Howard Keel
from the trailer for Annie Get Your Gun (1950)
Born	Harold Clifford Keel (1919-04-13)April 13, 1919 Gillespie, Illinois, U.S.
Died	November 7, 2004(2004-11-07) (aged 85) Palm Desert, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor/Singer
Years active	1948–2002
Spouse	Rosemary Cooper (1943-48) (divorced) Helen Anderson (1949-70) (divorced) Judy Keel (1970-2004) (his death)

Harold Clifford Keel (April 13, 1919 – November 7, 2004), known professionally as Howard Keel, was an American actor and singer. He starred in many film musicals of the 1950s. He is best known to modern audiences for his starring role in the CBS television series Dallas (1981-1991)as Clayton Farlow, opposite Barbara Bel Geddes's character, but to an earlier generation, he was known as the star of some of the most famous MGM film musicals ever made, with a rich baritone singing voice.

Early years[link]

Keel was born Harold Clifford Keel in Gillespie, Illinois, to Navyman-turned-coalminer Homer Keel and his wife, Grace Osterkamp Keel. (It is often erroneously stated—by the MGM publicity department of the 1950s—that Keel's birth name was Harold Leek).

Young Harold spent his childhood in poverty. One of his teachers, Miss Rosa Burke, noticed one day that he was not eating his lunch. From that day forward, Miss Burke would pack two lunches - one for herself and one for Harold. When he became famous and would perform near Gillespie, Burke always received tickets to attend his performances.

After his father's death in 1930, Keel and his mother moved to California, where he graduated from Fallbrook High School at the age of 17. He worked various odd jobs until finally settling at Douglas Aircraft Company as a traveling representative.

Career and personal life[link]

At the age of 20, Keel was overheard singing by his landlady, Mom Rider, and was encouraged to take vocal lessons. One of Keel's musical heroes was the great baritone Lawrence Tibbett. Howard would later remark that learning that his own voice was a basso cantante was one of the greatest disappointments of his life. Nevertheless, his first public performance occurred in the summer of 1941, when he played the role of Samuel the Prophet in Handel's oratorio Saul (singing a duet with bass-baritone George London).

In 1943, Keel met and married his first wife, actress Rosemary Cooper. In 1945, Keel briefly understudied for John Raitt in the Broadway hit Carousel before being assigned to Oklahoma!, written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. When performing this play during this period, Keel accomplished a feat that has never been duplicated; he performed the leads in both shows on the same day.

In 1947, Oklahoma! became the first American postwar musical to travel to London, England, and Harold joined the production. On the opening night, April 30, at the Drury Lane Theatre, the capacity audience (which included the future Queen Elizabeth II) demanded fourteen encores. Keel was hailed as the next great star, becoming the toast of London's West End.

During the London run, his marriage to Rosemary ended in divorce and Keel fell in love with a young member of the show's chorus, dancer Helen Anderson. They married in January 1949 and, a year later, Harold - now called Howard - celebrated the birth of his daughter, Kaija.

While living in London, Keel made his film debut as Howard Keel at the British Lion studio in Elstree, in The Small Voice (1948), released in the US as Hideout. In the film he played an escaped convict holding a playwright and his wife hostage in their English country cottage.

Additional Broadway credits include Saratoga, No Strings, and Ambassador. He appeared at The Muny in St. Louis, MO as General Waverly in White Christmas (2000), Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady (1996); Emile de Becque in South Pacific (1992), and Adam in Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (1954).

Keel was a devout Methodist.^[1]

MGM years[link]

From London's West End, Howard ended up at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer making his film musical debut as Frank Butler in the movie version of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun (1950).

Howard's MGM career was to become a frustrating business. MGM never seemed to know quite how to use him and, besides his plum film roles in Show Boat (1951), Kiss Me Kate (1953), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), and Kismet (1955), he was forced into a series of unremarkable musicals and B-films. On loan at Warner Brothers, Keel played Wild Bill Hickok in Calamity Jane (1953), a highly popular Oscar-winning musical starring Doris Day in one of her most famous screen roles. The film was Warner Brothers' answer to Annie Get Your Gun, and included the smash hit song "Secret Love".

There were two more children born to Howard and Helen, daughter Kirstine in 1952, and son Gunnar in 1955. Soon after, Howard was released from his contract and returned to his first love; the stage.

1960s–1980s[link]

As America's taste in entertainment evolved, finding jobs became more difficult for Keel. The 1960s held limited prospects for career advancement, and consisted primarily of nightclub work, B-Westerns and summer stock. Due to his declining career, Keel began to drink heavily and his marriage to Helen crumbled. They divorced in 1970.

