Born on 7.18.61, Elizabeth McGovern was around 18 when she played Jeanine Pratt in Robert Redford’s Ordinary People (9.10.80). A lively career followed, and 45 years have since flown by. McGovern is now about to begin a six-week run in Ava: The Secret Conversations at the New York City Center (131 W. 55th Street).

On-stage she resembles the older Ava Gardner, wearing a dark and tidy On The Beach wig. This Ava actually half-resembles the brunette Elizabeth McGovern who appeared in Cannes in 2012. But she’s gone gray in recent years and is making no effort to hold onto a semblance of her former self.

The truth is that McGovern currently looks like a blend of Jessica Tandy in The Birds and that care-worn woman who came to take Blanche Dubois to the mental hospital during the finale of A Streetcar Named Desire.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

McGovern is roughly Demi Moore’s age (actually a year older), but she sure as hell hasn’t been taking Substance injections. We’re simply accustomed to famous actresses looking a little bit better for wear, and it’s a wee bit jolting when, out of costume and sans makeup, they appear to be more or less their natural age. Which is not a crime — just a surprise.