Photo: MGM / Public domain (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Ava Gardner fascinates me less as a screen goddess than as a survivor of the studio system who refused to be only that. A farm girl from rural North Carolina turned into MGM's idea of glamour, she could have stayed decorative; instead she delivered real, smoky performances in The Killers and The Barefoot Contessa that still hold up. What I respect most is her late-life candor — the autobiographical impulse to tell her own story in her own voice after decades of being narrated by others. She lived loudly, loved messily, and never apologized for either. That unvarnished honesty, to me, is her most modern quality.
Overview
Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress during the Golden Age of Hollywood. 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.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Ava Gardner
- Name (Japanese)
- エヴァ・ガードナー
- Reading
- えゔぁ・がーどなー
- Born
- December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Capricorn / Dog
- Origin
- Grabtown, North Carolina, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- actor / model / autobiographer / film actor / television actor
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Newport News High School
- University
- Barton College
Awards & achievements
- 1964 Silver Shell for Best Actress
- star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | The Killers | — | |
| Notable work | The Barefoot Contessa | — | |
| Notable work | The Snows of Kilimanjaro | — |
6. Links
Actor — see all → · Model — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-11
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.