Ava Gardner

Ava Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress.

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Ava Lavinia Gardner was born in the small farming community of Grabtown, Johnston County, North Carolina, the last of seven children of poor tobacco farmers; her mother was a Baptist of Scottish descent, while her father, Jonas Bailey Gardner, was an Irish Catholic.

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Gardner made several movies before 1946, but it wasn't until she starred in The Killers that she became known as a sex symbol and hot movie star. She married Mickey Rooney when she was only 19 years old in 1941 (they divorced in 1943), then to Artie Shaw from 1945 to 1946, and to Frank Sinatra from 1951 to 1957. She was said to be the "true love" of Sinatra. She was also regarded as one of the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood. She also had affairs with the Spanish bullfighters Luis Miguel Dominguin and Mario Cabr?, industrialist Howard Hughes, and actor George C. Scott, in the mid-1960s.

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(Scott, known for beating other women such as wives Colleen Dewhurst and Trish Van Devere, was rumoured to have beaten Gardner during their relationship so badly that her retina became detached.)

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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, however, was nominated, albeit in the best supporting actress category.

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She met author J.R.R. Tolkien at Oxford University in November 1964. Neither was aware of the fame of the other. Gardner publically admitted to having had an abortion.

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After a stroke in 1989, which left her partially paralyzed and bedridden, Frank Sinatra paid all her medical expenses. She died of pneumonia in London, England at the age of 67 in 1990.

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Ava Gardner is interred in the Sunset Memorial Park, Smithfield, North Carolina; the town of Smithfield now has an Ava Gardner Museum.

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Gardner is portrayed by Kate Beckinsale in The Aviator (2004), a film by Martin Scorsese about Howard Hughes. In the 1998 Movie "The Rat Pack" she was portrayed by Deborah Kara Unger.

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1922: 1922 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar)....

January 25: January 25 is the 25th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 340 days remaining (341 in leap years)....

1990: :For information on the number, see 1990 (number)....

Ava Gardner related Images and Photos (experimental)

Ava Gardner	Ava Gardner Print	Gardner Ava - MovielandMagazineCover1940's	The Killers Ava Gardner 1946
Omar Sharif and Ava Gardner: Mayerling 1968	The Killers Burt Lancaster Ava Gardner 1946	The Bribe from Top Robert Taylor Ava Gardner Charles Laughton Vincent Price John Hodiak 1949	Mogambo Grace Kelly Clark Gable Ava Gardner 1953
Ava	The Good Wife Team Gardner Women's T-Shirt	The Good Wife Team Gardner Women's T-shirt	The Good Wife Team Gardner Mug