Want to know the best Ava Gardner movies? How about the worst Ava Gardner movies? Curious about Ava Gardner’s box office grosses or which Ava Gardner movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Ava Gardner movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which ones got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place…. because we have all of that information and much more.
Ava Gardner (1922-1990) was an American actress, who the American Film Institute ranked as one of the Top 50 Screen Legends of all time. Gardner for many years was considered to be the most beautiful woman in the world. Gardner is ranked as the 25th best actress, right behind #24 Mary Pickford. One of our goals is to do a movie page on all 50 Screen Legends. After completing this page we have now written movie pages on 42 (or 84%) of those performers……leaving only 6 actresses and 2 actors that still need movie pages. Speaking of Mary Pickford….we are actually working on a Pickford movie page. However when we were researching box office information on Pickford from 1909 through 1919 ….we got lost….we got confused…..we got scared and we came running back to doing a Gardner page. One day we will figure out how to write a comprehensive movie page on Mary Pickford….but until then we hope you enjoy this Ava Gardner movie page.
Her IMDb page shows 69 acting credits from 1941-1986. This page will rank 40 Ava Gardner movies from Best to Worst in seven different sortable columns of information. Uncredited roles, bit parts, shorts and television appearances were not included in the rankings.
Ava Gardner Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Ava Gardner movies by the year the movie was made
- Sort Ava Gardner movies by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Ava Gardner movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
- Sort Ava Gardner movies by domestic yearly box office rank
- Sort Ava Gardner movies by how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and Oscar® wins each Ava Gardner movie received.
- Sort Ava Gardner movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score. UMR puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Use the sort and search buttons to make this table very interactive. For example…if you type in “Clark Gable” in the search box….the 3 Gardner/Gable movies will pop right up.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Ava Gardner Table
- Sixteen Ava Gardner movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 40.00% of her movies listed. Earthquake (1974) was her biggest box office hit.
- An average Ava Gardner movie grosses $107.70 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 21 of Ava Gardner’s movies are rated as good movies…or 52.50% of her movies. The Killers (1946) was her highest rated movie while City on Fire (1979) was her lowest rated movie.
- Thirteen Ava Gardner movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 32.50% of her movies.
- Three Ava Gardner movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 7.50% of her movies.
- A “good movie” Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 60.00. 22 Ava Gardner movies scored higher that average….or 55.00% of her movies. The Hucksters (1947) got the the highest UMR Movie Score while City on Fire (1979) got the lowest UMR Movie Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Ava Gardner
1. Ava Lavina Gardner was born in Grabtown, North Carolina in 1922….she was a Christmas Eve baby.
2. Ava Gardner was nominated for one acting Oscar®…Best Actress for Mogambo (1953) and one acting Golden Globe®….Best Actress for Night of the Iguana (1964).
3. Ava Gardner’s biggest box office hit was 1974’s Earthquake. Earthquake is also one of her least liked movies by critics and audiences. In our 23,000 movie database it is one of the biggest box office hits with the lowest critic audience rating. It joins all the Transformers movies and Armageddon in that strange club.
4. Ava Gardner was continuously under contract at MGM from 1941-1958.
5. Ava Gardner’s own singing voice was used in her breakthrough role in The Killers (1947). Much to her disgust…MGM dubbed her voice in the rest of her MGM movies.
6. According to the American Film Institute, Ava Gardner is the 25th greatest female star of all-time.
7. Ava Gardner was married three times in her life but did not have any children. All three of her marriages were very much in the public eye….the Angelina Jolie of the 1940s and 1950s? Her first marriage was to actor Mickey Rooney from 1942 to 1943. Her second marriage was to singer Artie Shaw from 1945-1946. Her third and final marriage was to Frank Sinatra from 1951-1957. Her three husbands were eventually married to a total of 20 brides between them.
8. Our favorite Ava Gardner quote comes from Louis B. Mayer. He said….. “She can’t talk, she can’t act, she’s terrific”.
9. Ava Gardner turned down or was seriously considered for these roles: Elizabeth Taylor role in Cleopatra, Elizabeth Taylor role in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Doris Day role in Love Me or Leave Me, Capucine role in The Pink Panther and Geraldine Page in Sweet Bird of Youth.
10. Check out Ava Gardner’s movie career compared to current and classic stars on our Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time page.
hey it’s true that you had not yet made a chart to Ava Gardner. For me one of the most beautiful women in the world and a great actress. Even if she thought otherwise. I’ve seen 12 of her movies. My favorites are Barefoot contessa, and Mogambo.
Hey Anonymous…..thanks for checking out my Ava page. I agree with you 100% she was a very beautiful woman. Cool we have seen the same amount of Ava movies. I have seen and enjoyed both of your favorite Ava movies. Thanks for stopping by.
Also Mrs. Arti Shaw but I think Frank was the love of her life she was so beautiful and aged great.
Hey Katharine W. I agree with your comment…thanks for stopping by and checking out my Ava page.
Ava Gardner, a Hollywood legend and a great beauty in her time. Mickey Rooney was besotted with her and finally got her to marry him, a year later they were divorced.
I’ve seen 16 of the 40 films you’ve listed here. Favorites include Mogambo, Knights of the Round Table, Seven Days in May, Show Boat, Earthquake and 55 Days at Peking.
Of the top 10 on the box office, critics and moviescore charts I haven’t seen The Hucksters, Pandora, The Barefoot Contessa or Judge Roy Bean. Another top job Bruce, well done amigo, voted up.
