The Real Ava
Influential
Ava Gardner’s legacy should not be determined through myth. The woman is more legendary than the myth! Ava Gardner, with her beauty and cultured elegance, mesmerized her contemporary audiences and now regularly trends on social media, captivating a whole new generation of fans.
Adventurous
Ava determined the course of her life with her intelligence, not her beauty, and with her zest for living and her adventurous spirit. Ava embraced new adventures with a spirit of excitement. She loved traveling internationally and absorbing the culture, art, and food of new places. She had great respect and awe for the diversity and beauty around her wherever she visited.
Talented
Ava, who so often denied her talent, is credited with over sixty performances in movies and television spanning a career of five decades. Ava’s work has held up extremely well with the test of time. Ava portrayed daring, tenacious characters in every film genre – comedy, drama, noir, musical, western, disaster, and more. The diverse range of strong-willed women she brought to life onscreen only enhanced the public’s fascination with the real Ava Gardner offscreen.
Style Icon
Coming of age in Hollywood of the 40’s and 50’s, where the glamour of such women as Greta Garbo and Katherine Hepburn reigned supreme, Ava quickly developed a style of her own and became a fashion icon. Ava was dressed by every haute couture designer of her day and still influences fashion on today’s runways. Working with the biggest names in fashion, Ava is remembered for her enchanting presence and sense of style. Glamorous, figure-flattering gowns and sophisticated casual wear were the holy grail of Ava’s signature style leaving a tremendous impact on fashion trends in post-war America and to this day. Ava appeared on over 250 magazine covers worldwide including Look, Elle, Time, People, and Vogue.
Athletic
Few realize Ava was imaginative, spontaneous, mischievous, and quite simply fun to be with. She loved to be outdoors participating in sports. She was physically strong and athletic. Even into her mature years in London, she continued to exercise by regularly walking several miles.
Humanitarian
Growing up in the segregated south, Ava Gardner regularly broke barriers and the societal expectations of her times forming close, diverse friendships across the racial divide within the rural, farming communities where she lived. As an adult, Ava used her influence to promote equality via formal and informal ways supporting racial equality causes and organizations. Once she achieved success, Ava contributed her time, money, and celebrity to social, political, and humanitarian causes near and dear to her heart. Beyond the public eye, she showed her compassion by advocating for her diverse group of friends and close acquaintances in more direct and intimate ways.
Family Influences
Ava was strongly influenced by her family growing up. She witnessed and absorbed the attitudes and values of her family. From her mother she learned warmth, compassion, and generosity. From her father she gained an interest in politics, a strong work ethic, and solid moral fiber. From her aunt Ava Virginia, she emulated perfect posture, poise and grace, and a spirit of humble nobility. From her oldest sister, Beatrice, she assimilated liberal views, an independent spirit, and bold and courageous decision making.
Charitable
In the depression era south, Ava learned from the community in which she lived the value of neighbor helping neighbor and close community bonds. As an adult she always got to know her neighbors and was always willing to lend a helping hand when needed.
Open-Minded
Ava embraced all people regardless of race, religion, culture, or ethnicity. In addition to her siblings, Ava’s earliest friends were the daughter of a black maid and a black tobacco farm worker. Her early childhood experiences with racial segregation stayed with Ava all her life. Mearene Jordan, a woman of color, was her assistant and life-long friend. The two were like sisters. If her friend Mearene was asked to leave a restaurant because of the color of her skin, Ava would also leave.
Politically Active
During her time, although it was controversial and MGM warned her not to, Ava supported Henry Wallace and his campaign, which included strong civil rights legislation. She also sent a money donation when MLK, Jr was assassinated and became a lifetime member of the NAACP. Ava co-chaired a charity event at the Waldorf to make theatre accessible and relevant to people in economically challenged communities and communities of color.
Triumphant
Ava triumphantly survived the toxic effects of three failed marriages. Moreover, the men in her life did not define her. The only kick-back from Ava’s marriages to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, and Frank Sinatra was a cache of street smarts: she gave more than she received and despite traditional assumptions, she supported Sinatra financially during their marriage.
Independent
After films which marked her as a singular femme fatale and despite her glamorous rise to stardom, she chose to live a more adventurous and independent life, moving to Spain where she not only mixed with bullfighters and lived practically as a daughter to Hemingway, but she nurtured a deep and abiding connection to the downtrodden but familial and light-hearted gypsies, taking part in their nightly celebrations and flamenco dancing.
Self-Reliant
Ava Gardner was independent, self-reliant, and determined. She spoke her mind and unapologetically made bold choices despite the pressures and demands of a very public career. She often went against the grain and lived her life in a passionate way.
Content
Ava moved to London after a decade in Spain where she lived out the rest of her life working occasionally, but mostly enjoying her friends, mingling with her interesting neighbors, walking her Corgis, and making trips home to North Carolina where friends and family remember her as a humble and humorous woman.
Unpretentious
Ava was never pretentious and was known for her characteristic candor. She was always her genuine self, warm, compassionate, and generous. Ava was a modern woman ahead of her time in many ways. She disregarded expectations and stereotypes. She made her own way in the world passionately, confidently, and fearlessly, making her own decisions. Ava was one of the first celebrities to break away from Hollywood to live abroad and in doing so paved the way for many stars who followed her. She had an humble attitude about herself.
Role Model
We hear from many young girls from all over the globe regularly. From a young UK fan’s blog: “Ava’s independence appeals to me. To see such a famous woman be so real and authentic was rejuvenating. I learned through Ava’s projection of her true self, not only in her book (Ava, My Story) but in all areas of her life, I should be nothing but proud and open about what interests me.
Impactful
Ava Gardner was a role model in her day and continues to be a role model for young women. Ava was a wholly original person – incredibly unique and possessing exceptional qualities that continue to influence people’s lives. Of all her outstanding traits, her kindness and generosity were the most extraordinary, and continue to be impactful even to this day through her charitable trust. Her great-niece and namesake, Ava Thompson, had the blessing of knowing Ava Gardner personally outside of the Hollywood mirage of bright lights and glamour. “I enjoyed Ava’s humor, felt her warmth, saw her many kindnesses, and witnessed her generosity all firsthand. In my role today as Trustee of the Ava Gardner Trust, I have the honor and responsibility of continuing the humanitarian work she began in her lifetime.” Ava’s long-lasting legacy, in the form of the Trust, has over the years supported charities devoted to animal welfare, medical research and educational outreach.
Inspirational
After three decades since her death, it is time to tell her true story: not a tragic story where one is defeated by life, but an inspiring story of one who lived fully and victoriously. She did not do what was expected; she did what she intended.
Ageless
The world knows her for her beauty, and as People magazine suggested at her death as “The Last Goddess.” After three decades we are overdue in learning the inspiring background of a woman who still captures our attention.
“Ava had a great inner warmth, that for instance, I never saw in Lana Turner. Lana was a little more aware of being a star. I don’t think Ava thought about it that way. She was down. She was Ava, not Ava Gardner, that star. She never believed that the image they saw was what she really was. And she resented that the image made people expect something when she wanted to be herself. But if Ava came to you, you couldn’t help but like her, because she wasn’t competing with anybody. She walked a mile in everybody’s shoes. She really did.”
— Lena Horne, Actress, Singer & Activist