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Ava Gardner
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With extraordinary beauty, talent and grace, Spanish dancer Maria Vargas (Ava Gardner) was born to be a star. Aided by American movie director Harry Dawes (Humphrey Bogart), she attains great success and fortune in Hollywood's land of dreams. But, though she gives her all for stardom, there is one thing Maria will never compromise her soul. No matter what the cost, The Barefoot Contessa will dance to no one's music but her own.
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Ava Gardner was Frank Sinatra's second wife. Frank and Ava were wed on November 7, 1951 and their separation was announced in October 1953, although they didn't finalize their divorce until 1957. Gardner, who died in 1990 at age 67, never married again. Whether people will remember Frank Sinatra as The Voice, The King of Crooners, Ole Blue Eyes, The Chairman of the Board, or as the Greatest Entertainer of the 20th Century, Ava fans will always remember him as the love of her life.
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Ava Gardner began her career first as a model, then as a contract player at MGM, where her gawky, unsophisticated demeanor was totally made over by the studio into an image of inaccessible glamour. Gardner toiled in tiny bit roles, finally getting a worthwhile one on loan-out to Universal in The Killers (1946). MGM was never very comfortable with the bad-girl persona she displayed so well in this film, and... most of her starring appearances at her home studio were relatively sympathetic roles in The Hucksters (1947) and Show Boat (1951). Her cinema reputation as The World's Most Beautiful Animal (in the words of a '50s publicity campaign) was once again manifested in loan-out movies like Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951) and The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952). MGM eventually came to terms with the elements that made Gardner popular, notably in the gutsy Mogambo (1953), in which she made an excellent partner to the equally earthy Clark Gable. Director George Cukor was much taken by Gardner and cast the actress in her best and most complex MGM role in Bhowani Junction (1956), in which she was torn not only by love but also clashing East Indian cultural values.
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In Ava Gardner: A Bio-Bibliography, Fowler traces the actress's life from a possible family tree to her smalltown beginning to world stardom. This biography comprises most of the book. A chronological listing of her life achievements follows. Fowler ... provides a complete listing of Ava's film, television, and radio appearances as well as her musical recordings. The book is completed by a bibliography of the writings on Ava Gardner, a record of the archival sources used in researching the book, and an index of personal names and titles. Interesting and personal photographs provide a rare glimpse of one of America's best loved screen personalities.
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Ava Gardner was nominated for an Oscar for 1953's Mogambo. She lost to Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday. Many thought Gardner's greatest performance was as Maxine Faulk in The Night of the Iguana, for which she was not even nominated. Grayson Hall, as the hysterical Miss Judith Fellowes... was nominated, albeit in the best supporting actress category.
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Ava Gardner was born December 24, 1922, in Smithfield, North Carolina. Gardner grew up in a poor family, but at age 18 she left home for Hollywood. After taking a screen test, Ava gained a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
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Ava Gardner