According to Ava, “After my screen test, the director clapped his hands gleefully and yelled: 'She can't talk! She can't act! She's sensational!'"
She certainly did prove sensational, appearing in over 60 films, spanning a career of 40 years. Following is a list of her movies.
Walk-on roles
1941 Shadow of the Thin Man - Passerby
H.M. Pulham, Esq. - Socialite
Babes on Broadway - Pitt-Astor Girl
1942 Joe Smith - American Miss Maynard, Secretary
This Time for Keeps - Girl in car lighting cigarette
Kid Glove Killer - Car Hop
Sunday Punch - Ringsider
Calling Dr. Gillespie - Student at Miss Hope's
Reunion in France - Marie, a salesgirl
1943 Hitler's Madman - Franciska Pritric, a Student
Ghosts on the Loose - Betty
Young Ideas - Co-ed
Du Barry Was a Lady - Perfume Girl
Swing Fever - Receptionist
Lost Angel - Hat Check Girl
1944 Two Girls and a Sailor - Dream Girl
Three Men in White - Jean Brown
Maisie Goes to Reno - Gloria Fullerton
Blonde Fever - Bit Part
1945 She Went to the Races - Hilda Spotts
1946 Whistle Stop - Film noir with George Raft. Ava plays the part of Mary, a woman torn between two lovers.
Ava's big career break came in 1946 when she was loaned to Universal Pictures for the film noir classic The Killers as Kitty Collins, co-starring Burt Lancaster. "Ava Gardner is sultry and sardonic as the lady who crosses him (Burt Lancaster) up" wrote famed critic Bosley Crowther. Another critic Scott Tobias wrote the film was about "an ex-boxer who was unwittingly roped into the criminal underworld and the even more dangerous gaze of Ava Gardner, a memorably sultry and duplicitous femme fatale."
1947 Singapore - Romance with Fred MacMurray. Ava is a luring, mysterious woman in Singapore.
The Hucksters with Clark Gable and Deborah Kerr.
1948 - One Touch of Venus - A musical with Ava playing the title statue come to life.
1949 The Bribe - Another film noir, this time with Robert Taylor as a federal agent who travels to Central America. He is tempted toward corruption because of Elizabeth Hintten (Ava), a café singer married to Tug Hintten(Hodiak), a mobster.
The Great Sinner - Drama with Gregory Peck who becomes addicted to gambling for the sake of money to rescue Ava Gardner from an arranged marriage.
East Side, West Side - Crime drama where James Mason cheats on wife Barbara Stanwyck with old flame Ava Gardner who wants him as her own.
1951 Pandora and the Flying Dutchman - Ava Gardner is a woman every man loves, but she cannot love anyone until she meets the Flying Dutchman James Mason.
My Forbidden Past - Ava is Barbara Beaurevel who loves Robert Mitchum but loses him to a social climber.
Show Boat - Julie LaVerne
1952 Lone Star - A western romance with Clark Gable.
The Snows of Kilimanjaro - Gregory Peck is a writer who loves and longs for Ava as Cynthia Green.
1953 Knights of the Round Table - Mel Ferrer as KIng Arthur, Robert Taylor as Sir Lancelot, and Ava as Guinevere.
Ride, Vaquero! - A western with Robert Taylor.
The Band Wagon - A musical with Ava as herself in a cameo.
Mogambo - With Clark Gable and Grace Kelly. Kelly won a golden globe for best supporting actress. Ava as Honey Bear Kelly was nominated for an academy award.
1954 The Barefoot Contessa - Ava stars as Maria Vargas, a beautiful dancer, who marries her Prince Charming; but the tale ends in tragedy.
1956 Bhowani Junction - Ava stars as Victoria Jones with Stewart Granger as Colonel Rodney Savage, an Indian Army officer.
1957 The Little Hut - Ava is Lady Susan Ashlow in this romantic comedy where she, her husband Stewart Granger, and his best friend David Niven are shipwrecked on a deserted island.
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway's novel with Tyrone Power and Ava as Lady Brett Ashley.
1958 The Naked Maja Maria Cayetana - Foreign movie with Tony Franciosa.
1959 On the Beach - Post apocalyptic drama featuring Gregory Peck as Captain of the USS Sawfish, Ava as Moira Davidson, and Fred Astaire as a scientist.
1960 The Angel Wore Red - Italian-American war drama with Ava as Soledad, a beautiful entertainer.
1963 55 Days at Peking - Historical epic film of the Battle of Peking during the Boxer Rebellion which took place in 1900 China where secret societies set about massacring Christians in an anti-Christian nationalistic fever. Charlton Heston as U.S. Marine Corps Major Matt Lewis and Ava as Baroness Natalie Ivanoff, his love interest.
1964 Seven Days in May - Political thriller during the Cold War era with the Soviet Union. Ava stars with Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, and Fredric March.
The Night of the Iguana - Richard Burton, Deborah Kerr, and Ava as Maxine Faulk, a widow who runs a beach hotel in Mexico.
1966 The Bible: In The Beginning - Biblical epic film of Genesis with Ava as Sarah.
1968 Mayerling - Lavish romantic tragedy with Omar Sharif and Catherine Deneuve. Ava is Empress Elizabeth, Prince Rudolf's (Omar Sharif) mother married to Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria (James Mason).
1970 Tam-Lin - British film with Ava as Michaela Cazaret, an older woman who uses witchcraft to keep her young jet-set friends.
1972 The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean - Western film starring Paul Newman, Victoria Principal, and Jacqueline Bisset. Ava is Lily Langtry.
1974 Earthquake - A natural disaster film with Ava as Remy Royce-Graff married to Stewart Graff (Charlton Heston).
1975 Permission to Kill - Spy film thriller with Ava as Katina Petersen.
1976 The Blue Bird - American/Soviet fantasy. Elizabeth Taylor is Queen of Light; Ava is Luxury.
The Cassandra Crossing - British disaster film with Ava as Nicole Dressler. Also stars Burt Lancaster, Sophia Loren, and Richard Harris.
1977 The Sentinel - Horror film with Ava as Miss Logan, realtor of a brownstone house that holds secrets.
1979 City on Fire - Disgruntled employee sets fire to an oil refinery, and the fire blazes out of control. Ava is Maggie Grayson, an alcoholic reporter.
1980 The Kidnapping of the President - Political thriller with William Shatner, Van Johnson, and Ava as Beth Richards.
1981 Priest of Love - Biographical film of D. H. Lawrence, author of "Lady Chatterley's Love." Ava is Mabel Dodge Luhan.
1982 Regina Roma - Drama with Anthony Quinn.
Beautiful and beguiling, Ava Gardner is one of the great legendary Hollywood stars, one not easily forgotten.
In Smithfield, N.C., there is the Ava Gardner museum which hosts about 12,000 visitors annually. Each year the Museum celebrates Ava's life and career by hosting the Ava Gardner Festival.
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