Stardom at 24

Miss Gardner later attributed the brevity of the first marriage to the couple's youth and to other people's domination of their lives. A press agent invariably accompanied them, even on their honeymoon. Of the second marriage, Miss Gardner said, Mr. Shaw insisted she read scores of books and insulted her intelligence in public.

Despite the personal setbacks, Miss Gardner won stardom at the age of 24 as a gun moll who betrays her lover (Burt Lancaster in his film debut) in ''The Killers.'' Other early starring roles were in a musical, ''One Touch of Venus'' (1948); a melodrama, ''The Great Sinner'' (1949), and a fantasy, ''Pandora and the Flying Dutchman'' (1951).

Miss Gardner's third marriage, to Frank Sinatra in 1951, was one of the most publicized Hollywood unions of the time. The couple had bitter public quarrels and separated in 1953 but tried a series of brief cross-country, trans-Atlantic reconciliations. They were finally divorced in 1957.

In a 1986 book, ''His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra,'' Kitty Kelley attributed the following quotation to the actress:

''You start with love, or what you think is love, and then comes the work. I guess you have to be mature and grown up to know how to work at it. But I was the youngest of seven kids and was always treated like the baby, and I liked it and played the baby. Now I'm having a helluva time growing up.''

On TV as Nero's Mother

In 1958 Miss Gardner left M-G-M and became an independent actress, earning up to $400,000 a movie, most of them made in Europe. Her films included ''55 Days at Peking'' (1963), ''Seven Days in May'' (1964), ''Mayerling'' (1969), ''The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean'' (1972), ''The Blue Bird'' (1976) and a handful of disaster epics.

She did not appear on television until 1985, portraying Agrippina, Nero's scheming mother, in ''A.D.,'' a lavish mini-series about the first Christian century, and reviewers hailed her as still very much a star. Asked about her reluctance to accept television roles, she replied: ''Television is a lovely thing for people of my age to watch, but it's for young people to make. The kids were very nice to me.''

In the 1950's, the actress was deeply in love with Spain, bullfighting and, reportedly, a succession of bullfighters.

Her celebrated candor made her friends and enemies. When she arrived in Australia to make ''On the Beach,'' she enraged many people by remarking, ''I'm here to make a film about the end of the world, and this sure is the place for it.''

Sympathetic interviewers described her as an outgoing, earthy woman who had a lively sense of humor, particularly about herself, and deep family loyalty. Looking ahead to retirement, Miss Gardner once remarked: ''When I'm old and gray, I want to have a house by the sea. And paint. With a lot of wonderful chums, good music and booze around. And a damn good kitchen to cook in.''

Survivors include two sisters, Beatrice, of Hollywood, and Myra, of Smithfield, N.C., and nieces and nephews.

At her wish, she is to be buried beside her parents in North Carolina.

From a Moll to Guinevere

Ava Gardner appeared in about 60 movies, starting in 1942 and ending in 1981. These were the films for which she was most noted:

The Killers

The Hucksters

One Touch of Venus

Show Boat

Pandora and the Flying Dutchman

The Snows of Kilimanjaro

Mogambo

Knights of the Round Table

The Barefoot Contessa

Bhowani Junction

The Sun Also Rises

The Naked Maja

On the Beach

The Night of the Iguana

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean

The Cassandra Crossing

The Kidnapping of the President