1970 turned out to be more fortunate for Howard. He went on a blind date with airline stewardess Judy Magamoll, who was 25 years his junior and who knew nothing about his stardom. Years later, Howard would call the relationship love at first sight, but the age difference bothered him tremendously. For Judy, however, it was not a problem and with the aid of Robert Frost's poem "What Fifty Said," she convinced him to proceed with their relationship. They were married in December 1970, and his drinking problem soon ceased thereafter. He resumed his routine of nightclub, cabaret and summer stock jobs with his new wife at his side. In 1971-72, Howard appeared briefly in the West End and Broadway productions of the musical, Ambassador, which flopped. In 1974, Howard became a father for the fourth time with the birth of his daughter, Leslie Grace. In January 1986, Keel underwent double heart bypass surgery.

[edit] The Love Boat, Dallas, and revived career

Keel continued to tour, with his wife and daughter in tow, but by 1980 had decided to make a career/life change. Howard moved his family to Oklahoma with the intention of joining an oil company. The family had barely settled down when Howard was called back to California to appear with Jane Powell on an episode of The Love Boat. While there, he was told that the producers of the television series Dallas wanted to speak with him. After several cameo appearances, Keel joined the show permanently as the dignified and hot-tempered oil baron, Clayton Farlow. His acting career became highly successful once again.

Recording career[link]

With renewed fame, Keel commenced his first solo recording career, at age 64, as well as a successful concert career in the UK. He released an album, in 1984, With Love, which sold poorly. However, his album, And I Love You So reached #6 in the UK Albums Chart in 1984.^[2] The follow up album, Reminiscing - The Howard Keel Collection peaked at #20 in the UK chart, spending twelve weeks in that listing in 1985 and 1986.^[2]

In 1988 the album, Just for You reached #51 in the UK Albums Chart.^[2] In 1994, he and Judy moved to Palm Desert, California. The Keels were active in community charity events, and attended the annual Howard Keel Golf Classic at Mere Golf Club in Cheshire, England, which raised money for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). Howard attended the event for many years up until the year of his death.

Death[link]

Keel died at his Palm Desert home on November 7, 2004, six weeks after being diagnosed with colon cancer. He is survived by Judy, his wife of thirty-four years, his four children, ten grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. He was cremated and his ashes splitted in Mere Golf Club, Liverpool John Lennon Airport, and Tuscany, Italy.

Family[link]

Keel had four children, three with second wife Helen Anderson – two daughters, Katija Liane (born January 14, 1950) and Kirstine Elizabeth (born June 21, 1952), and a son, Gunnar Louis (born June 3, 1955) – and one with his third wife Judy – a daughter, Leslie Grace (born September 1, 1974).

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Howard Keel

• Howard Keel at the Internet Movie Database
• Howard Keel at the Internet Broadway Database
• Howard Keel at AllRovi
• Photographs and literature on Howard Keel

Kathryn Grayson
from trailer for The Toast of New Orleans (1950)
Born	Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick (1922-02-09)February 9, 1922 Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Died	February 17, 2010(2010-02-17) (aged 88) Los Angeles, California
Occupation	Actress/Singer
Years active	1941-2004
Spouse	John Shelton (m.1941-1946; divorced) Johnny Johnston (m.1947-1951; divorced)
Children	Patricia Kathryn (born 1948)
Website
http://www.kathryngrayson.com/

Kathryn Grayson (February 9, 1922 - February 17, 2010^[1]) was an American actress and operatic soprano singer.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]}

From the age of twelve, Grayson trained as an opera singer. She was under contract to MGM by the early 1940s, soon establishing a career principally through her work in musicals. After several supporting roles, she was a lead performer in such films as Thousands Cheer (1943), Anchors Aweigh (1945) with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, and Show Boat (1951) and Kiss Me Kate (1953) (both with Howard Keel).

When film musical production declined, she worked in theatre, appearing in Camelot (1962–1964). Later in the decade she performed in several operas, including La bohème, Madama Butterfly, Orpheus in the Underworld and La traviata.

Early life[link]

She was born Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the daughter of Charles E. Hedrick and Lillian Grayson Hedrick (1897–1955). Charles was a building contractor-realtor.^[8]

Lillian was of British descent and Charles was of German and Sicilian descent.

The Hedrick family later moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where she was discovered singing on the empty stage of the St. Louis Municipal Opera House by a janitor, who introduced her to Frances Marshall of the Chicago Civic Opera, who gave the twelve-year-old girl voice lessons.

Grayson's sister, Frances Raeburn (born Mildred Hedrick) was also an actress and singer, appearing alongside her in the film Seven Sweethearts.^[9] She also had two brothers, Clarence "Bud" E. Hedrick,^[10] and Harold.

