Hot Summer (TV).
Louie The Movie Buff