History Creator / AvaGardner

!!Ava Gardner in fiction

Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was one of the most famous actresses of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood. She was well known for her arresting beauty and glamour, playing {{femme fatale}}s and other stylishly beautiful women.

Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was one of the most famous actors of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood. She was well known for her arresting beauty and glamour, playing {{femme fatale}}s and other stylishly beautiful women.

Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was one of the most famous actresses of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood. She was well known for her arresting beauty and glamour, playing {{femme fatale}}s and other stylishly beautiful women.

Five years of mostly bit parts went by before Gardner's big break playing Kitty the FemmeFatale in groundbreaking FilmNoir ''Film/TheKillers''. This StarMakingRole propelled her to a run of hits in the late 1940s and 1950s in which she played various incarnations of beauty and class. In 1953 Gardner, usually considered more of a "movie star" as opposed to a great dramatic actress, got an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nomination for her part in ''Film/{{Mogambo}}''.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ava_gardner.jpg]]

* She's played by Creator/KateBeckinsale in ''Film/TheAviator'', which dramatizes her affair with Howard Hughes. She also made an appearance in ''The Rat Pack'' biopic, this time played by Deborah Kara Unger.

* ''Film/TheBible1966'' (1966)

[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/annex_gardner_ava_killers_the_05.jpg]]

->''"You can sum up my life in one sentence, honey: 'She made movies, she made out, and she made a [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] mess of her life. But she never made jam.'"''

* She's played by Creator/KateBeckinsale in ''Film/TheAviator'', which dramatizes her affair with Howard Hughes.

Gardner was born to a poor farming family. The family struggled for years, losing their farm in TheGreatDepression and moving to Newport News, Virginia to find work, only to suffer the death of Gardner's father in 1938. In 1941 she was visiting her sister in New York when her brother-in-law, a photographer, took a picture of her and put it up in his studio. This picture drew the attention of an MGM talent scout, and just that quickly, Gardner was signed to a contract.

Gardner was born to a poor farming family. The family struggled for years, losing their farm in UsefulNotes/TheGreatDepression and moving to Newport News, Virginia to find work, only to suffer the death of Gardner's father in 1938. In 1941 she was visiting her sister in New York when her brother-in-law, a photographer, took a picture of her and put it up in his studio. This picture drew the attention of an MGM talent scout, and just that quickly, Gardner was signed to a contract.

->''You can sum up my life in one sentence, honey: "She made movies, she made out, and she made a [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] mess of her life. But she never made jam."''

Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24th 1922 -- January 25th 1990) was one of the most famous actresses of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood. She was well known for her arresting beauty and glamour, playing {{femme fatale}}s and other stylishly beautiful women.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/annex_gardner_ava_killers_the_05.jpg]]

Ava Lavinia Gardner (1922-1990) was one of the most famous actresses of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood. She was well known for her arresting beauty and glamour, playing [[FemmeFatale femme fatales]] and other stylishly beautiful women.

Gardner managed to extend her career as she aged by appearing in some [[DisasterMovie Disaster Movies]] and working on television. Her very busy personal life included marriages to Creator/MickeyRooney, Music/FrankSinatra, and bandleader Artie Shaw, and a longtime off-and-on relationship with Creator/HowardHughes. Late in life she suffered from various health problems including emphysema and a stroke, which led her to say to a would-be biographer, "I'd be lying to you if I told you that losing my looks is no big deal. It hurts, god damn it, it hurts like a son-of-a-bitch." (She was also known as a very candid interviewee.)

Five years of mostly bit parts went by before Gardner's big break playing Kitty the FemmeFatale in groundbreaking FilmNoir ''Film/TheKillers''. This StarMakingRole propelled her to a run of hits in the late 1940s and 1950s in which she played various incarnations of beauty and class. In 1953 Gardner, usually considered more of a "movie star" as opposed to a great dramatic actress, got an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nomination for her part in ''Mogambo''.