A bit of Hollywood screen history comes to Tampa when the Gasparilla International Film Festival honors Terry Moore.

The actress, 80, made her film debut at 11, and was 18 when she co-starred with Ben Johnson in 1949’s Mighty Joe Young, the era’s other giant-ape movie. She will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award during opening ceremonies of the third annual fest, Feb. 26 at Tampa Theatre.

Moore, a Los Angeles native whose career includes appearances in 77 feature films, received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor for her performance in 1952’s Come Back, Little Sheba, below, opposite Burt Lancaster. She also appeared in another box office hit, 1957’s Peyton Place, as a rancher’s daughter in 1962 NBC Western drama Empire, and as Venus Flytrap in three episodes of television’s “Batman,” in 1967.

During the ’70s, Moore made headlines when she revealed that she had secret married Howard Hughes in 1949, on a yacht off the coast of Mexico. Claiming that they had never divorced, she received an undisclosed settlement in 1984.

Gasparilla Film Festival board members considering honoring a number of veteran actors and actresses — including Charles Durning and Gary Busey — before meeting Moore late last year at a film festival, and deciding to bestow the special award on her, according to a spokeswoman for the fest.

Moore made a cameo in the 1998 remake of Mighty Joe Young. In recent years, she has stayed busy promoting a book, How Do You Stay So Young?, published in July 2008, and appearing in “Old School with Terry & Gita,” a reality show.

Here’s an audio interview with Moore, conducted in 2006.