This classy matted display piece contains a superb photo of the legendary Ava Gardner, together with a signed personal cheque. The piece has been professionally matted in acid free materials  and is ready to be framed.

One of Hollywood's legendary "love goddesses," this green-eyed brunette beauty combined feline grace with passionate intensity, and while she never claimed to be a great actress, she held her own in a number of memorable films. Gardner was born into a poor family, and had no loftier ambition than to become a secretary in New York until her picture was seen by MGM's East Coast talent executive. A screen test was arranged (deliberately silent, because her Southern accent was so thick) and she was judged to have potential. She flew west to Hollywood and cheerfully signed a term contract with the studio, which promptly enrolled her in acting classes and took hundreds of publicity shots of her before she ever stepped on a movie set.

Gardner spent several years playing undemanding bit parts in MGM B movies such as We Were Dancing,  Kid Glove Killer, Calling Dr. Gillespie, Hitler's Madman and She Went to the Races.  It took a loan-out assignment, that of a femme fatale in Universal's Hemingway adaptation, The Killers (1946), to make audiences sit up and take notice. Her good reviews prompted MGM to try her opposite the King himself, Clark Gable, in The Hucksters (1947), in which she played a self-assured nightclub singer. Gardner acquitted herself nicely and was promoted to full-fledged stardom.

In most films, her presence was basically decorative, but she contributed memorable performances to Show Boat (1951, as Julie, the beautiful mulatto, for which she performed several Jerome Kern songs that made it to the soundtrack album but were redubbed for the film itself), Mogambo (1953, opposite Gable in this remake of his earlier success Red Dust with Gardner snagging an Oscar nomination for her interpretation of the tarttongued character played in the original by Jean Harlow), and Joseph L. Mankiewicz's The Barefoot Contessa (1954), in a part she seemed born to play, an earthy Spanish dancer who's transformed into a screen goddess-but destined never to find personal happiness.

In 1957, life imitated art once again. Gardner divorced singer Frank Sinatra that year (they had married in 1951 following a tempestuous courtship) and, after playing American expatriate Lady Brett Ashley in the film adaptation of The Sun Also Rises adopted her character's lifestyle and moved to Spain, where she was surrounded by adoring European jetsetters and matadors. Years of these hedonistic pursuits took their toll on her beauty; by the time she'd turned 50 she looked at least 10 years older. But as a mature, worldly actress, she delivered several interesting, multilayered performances. Her other husbands were actor Mickey Rooney (whom she wed shortly after joining Metro) and bandleader Artie Shaw.

In later years Gardner lived in London, but spent one season as a cast member of the TV series "Falcon Crest" (1985) and shortly before her death completed an autobiography, "Ava," which was published posthumously in 1990. More than one obituary declared her the most beautiful woman who ever stepped in front of a camera, and she was once in fact "voted" The Most Beautiful Woman in the World.

Don't forget that all of items come with a lifetime guarantee of authenticity and full details of their pedigree. We are proud to  abide with the UACC Code of Practice. For more information about the authenticity of our items read the 'About Us' section of this site.

 This is a great opportunity to get a wonderful matted display of a true Hollywood icon.  Don't miss out!

Star of Show Boat, The Killers and ex-wife of Frank Sinatra