Acting
Dec 23, 1922
Grabtown, North Carolina, USA
Ava Gardner
Acting
Biography
Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress popular in the 1940s and 1950s. Considered one of the most iconic stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, she was ranked as the 25th greatest female screen legend by the American Film Institute. Initially cast in minor roles, her breakthrough came with the classic film noir The Killers (1946), which established her as a leading lady. Her career flourished in the 1950s with notable performances in films like Mogambo (1953), for which she received an Academy Award nomination, The Barefoot Contessa (1954), and The Night of the Iguana (1964), which earned her a BAFTA nomination. Off-screen, Gardner's personal life and progressive politics attracted significant attention. Her marriages to Mickey Rooney and Artie Shaw were gossiped about, but her tumultuous relationship with Frank Sinatra particularly headlined. Gardner was a strong supporter of racial equality and desegregation, and became a member of the NAACP in 1968. Gardner was a heavy smoker, which deteriorated her health as she grew older. She continued acting in minor roles in the 1980s before she suffered a stroke in 1986 and retired. Gardner moved to Spain and England, where she spent her final years before passing away from bronchopneumonia on January 25, 1990.
Feature Films (93)
Biography of risk-taker and raconteur John Huston from his childhood to become one of the most highly respected filmmakers in the world.
John Huston: The Man, the Movies, the Maverick
Covering only the first 22 chapters of the Book of Genesis, vignettes include: Adam and Eve frolicking in the Garden of Eden until their indulgence in the forbidden fruit sees them driven out; Cain murdering his brother Abel; Noah building an ark to preserve the animals of the world from the coming flood; and Abraham making a covenant with God.
The Bible: In the Beginning...
Dr. Kildare's friend Dr. Gillespie is called in to investigate when a young man suffering from mental problems disappears on a killing spree.
Calling Dr. Gillespie
Writer Harry Street reflects on his life as he lies dying from an infection while on safari in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro.
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Various interconnected people struggle to survive when an earthquake of unimaginable magnitude hits Los Angeles, California.
Earthquake
A U.S. Marine Corps colonel alerts the president of a planned military coup against him.
Seven Days in May
Passengers on a European train have been exposed to a deadly disease, and nobody will let them off the train.
The Cassandra Crossing
On a Kenyan safari, white hunter Victor Marswell has a love triangle with seductive American socialite Eloise Kelly and anthropologist Donald Nordley's cheating wife Linda.
Mogambo
A group of disillusioned American expatriate writers live a dissolute, hedonistic lifestyle in 1920's France and Spain.
The Sun Also Rises
United States Federal agent Rigby travels to the Central American island Carlotta to investigate a stolen aircraft engines smuggling racket.
The Bribe
Juliet Forrest is convinced that the reported death of her father in a mountain car crash was no accident. Her father was a prominent cheese scientist working on a secret recipe. To prove it was murder, she enlists the services of private eye Rigby Reardon. He finds a slip of paper containing a list of people who are 'The Friends and Enemies of Carlotta'.
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
Outlaw and self-appointed lawmaker Judge Roy Bean rules over an empty stretch of the West that gradually grows, under his iron fist, into a thriving town, while dispensing his his own quirky brand of frontier justice upon strangers passing by.
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
Television & Series (8)
The domestic adventures, misdeeds and everyday interactions of five families living on a cul-de-sac in a small California community.
Knots Landing
Actor, model, and global superstar Brooke Shields’ journey from a sexualized young girl to a woman who embraces her identity and voice.
Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields
When drifter Ben Quick arrives in a small Mississippi town, Will Varner, a family patriarch, sees Ben as a better choice to inherit the family business than his only son, Jody. Will therefore tries to push Ben and his daughter Clara into marriage. Clara is initially reluctant to court Ben, and Jody senses that Ben threatens his position.
The Long Hot Summer
Intimate Portrait is a biographical television series on the Lifetime Television cable network focusing on different celebrities, which includes interviews with each subject. Among the people profiled were Grace Kelly, Natalie Wood, Carly Simon, Jackie Kennedy, Katharine Hepburn, Carol Burnett, Tanya Tucker, and Marla Maples.
Intimate Portrait
A two-part minseries about a beautiful woman who, at the turn of the century, is kidnapped and sold into a Turkish harem where, as she struggles to protect her life and virtue, she becomes embroiled in the historical tensions and sensuous decadence of the times.