Film career[link]

1940s[link]

In 1940, an MGM talent scout saw Grayson performing at a music festival. Metro hoped to find a replacement for Deanna Durbin, who left the studio for Universal Pictures.^[11] For the next 18 months, Grayson went through voice lessons, drama coaching, diction, diets and exercise. Within a year, Grayson had her first screen test. However, the studio executives were not satisfied, and she went through a further six months of lessons until she made her first film appearance in 1941's Andy Hardy's Private Secretary as the character's secretary Kathryn Land.^[12] In the film, she takes part in three musical numbers.

Two further films were planned for Grayson in 1941; White House Girl,^[13] which was later made in 1948 with Durbin,^[14] and Very Warm for May, from the Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein musical of the same name.^[15] Ann Sothern was also slated to appear, however, this fell through as well. The film eventually was made in 1944 as Broadway Rhythm.

She appeared in three films in 1942: The Vanishing Virginian, Rio Rita and Seven Sweethearts. In the first, Grayson plays the teenage daughter, Rebecca, of the eccentric Yancey family from Lynchburg, Virginia.^[16] Set in 1913, the film was based on Rebecca Yancey Williams's own family.

Grayson as Billie Van Maaster in Seven Sweethearts.

Grayson co-starred in Rio Rita with Abbott and Costello.^[17] Grayson portrayed the title character, Rita Winslow. The film was originally meant to be an adaptation of the 1927 Broadway musical, however, only two songs were retained for the film, the title song, and "The Ranger Song," which was performed by Grayson.

Co-starring Van Heflin, Seven Sweethearts cast Grayson as the youngest of seven daughters from Holland, Michigan, who is hired by reporter-photographer Helfin to serve as a model and secretary while he covers the town's tulip festival, and with whom he falls in love.^[18]

In 1943, Grayson appeared in the film Thousands Cheer, (originally titled Private Miss Jones), along with Gene Kelly, Mickey Rooney, Eleanor Powell, June Allyson and others. The film was intended as a morale booster for American troops and their families. Grayson starred as the singing daughter of an Army commander.

It was announced in 1942 that Grayson would appear in An American Symphony with Judy Garland.^[19] Garland was replaced by June Allyson and the film was retitled Two Sisters from Boston and released in 1946.

Grayson did not appear in any films for nearly two years (from 1943 to 1945), but instead worked at entertaining troops during the war and performing on radio programs.^[20] Her return to films in Anchors Aweigh, a musical romantic-comedy set in Los Angeles and co-starring Kelly and Frank Sinatra. Anchors Aweigh was the fifth-highest grossing film of 1945, earning over $4.779 million.^[21] This was followed by Two Sisters from Boston and guest appearances in Ziegfeld Follies and Till the Clouds Roll By. Grayson's performance in Till the Clouds Roll By was of a song from the musical Show Boat, which would be remade five years later, with Grayson in the starring role.

MGM unwisely re-paired Grayson and Sinatra for two movies in 1947 and 1948, It Happened in Brooklyn and The Kissing Bandit. Both films performed poorly at the box office, and audiences thought the plots absurd.^[22] After the setbacks of Brooklyn and Bandit, Grayson was partnered with tenor Mario Lanza in That Midnight Kiss in 1949.

1950s[link]

with Mario Lanza in The Toast of New Orleans

In 1950, Grayson was once again partnered with Lanza, and portrayed an opera singer in The Toast of New Orleans, and performed the Academy-Award-nominated song "Be My Love".

While shooting the Madama Butterfly scene in the film, Lanza kept attempting to french kiss Grayson, which Grayson claimed was made even worse by the fact that Lanza would constantly eat garlic before shooting. Grayson went to costume designer Helen Rose and she sewed pieces of brass into Grayson's gloves. Any time Lanza attempted to french kiss her after that, she hit him with the brass-filled glove.^[23] For the premiere of the film, Grayson traveled to New Orleans, and was a guest at an auction selling the film's costumes.^[24]

Grayson as Magnolia Hawkes.

Grayson replaced June Allyson as the role of Ina Massine in 1951's Grounds for Marriage.^[25] She portrayed an opera singer with laryngitis, alongside Van Johnson who played her doctor and love interest. This was also first non-singing role at MGM. Grayson's musical performances do appear in the film, but in the form of recordings.

