Ava Gardner

Ava Lavinia Gardner was born on December 24, 1922, in Grabtown, North Carolina, to Mary Elizabeth (née Baker) and Jonas Bailey Gardner. Born on a tobacco farm, where she developed a lifelong fondness for earthy language and going barefoot, Ava grew up in the rural South. At age 18, her photograph displayed in the window of her brother-in-law's New York photo studio attracted the attention of MGM, leading to a quick move to Hollywood and a film contract based primarily on her beauty. With no acting experience, her first 17 film roles, from 1942 to 1945, were minor or one-line parts. After her first starring role in the B-grade film *Whistle Stop* (1946), MGM loaned her to Universal for her first critically acclaimed film, *The Killers* (1946). Few of her best films were made at MGM, which kept her under contract for 17 years and used her popularity to promote many mediocre films. Perhaps as a result, she never believed in her own acting ability, but her latent talent was evident when guided by a superior director, as seen in John Ford's *Mogambo* (1953) and George Cukor's *Bhowani Junction* (1956). After three failed marriages, dissatisfaction with Hollywood life led Ava to move to Spain in 1955; most of her subsequent films were made abroad. By this time, stardom had transformed the country girl into a cosmopolitan, but she never overcame a deep insecurity about acting and life in the spotlight. Her last quality starring film role was in *The Night of the Iguana* (1964), with her later work being, as she described it, strictly "for the loot." In 1968, tax issues in Spain prompted a move to London, where she lived for the next 22 years in reasonable comfort. Her film career did not bring her great fulfillment, but her looks may have made it inevitable; many fans still consider her the most beautiful actress in Hollywood history. Ava Gardner died at age 67 of bronchial pneumonia on January 25, 1990, in Westminster, London, England.