Hey Steve….. without a doubt she was a Hollywood legend. Can you imagine the coverage her marriage to Rooney and Sinatra would get today? It would be insane. Tally count…Flora takes the crown with 20….Steve gets the silver with 16…..and I get the participation award of last place with 12. I have to say I am surprised you have not seen the movies you mentioned….Pandora is with James Mason….Bogart in Barefoot Contessa….Newman in Judge Roy Bean and Gable in The Hucksters. Actually I did not enjoy The Hucksters very much. Thanks for the comments and the thoughts.
For some reason I never got round to seeing those films Bruce, but it’s not too late.
Flora is unbeatable when it comes to classic movies that aren’t horror or sci-fi. 🙂
Your mom mentioned Seven Days in May being one of your dads favorites, my dads too. He was a huge Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas fan.
Hey Steve….yep….Flora took us both down again. Ever since my mom’s comment I have been going through my memory banks trying to remember him talking about that movie…..drawing blanks…..but glad I now know. It seems that our late fathers had the same tastes in movies. Maybe they are somewhere trying to talk people into rewatching Seven Days in May or Lawrence of Arabia.
Well, I have enjoyed seeing the site for Ava Gardner. She was a very good actress. I have seen many but not all her movies. I thought Artie Shaw was a band leader but I guess I am wrong. THANKS VERY MUCH FOR THIS…SEVEN DAYS OF MAY WAS ONE OF YOUR FATHER’S FAVORITE MOVIES – WE ENJOYED THAT ONE SO MUCH.
Hey BERN1960…..thanks for stopping by. Glad you liked my Ava page. I did a quick IMDb search on Artie Shaw and it said he had 8 soundtrack credits….so I thought he was a singer….I will have to look closer at him to figure out why he was famous. I did not realize dad liked Seven Days in May so much….I will have to revisit that one. Thanks for the comment and the information…both are greatly appreciated.
Hi, Cogerson.
Cute commentary about the research on Mary Pickford.
I noticed that you say above the table that you are going to rank 22 movies. You have in fact rated 40 movies, so that typo to be changed.
I have seen a lot of Ava Gardner’s career and always enjoy her performances.
The highest ranking movie I have seen is her first starring role: The Killers at number 1.
The lowest ranking movie I have seen is The Cassandra Crossing at number 38. It is also the most recent of her films that I have seen. Most of the titles I have seen are before 1970, although I did see this and Earthquake.
The highest ranking film I have *never* seen is Maisie Goes To Reno at number 17.
One movie of which I have never heard is The Kidnapping of the President at number 27, despite knowing the cast.
Since I have seen all of the top 16 films of Ava’s career, I will start my rankings list a little differently:
I have seen all of her top 15 movies.
I have seen 18 of her top 25 movies.
I have seen 17 of her top 35 movies.
I have seen 19 of her 40 movies, nearly half.
Of the films I have not seen, I am looking forward to finding 3 Men in White, Mayerling, Singapore, Lonestar and My Forbidden Past for her costars.
Of her movies with Gregory Peck, my favourite is The Great Sinner. These are not easy films to watch.
Looking in terms of which films I see repeatable times, I’d say my favourite 5 Ava Gardner movies are as follows:
The Killers
The Barefoot Contessa
The Bribe
The Night of the Iguana
The Little Hut (yes, I know the ranking is low)
Great fun to look at Ava Gardner.
Regarding future AFI stars, I think it should be less scary or confusing to look at names like Rita Hayworth, Carole lombard, Lauren Bacall, and Orsen Welles before trying silent film era stars…focus on the names that will be easier to find first.
I noticed in regards to studios, you have done few Columbia Studio names, by the way.
Cheers, Flora
Correction in rankings:
I have seen 19 of her top 25
I have seen 20 films overall.
Cheers, Flora
Understood…..50% compared to my 30%.
Hey Flora.
1. I got off to a good start on Pickford….as I found box office information on every movie she made from 1919 to 1933. The rest of her movies seem impossible to find…although I just went and got 3 Pickford bios….that might help.
2. Thanks for the catch on 22 versus 40….that has been fixed.
3. She has a very small part in Maisie Goes To Reno…..so I do not think you are missing much there….I think it was the 7th or 8th Ann Sothern Maisie movies….they made a total of 10.
4. While researching her William Shatner movie….I came across a comment from a guy that worked in theater when Kidnapping the President came out….and he said that many older people were coming to the theater to see Ava and Van Johnson.
5. Tally count….Flora 20, Steve 16 and me….counting ….12…..once again…sitting last. 72% of her Top 25 is pretty impressive.
6. I have to admit I have not seen The Great Sinner…..but I will add it to the list ofmovies to watch.
7. I have seen 3 of your Top 5….she is easily the best part of Night of the Iguana. The Little Hut sounds interesting.
8. At this point….I only have 8 AFI stars left…..and 3 are silent icons…Keaton, Pickford and Gish. I am going to have to tackle that soon… Lombard will be a challenge too….as her box office stuff is hard to find too. Bacall, Colbert and Hayworth seem like the easy ones left….while Orson has so many movies and so many movies that barely got seen in theaters…he will be a challenge too. But can’t stop now that I am so close to finishing this quest.
9. Good eye….Columbia is one of my weaker links when it comes to box office information…I have MGM, RKO, and Warner Brothers ledgers…I have a great books on Fox and 20th Century…but Columbia, Universal and Paramount remain problems with researching older movies. Which Columbia stars stand out the most…that need a page?
10. As always….thanks for your thoughts on movies.
Regarding Columbia, their biggest star you will be doing as part of your AFI legends list: Rita Hayworth. Her main leading man was Glenn Ford who is another favourite of mine. Evelyn Keyes – one of Scarlett’s sisters in GWTW – was in Columbia too.
Hey Flora….Rita will be coming soon….Glenn Ford is on the request list…as for Evelyn Keyes,,,,you got me stumped there….I have to admit I have never even heard of her before….but I will check her out too. Thanks for the revisiting my Ava page.