Grayson was next cast as Magnolia Hawkes in the 1951 remake of the 1927 Hammerstein and Kern musical, Show Boat, alongside Howard Keel and Judy Garland, however, Garland dropped out of production,^[26][27] and the role went to Ava Gardner. Show Boat was the third-highest grossing film of 1951, earning over $5.533 million.^[28]

Grayson teamed again with Keel that year in Technicolor musical Lovely to Look At, a remake of the 1935 Astaire and Rogers film Roberta.^[29] This would be her last film with MGM, as her contract ended in January 1953. MGM announced her appearance in Rose Marie and a musical version of Goodbye, Mr. Chips, but the contract ended before production on either film began.

Warner Bros.[link]

After 11 years with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Grayson's contract ended, and she went on loan to Warner Bros.. She quickly got to work, and by May, Grayson's first musical with the studio was released, The Desert Song alongside Gordon MacRae. She was asked to perform La bohème at the Central City Opera House in Central City, Colorado, but due to her filming obligations for The Desert Song, she had to turn them down.^[30] 1952 also saw an enormous fire on the Warner Bros. lot, and Grayson was among the movie stars who assisted in removing equipment while the fire blazed.

Grayson appeared on television occasionally from the 1950s, e.g., guest starring in the General Electric Theater episode, Shadow on the Heart, with John Ericson. In the 1980s, she guest starred in three episodes of Murder, She Wrote with Angela Lansbury.

Stage career[link]

Grayson appeared on stage in numerous productions including Show Boat, Rosalinda, Kiss Me, Kate, Naughty Marietta, and The Merry Widow, for which she was nominated for Chicago's Sarah Siddons Award.

In 1953, Grayson optioned the story It's Greek to Me, written by Helen Deutsch, to be accompanied by a score from Cole Porter. The story was a mythical love story about Hercules and Hippolyte, and Grayson hoped to be reunited with Howard Keel and take the show on the road, however, the project fell apart.^[31]

Her casting in The Merry Widow led to her replacing Julie Andrews in 1962 as Queen Guinevere in Camelot. She then continued the role for over sixteen months in the national tour of the United States before leaving for health reasons.

Grayson had a lifelong dream of being an opera star, and she appeared in a number of operas in the 1960s, such as La bohème, Madama Butterfly, Orpheus in the Underworld and La traviata. Her dramatic and comedy stage roles included Night Watch, Noises Off, Love Letters and Something's Afoot as Dottie Otterling.

Musical career[link]

Having trained from the age of twelve, as an opera singer, Grayson sang as coloratura soprano, in the style of operatic arias.^[32]

While appearing in her films roles, Grayson also performed on the radio.^[33] Grayson performed on concert tours throughout the 1950s. In May 1951, Grayson had to postpone a concert tour due to being unknowingly cast in Lovely to Look At. "My concert bookings were all set. So when I read in New York that I was to do this film, I said 'How silly!', then boom! The next day I got my studio telegram asking me to return for the picture!"^[34]

In 1952, Grayson was offered more than $10,000 to perform for a week at the Riviera night club in New Jersey before making The Desert Song.^[35] After filming The Desert Song, Grayson created a recording of the musical with Tony Martin.^[20]

Grayson supervised the Voice and Choral Studies Program at Idaho State University.^[36][37]

Personal life[link]

Grayson married twice, first to actor John Shelton (born Edward S. Price) and then to the actor/singer Johnnie Johnston.

John Shelton[link]

Shelton and Grayson eloped to Las Vegas, Nevada, where they were married on July 11, 1941.^[38] The two had courted for 18 months, after meeting while making screen tests.

In July 1942, Shelton moved out of their Brentwood home and into his own apartment. This came after a month of reconciliation after a judge dismissed their divorce suit. Grayson charged Shelton with mental cruelty.^[39] They divorced on June 17, 1946.^[40]

Johnnie Johnston[link]

Grayson wed Johnston on August 22, 1947 in Carmel, California.^[41] On October 7, 1948, Grayson's only child, daughter Patricia "Patty Cake" Kathryn Johnston was born. Grayson and Johnston separated on November 15, 1950. On October 3, 1951, Grayson was given a divorce from Johnston on the grounds of mental cruelty.^[42] Johnston's This Time for Keeps co-star, Esther Williams, claimed in her 1999 autobiography that while making the film, Johnston would read Grayson's intimate letters aloud to the girls in his fan club, including the "all-too-graphic details concerning what she liked about his love-making."^[43]

Though she never married again, Grayson was frequently seen in the late 1950s with Robert Evans.^[22]

According to her secretary, Grayson died in her sleep at her home in Los Angeles, California on February 17, 2010, aged 88.^[1]

Filmography[link]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Davis, Ronald (2001). Van Johnson: MGM's Golden Boy. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-57806-377-2. http://books.google.com/?id=RG2PFR0tFSAC&lpg=PP1&dq=isbn%3A9781578063772&pg=PP1. Retrieved 2010-07-30. 
• Parish, James Robert; Pitts, Michael R. (2003). Hollywood Songsters: Garland to O'Connor. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-94333-8. http://books.google.com/?id=H49LAAAAYAAJ&dq=isbn%3A9780415943338. Retrieved 2010-07-30. 
• Williams, Esther; Diehl, Digby (1999). The Million Dollar Mermaid: An Autobiography (1st ed.). ISBN 978-0-15-601135-8. http://books.google.com/?id=qItZAAAAMAAJ&dq=isbn%3A9780156011358. Retrieved 2010-07-30. 

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Kathryn Grayson

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kathryn Grayson

• Official website
• Kathryn Grayson at the Internet Movie Database
• Kathryn Grayson at Find a Grave
• Kathryn Grayson photographs and literature
• Kathryn Grayson – The Daily Telegraph obituary
• Kathryn Grayson Fansite

George Sidney (October 4, 1916 – May 5, 2002) was an American film director and film producer who worked primarily at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Career[link]

Born in Long Island City, New York, Sidney began his career as an assistant at MGM until being assigned to direct the Our Gang comedies, which MGM had just acquired from Hal Roach, in 1938. Sidney, then age 21, was the youngest Our Gang senior director ever, and was only nine years older than the eldest Our Gang kid, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer's brother Harold Switzer.

After a year of working on Our Gang shorts, Sidney moved on to the Crime Does Not Pay series and popular Pete Smith specialties. He soon graduated to features, including The Harvey Girls (1946), The Three Musketeers (1948), Annie Get Your Gun (1950), Kiss Me, Kate (1953), Pal Joey (1957), and Elvis Presley's Viva Las Vegas (1964). His last film was Half a Sixpence (1967).

Sidney became good friends with MGM animation directors William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Hanna and Barbera's Jerry Mouse appeared alongside Gene Kelly in Sidney's film Anchors Aweigh (1945). After MGM closed its animation studio in 1957, Sidney helped Hanna and Barbera form a deal with Screen Gems, the television division of Columbia Pictures, to form the successful television animation studio Hanna-Barbera Productions, for which Sidney served as President/CEO for ten years, and was the majority shareholder in the company. Sidney later featured Hanna-Barbera's Fred Flintstone, Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear in Bye Bye Birdie.

Sidney was nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award four times, starting with the lush Technicolor remake of Show Boat. In 1958 he was presented with a Golden Globe Award for Best World Entertainment through Musical Films. For his work in the art of cinema, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He died of complications from lymphoma in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the age of 85. He was interred at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery.

Motion picture actor George Sidney (1876–1945, born Samuel Greenfield) was his uncle.

Awards and nominations[link]

Partial filmography[link]

• High Pressure (1932)
• Pilot #5 (1943)
• Thousands Cheer (1943)
• Anchors Aweigh (1945)
• Ziegfeld Follies (1945)
• The Harvey Girls (1946)
• Holiday in Mexico (1946)
• Cass Timberlane (1947)
• The Three Musketeers (1948)
• The Red Danube (1949)
• Key to the City (1950)
• Annie Get Your Gun (1950)
• Show Boat (1951)
• Scaramouche (1952)
• Young Bess (1953)
• Kiss Me Kate (1953)
• Jupiter's Darling (1955)
• The Eddy Duchin Story (1956)
• Jeanne Eagels (1957)
• Pal Joey (1957)
• Bye Bye Birdie (1963)
• A Ticklish Affair (1963)
• Viva Las Vegas (1964)
• The Swinger (1966)
• Half a Sixpence (1967)

External links[link]

Biography portal

• George Sidney at the Internet Movie Database
• George Sidney at AllRovi
• George Sidney at Find a Grave

v t e Our Gang Our Gang members Wally Albright • Sherwood "Spud" Bailey • Matthew "Stymie" Beard • Scotty Beckett • Tommy "Butch" Bond • Sonny Bupp • Janet Burston • Peggy Cartwright • Norman "Chubby" Chaney • Joe Cobb • John "Uh-huh" Collum • Jackie Condon • Jackie Cooper • Dorothy Dandridge • Mickey Daniels • Jean Darling • Jackie Davis • Dorothy DeBorba • Johnny Downs • Marianne Edwards • Mickey Gubitosi • Donald Haines • Darryl Hickman • Darla Hood • Allen "Farina" Hoskins • Philip Hurlic • Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins • Eugene "Pineapple" Jackson • Mary Ann Jackson • Gary "Junior" Jasgur • Darwood "Waldo" Kaye • Leonard Kibrick • Sidney "The Woim" Kibrick • Mary Kornman • Mildred Kornman • Leonard Landy • Billy "Froggy" Laughlin • Eugene "Porky" Lee • Jacquie Lyn • Kendall "Breezey Brisbane" McComas • Buddy McDonald • George "Spanky" McFarland • Dickie Moore • Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison • Juanita Quigley • Shirley Jean Rickert • Andy Samuel • Jay R. Smith • Harry Spear • Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer • Harold Switzer • Jackie Lynn Taylor • Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas • Jerry Tucker • Bobby "Bonedust" Young • Pete the Pup • June Marlowe (Miss Crabtree) Films Our Gang filmography Directors Sam Baerwitz • Edward L. Cahn • Gordon Douglas • Cy Endfield • Herbert Glazer • James W. Horne • Robert A. McGowan (Anthony Mack) • Robert F. McGowan • Fred Newmeyer • Gus Meins • James Parrott • George Sidney • Nate Watt Book · Category

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Ava Gardner
a 1953 publicity photo
Born	Ava Lavinia Gardner (1922-12-24)December 24, 1922 Grabtown, North Carolina, U.S.
Died	January 25, 1990(1990-01-25) (aged 67) Westminster, London, England, UK
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1941–86
Spouse	Mickey Rooney (m. 1942–1943) «start: (1942)–end+1: (1944)»"Marriage: Mickey Rooney to Ava Gardner" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Ava_Gardner) Artie Shaw (m. 1945–1946) «start: (1945)–end+1: (1947)»"Marriage: Artie Shaw to Ava Gardner" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Ava_Gardner) Frank Sinatra (m. 1951–1957) «start: (1951)–end+1: (1958)»"Marriage: Frank Sinatra to Ava Gardner" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Ava_Gardner)

Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress.

She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers (1946). She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses, considered one of the most beautiful women of her day. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in Mogambo (1953).

She appeared in several high-profile films from the 1950s to 1970s, including The Hucksters (1947), Show Boat (1951), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), The Barefoot Contessa (1954), Bhowani Junction (1956), On the Beach (1959), Seven Days in May (1964), The Night of the Iguana (1964), The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), Earthquake (1974), and The Cassandra Crossing (1976). Gardner continued to act regularly until 1986, four years before her death from pneumonia, at age 67, in 1990.

She is listed 25th among the American Film Institute's Greatest female stars.^[1]

Early years[link]

Gardner was born in the big farming community of Grabtown, Johnston County, North Carolina, the youngest of seven children (she had two brothers, Raymond and Melvin, and four sisters, Beatrice, Elsie Mae, Inez, and Myra). Her parents, Mary Elizabeth "Mollie" (née Baker) and Jonas Bailey Gardner, were poor cotton and tobacco farmers. Her ancestry was said to include Scots-Irish, English, Irish, French Huguenot, and American Indian (Tuscarora).^[2][3][4] She was raised a Baptist. While the children still were young, the Gardners lost their property, forcing Jonas Gardner to work at a sawmill and Mollie to begin working as a cook and housekeeper at a dormitory for teachers at the nearby Brogden School.

When Gardner was seven years old, the family decided to try their luck in a larger city, Newport News, Virginia, where Mollie Gardner found work managing a boardinghouse for the city's many shipworkers. While in Newport News, Gardner's father became ill and died from bronchitis in 1938, when Ava was 15 years old. After Jonas Gardner's death, the family moved to Rock Ridge near Wilson, North Carolina, where Mollie Gardner ran another boarding house for teachers. Ava Gardner attended high school in Rock Ridge and she graduated from there in 1939. She then attended secretarial classes at Atlantic Christian College in Wilson for about a year.

Early career[link]

in My Forbidden Past (1951)

Gardner was visiting her sister Beatrice ("Bappie") in New York in 1941 when Beatrice's husband Larry Tarr, a professional photographer, offered to take her portrait. He was so pleased with the results that he displayed the finished product in the front window of his Tarr Photography Studio on 25th Avenue.^{[citation needed]} A Loews Theatres legal clerk, Barnard "Barney" Duhan, spotted Gardner's photo in Tarr's studio. At the time, Duhan often posed as an MGM talent scout to meet girls, using the fact that MGM was a subsidiary of Loews. Duhan entered Tarr's and tried to get Gardner's number, but was rebuffed by the receptionist. Duhan made the offhand comment, "Somebody should send her info to MGM", and the Tarrs did so immediately. Shortly after, Gardner, who at the time was a student at Atlantic Christian College, traveled to New York to be interviewed at MGM's New York office by Al Altman, head of MGM's New York talent department. With cameras rolling, he directed the eighteen-year-old to walk toward the camera, turn and walk away, then rearrange some flowers in a vase. He did not attempt to record her voice because her Southern accent made it almost impossible for him to understand her. Though Al thought Ava the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, he believed the test was a disaster and was completely surprised by what he saw in the screening room. On screen she was magnetic. The camera loved her. He sent the test to Hollywood. Louis B. Mayer, head of the studio, sent a telegram to Al: "She can't sing, she can't act, she can't talk, She's terrific!" She was offered a standard contract by MGM, and left school for Hollywood in 1941 with her sister Bappie accompanying her. MGM's first order of business was to provide her a speech coach, as her Carolina drawl was nearly incomprehensible to them.^[5]

Career[link]

Gardner came to prominence in the Mark Hellinger-produced smash hit film noir The Killers (1946), which introduced Burt Lancaster to the screen in the lead role.

With Burt Lancaster in The Killers (1946)

The Killers (1946)

Other films include The Hucksters (1947) with Clark Gable, Show Boat (1951), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) with Gregory Peck, Lone Star (1952) with Clark Gable, Mogambo (1953) with Clark Gable and Grace Kelly, 1954's The Barefoot Contessa with Humphrey Bogart (which some consider to be Gardner's "signature film" since it mirrored her real life custom of going barefoot), Bhowani Junction (1956), The Sun Also Rises with Tyrone Power and Errol Flynn (in which she played party-girl Brett Ashley) (1957), and the film version of Nevil Shute's best-selling On the Beach with Peck and Fred Astaire. Off-camera, she could be witty and pithy, as in her assessment of director John Ford, who directed Mogambo ("The meanest man on earth. Thoroughly evil. Adored him!")^[6]

As torch singer-on-the-make Jean Ogilvie in 1947's The Hucksters, doing some selling of her own to radio ad-man Clark Gable

Gardner again appeared with Lancaster, this time paired with Kirk Douglas, in Seven Days in May (1962), a taut thriller about a military takeover of the US government. She found herself billed between Charlton Heston and David Niven in the epic 55 Days at Peking in 1963, a lavish version of the Chinese revolt against foreign control during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.

The following year, she played her last great leading role in a superlative film, The Night of the Iguana (1964), based upon a Tennessee Williams play and starring Richard Burton as an atheist clergyman and Deborah Kerr as a gentle artist traveling with her aged poet grandfather. John Huston directed the movie in Puerto Vallarta Mexico, insisting on making the film in black and white, a decision he later regretted because of the vivid colors of the flora. Gardner received billing below Burton but above Deborah Kerr. Gardner was nominated for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe award for her hearty performance in this signature role.

Two years later, in 1966, Gardner briefly sought the role of Mrs. Robinson in Mike Nichols' The Graduate (1967). She reportedly called Nichols and said, "I want to see you! I want to talk about this Graduate thing!" Nichols never seriously considered her for the part, preferring to cast a younger woman (Anne Bancroft was 36 while Gardner was 45), but he did visit her hotel, where he later recounted that "she sat at a little French desk with a telephone, she went through every movie star cliché. She said, 'All right, let's talk about your movie. First of all, I strip for nobody.'"^[7]

Gardner moved to London, England in 1968, undergoing an elective hysterectomy to allay her worries of contracting the uterine cancer that had claimed the life of her own mother. That year, she made what some consider to be one of her best films, Mayerling, in which she played the supporting role of Austrian Empress Elisabeth of Austria opposite James Mason as Emperor Franz Joseph I.

Mogambo (1953)

She appeared in a number of disaster films throughout the 1970s, notably Earthquake (1974) with Charlton Heston, The Cassandra Crossing (1976), and the Canadian movie City on Fire (1979). She also appeared briefly as Lillie Langtry at the end of The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) with Paul Newman and Jacqueline Bisset, and in The Blue Bird (1976) with Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Fonda.

Her last movie was Regina Roma (1982), a direct-to-video release. In the 1980s she acted primarily on television, including the miniseries remake of The Long Hot Summer (1985) and the prime-time soap opera Knots Landing, also in 1985. In 1986 she appeared in her two final projects, the TV movies Harem and Maggie.

Marriages and relationships[link]

Mickey Rooney[link]

Soon after her arrival in Los Angeles, Gardner met fellow MGM contract player Mickey Rooney; they married on January 10, 1942, in Ballard, California; she was 19 years old and he was 21. They divorced in 1943. He reputedly rhapsodized about their sex life later, but Gardner said, "He may have enjoyed the sex, but [goodness knows] I didn't."^{[citation needed]} She once characterized their marriage as "Love Finds Andy Hardy".

Howard Hughes[link]

Gardner became a friend of businessman and aviator Howard Hughes in the early to mid-1940s and the relationship lasted into the 1950s.^[8] Ava stated in her autobiography Ava: My Story, that she was never in love with Howard Hughes, but he was in and out of her life for about twenty years. Howard's trust in Ava was what kept their relationship alive. She describes him as "painfully shy, completely enigmatic and more eccentric...than anyone [she] had ever met." ^[9]

Artie Shaw[link]

Gardner's second marriage was brief and to jazz musician and band leader Artie Shaw, from 1945 to 1946.

Frank Sinatra[link]

Sinatra, whose career had seriously slumped, accompanied his wife Gardner to Africa during filming for Mogambo (1953)

Gardner's third and last marriage (1951–1957) was to singer and actor Frank Sinatra. She would later say in her autobiography that he was the love of her life. Sinatra left his wife, Nancy, for Ava and their subsequent marriage made headlines. Sinatra was savaged by gossip columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons, the Hollywood establishment, the Roman Catholic Church and by his fans for leaving his wife for a noted femme fatale. Gardner used her considerable influence, particularly with Harry Cohn's wife, to get Sinatra cast in his Oscar-winning role in From Here to Eternity (1953). That role and the award revitalized both Sinatra's acting and singing careers.

The Gardner-Sinatra marriage was tumultuous. Gardner confided to Artie Shaw, her second husband, that “With him [Frank] it’s impossible…it’s like being with a woman. He’s so gentle. It’s as though he thinks I’ll break, as though I’m a piece of Dresden china and he’s gonna hurt me.” ^[10] During their marriage Gardner became pregnant twice, but she had two abortions. "MGM had all sorts of penalty clauses about their stars having babies," she said.^[11] She said years later, "We couldn't even take care of ourselves. How were we going to take care of a baby?"^{[citation needed]} Gardner and Sinatra remained good friends for the rest of her life.

Luis Miguel Dominguín[link]

Gardner divorced Sinatra in 1957 and headed to Spain where she began a friendship with writer Ernest Hemingway. While staying with Hemingway at his villa in San Francisco de Paula in Havana, Cuba, Gardner once swam alone with no bathing suit in his pool. After watching her, Hemingway ordered his staff: "The water is not to be emptied".^[12] Gardner's friendship with Hemingway led to her becoming a fan of bullfighting and bullfighters such as Luis Miguel Dominguín, who became her lover. "It was a sort of madness, honey," she said later of the time.^{[citation needed]}

Final years and death[link]

After a lifetime of smoking, Gardner suffered from emphysema, a terminal disease, in addition to an auto-immune disorder (which may have been lupus).^{[citation needed]} Two strokes in 1986 left her partially paralyzed and bedridden. Although Gardner could afford her medical expenses, Sinatra wanted to pay for her to visit a specialist in the United States, and she allowed him to make the arrangements for a medically-staffed private plane. Her last words (to her housekeeper Carmen), were reportedly, "I'm so tired," before she died of pneumonia at the age of 67. After her death, Sinatra's daughter, Tina, found him slumped in his room, crying, and unable to speak.^[13]

Gardner was not only the love of his life, but also was the inspiration for one of his most personal songs, "I'm a Fool to Want You", which Sinatra (who received a co-writing credit for the song) recorded twice, toward the end of his contract with Columbia Records and during his years on Capitol Records. ("It was Ava who taught him how to sing a torch song",^{[citation needed]} Sinatra arranger Nelson Riddle was once quoted as saying.) Because of the presence of a black limousine parked behind the crowd of 500 mourners, it was reported that Sinatra attended her funeral; it turned out to be a hairstylist from Fayetteville, North Carolina, who felt that a limousine was the only appropriate mode of transportation to Gardner's funeral. A floral arrangement at Gardner's graveside simply read: "With My Love, Francis".^{[citation needed]}

Gardner was buried in the Sunset Memorial Park, Smithfield, North Carolina, next to her brothers and their parents, Jonah (1878–1938) and Mollie Gardner (1883–1943). The town of Smithfield now has an Ava Gardner Museum.

Award Nominations[link]

Gardner was nominated for an Academy Award for Mogambo (1953); the award was won by Audrey Hepburn for Roman Holiday. Her performance as Maxine Faulk in The Night of the Iguana (1964), was well reviewed, and she was nominated a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe.

Film portrayals[link]

Gardner has been portrayed by Marcia Gay Harden in the TV miniseries Sinatra, Deborah Kara Unger in HBO's The Rat Pack, Kate Beckinsale in the 2004 Howard Hughes biopic, The Aviator and Anna Drijver in the 2012 Italian TV film Walter Chiari - Fino all'ultima risata.^[14]

Filmography[link]