Gardner, Ava

Gardner, Ava, professional name of Lucy Johnson (1922-1990), American film actress prominent in the 1940s and 1950s. Gardner, one of many Hollywood actors whose offscreen image has tended to overshadow their work onscreen, was born in Grabton, North Carolina, on December 24, 1922. She began her film career with a small part in Calling Dr Gillespie (1942), and went on to become a leading player in the thrillers Whistle Stop (1946) and The Killers (1946). Her image as a glamorous and cosmopolitan femme fatale was developed in a number of melodramas, such as The Great Sinner (1949) and The Sun also Rises (1957), and, most notably, in the title role of The Barefoot Contessa (1954). The latter, a biography of a fictional film star, was widely but wrongly assumed to be based on her own life, which had been extensively reported in the media and had included marriages to the film actor Mickey Rooney, the jazz musician Artie Shaw, and the singer and actor Frank Sinatra.

From the late 1950s onwards, Gardner appeared less and less often on screen, although appearances include The Night of the Iguana (1964), The Bible (1966), and The Blue Bird (1976). Her last appearance was in the television film Harem (1986). She moved to London in 1968 and died there on January 25, 1990.