Ava Lavinia Gardner was born on December 24, 1922.
Gardner was signed to a contract with MGM in 1941, and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers (1946).
She was nominated once for the Best Actress Oscar, for her work in John Ford’s Mogambo (1953), and also received BAFTA Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for other films.
Gardner appeared in several high-profile films from the 1940s to 1970s, including:
The Hucksters (1947), Show Boat (1951), Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), The Barefoot Contessa (1954), Bhowani Junction (1956), On the Beach (1959), 55 Days at Peking (1963), Seven Days in May (1964), The Night of the Iguana (1964), The Bible (1966), Mayerling (1968), The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), Earthquake (1974), and The Cassandra Crossing (1976).
Gardner continued to act sporadically until 1986, four years before her death in London (on January 25, 1990), at the age of 67.
She is listed as the 25th among the American Film Institute’s 25 Greatest Female Stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema.