   #copyright

Bette Davis

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Actors, models and
celebrities

   Bette Davis
   from the Jezebel film trailer, 1938.
   Birth name Ruth Elizabeth Davis
   Born       April 5, 1908
              Lowell, Massachusetts, USA
   Died       October 6, 1989
              Neuilly, France
   Academy
    Awards    Best Actress
              1935 Dangerous
              1938 Jezebel
   Emmy
    Awards    Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie
              1979 Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter

   Bette Davis ( April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989), born Ruth Elizabeth
   Davis, was a two-time Academy Award-winning American actress of film,
   television and theatre.

   After appearing in Broadway plays, Davis moved to Hollywood in 1930,
   but her early films for Universal Studios were unsuccessful. She joined
   Warner Brothers in 1932 and established her career with several
   critically acclaimed performances. In 1937, she attempted to free
   herself from her contract and although she lost a well-publicized legal
   case, it marked the beginning of the most successful period of her
   career. Until the late 1940s, she was one of American cinema's most
   celebrated leading actresses. She was highly regarded for her
   performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime
   melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies,
   though her greatest successes were in romantic dramas.

   Known for her forceful and often intense style, Davis became known for
   her willingness to play unsympathetic characters. She gained a
   reputation as a perfectionist who could be highly combative, and her
   confrontations with studio executives, film directors and costars were
   often reported. Her forthright manner, clipped vocal style and
   ubiquitous cigarette contributed to a public persona which has often
   been imitated and satirized.

   Davis was the co-founder of the Hollywood Canteen, and was the first
   female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
   She was the first actress to receive ten Academy Award nominations and
   the first woman to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the
   American Film Institute. Her career went through several periods of
   decline, and she admitted that her success had often been at the
   expense of her personal relationships. Married four times, she was once
   widowed and thrice divorced, and raised her children as a single
   parent. Her final years were marred by a long period of ill health.
   However, she continued acting until shortly before her death from
   cancer, with more than one hundred film, television and theatre roles
   to her credit.

Background and early acting career

   Ruth Elizabeth Davis, known from early childhood as "Betty", was born
   in Lowell, Massachusetts, to Harlow Morrell Davis and Ruth ("Ruthie")
   Augusta Favour; her sister, Barbara ("Bobby"), was born October 25,
   1909. The family was of English, French, and Welsh ancestry. In 1915,
   Davis's parents separated and, in 1921, Ruth Davis moved to New York
   City with her daughters, where she worked as a photographer. Betty was
   inspired to become an actress after seeing Rudolph Valentino in The
   Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) and Mary Pickford in Little Lord
   Fauntleroy (1921), and changed the spelling of her name to "Bette"
   after Honoré de Balzac's La Cousine Bette. She received encouragement
   from her mother, who had aspired to become an actress.

   She attended Cushing Academy, a finishing school in Ashburnham,
   Massachusetts where she met her future husband, Harmon O. Nelson, known
   as "Ham". In 1926, she saw a production of Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck
   with Blanche Yurka and Peg Entwistle. Davis later recalled that it
   inspired her full commitment to her chosen career, and said, "Before
   that performance I wanted to be an actress. When it ended, I had to be
   an actress... exactly like Peg Entwistle". She auditioned for admission
   to Eva LeGallienne's Manhattan Civic Repertory, but was rejected by
   LeGallienne who described her attitude as "insincere" and "frivolous".
   She was accepted by the John Murray Anderson School of Theatre, where
   she also studied dance with Martha Graham.

   She auditioned for George Cukor's stock theatre company, and although
   he was not impressed, he gave Davis her first paid acting assignment –
   a one week stint playing the part of a chorus girl in the play,
   Broadway. She was later chosen to play Hedwig, the character she had
   seen Peg Entwistle play, in The Wild Duck. After performing in
   Philadelphia, Washington and Boston, she made her Broadway debut in
   1929 in Broken Dishes, and followed it with Solid South. She was seen
   by a Universal Studios talent scout, who invited her to Hollywood for a
   screen test.

Transition from stage to film

   Accompanied by her mother, Davis traveled by train to Hollywood,
   arriving on December 13, 1930. She later recounted her surprise that
   nobody from the studio was there to meet her; a studio employee had
   waited for her, but left because he saw nobody who "looked like an
   actress". She failed her first screen test but was used in several
   screen tests for other actors. In a 1971 interview with Dick Cavett,
   she related the experience with the observation, "I was the most
   Yankee-est, most modest virgin who ever walked the earth. They laid me
   on a couch, and I tested fifteen men... They all had to lie on top of
   me and give me a passionate kiss. Oh, I thought I would die. Just
   thought I would die." A second test was arranged for Davis, for the
   film A House Divided (1931). Hastily dressed in an ill-fitting costume
   with a low neckline, she was rebuffed by the director William Wyler,
   who loudly commented to the assembled crew, "What do you think of these
   dames who show their chests and think they can get jobs?" Carl Laemmle,
   the head of Universal Studios, considered terminating Davis's
   employment, but the cinematographer Karl Freund told him she had
   "lovely eyes" and would be suitable for The Bad Sister (1931), in which
   she subsequently made her film debut. Her nervousness was compounded
   when she overheard the Chief of Production, Carl Laemmle Jr., comment
   to another executive that she had "about as much sex appeal as Slim
   Summerville", one of the film's co-stars. The film was not a success,
   and her next role in Seed (1931) was too brief to attract attention.

   Universal Studios renewed her contract for three months, and she
   appeared in Waterloo Bridge (1931) before being loaned to Columbia
   Pictures for The Feathered Serpent and The Menace, and to Capital Films
   for Hell's House (all 1932). After nine months, and six unsuccessful
   films, Laemmle elected not to renew her contract.

   George Arliss chose Davis for the lead female role in The Man Who
   Played God (1932), and for the rest of her life, Davis credited him
   with helping her achieve her "break" in Hollywood. The Saturday Evening
   Post wrote, "she is not only beautiful, but she bubbles with charm",
   and compared her to Constance Bennett and Olive Borden. Warner Brothers
   signed her to a five year contract.

   In 1932, she married "Ham" Nelson, who was scrutinized by the press;
   his $100 a week earnings compared unfavorably with Davis's reported
   $1000 a week income. Davis addressed the issue in an interview,
   pointing out that many Hollywood wives earned more than their husbands,
   but the situation proved difficult for Nelson, who refused to allow
   Davis to purchase a house until he could afford to pay for it himself.
   As the shrewish Mildred in Of Human Bondage (1934), Davis was acclaimed
   for her dramatic performance.
   Enlarge
   As the shrewish Mildred in Of Human Bondage (1934), Davis was acclaimed
   for her dramatic performance.

   After more than twenty film roles, the role of the vicious and
   slatternly Mildred Rogers in Of Human Bondage (1934) earned Davis her
   first major critical acclaim. Many actresses feared playing
   unsympathetic characters, and several had refused the role, but Davis
   viewed it as an opportunity to show the range of her acting skills. Her
   costar, Leslie Howard, was initially dismissive of her, but as filming
   progressed his attitude changed and he subsequently spoke highly of her
   abilities. The director, John Cromwell, allowed her relative freedom,
   and commented, "I let Bette have her head. I trusted her instincts."
   She insisted that she be portrayed realistically in her death scene,
   and said, "the last stages of consumption, poverty and neglect are not
   pretty and I intended to be convincing-looking".

   The film was a success, and Davis's confronting characterization won
   praise from critics, with Life Magazine writing that she gave "probably
   the best performance ever recorded on the screen by a U.S. actress."
   When she was not nominated for an Academy Award, The Hollywood Citizen
   News questioned the omission and Norma Shearer, herself a nominee,
   joined a campaign to have Davis nominated. This prompted an
   announcement from the Academy president, Howard Estabrook, who said
   that under the circumstances "any voter...may write on the ballot his
   or her personal choice for the winners", thus allowing, for the only
   time in the Academy's history, the consideration of a candidate not
   officially nominated for an award. Claudette Colbert won the award for
   It Happened One Night but the uproar led to a change in Academy voting
   procedures the following year, whereby nominations were determined by
   votes from all eligible members of a particular branch, rather than by
   a smaller committee, with results independently tabulated by the
   accounting firm Price Waterhouse.

   Davis appeared in Dangerous (1935) as a troubled actress and received
   very good reviews. E. Arnot Robertson wrote in Picture Post, "I think
   Bette Davis would probably have been burned as a witch if she had lived
   two or three hundred years ago. She gives the curious feeling of being
   charged with power which can find no ordinary outlet". The New York
   Times hailed her as "becoming one of the most interesting of our screen
   actresses." She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the role,
   but felt it was belated recognition for Of Human Bondage.

   For the rest of her life, Davis maintained that she gave the statue its
   familiar name of "Oscar" because she felt it resembled her husband,
   whose middle name was Oscar, although her claim has been disputed by
   the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, among others.

   In her next film, The Petrified Forest (1936), Davis costarred with
   Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart, but Bogart, in his first important
   role, received most of the critics' praise. Davis appeared in several
   films over the next two years but most were poorly received.

Legal case

   Convinced that her career was being damaged by a succession of mediocre
   films, Davis accepted an offer to appear in two films in England.
   Knowing that she was breaching her contract with Warner Brothers, she
   fled to Canada to avoid legal papers being served upon her. Eventually
   brought to court in England, she later recalled the opening statement
   of the barrister, Sir Patrick Hastings, who represented Warner
   Brothers. Hastings urged the court to "come to the conclusion that this
   is rather a naughty young lady and that what she wants is more money".
   He mocked Davis's description of her contract as "slavery" by stating,
   incorrectly, that she was being paid $1,350 per week. He remarked, "if
   anybody wants to put me into perpetual servitude on the basis of that
   remuneration, I shall prepare to consider it". The British press
   offered little support to Davis, and portrayed her as overpaid and
   ungrateful.

   Davis explained her viewpoint to a journalist, saying "I knew that, if
   I continued to appear in any more mediocre pictures, I would have no
   career left worth fighting for". Davis's counsel presented her
   complaints - that she could be suspended without pay for refusing a
   part, with the period of suspension added to her contract, that she
   could be called upon to play any part within her abilities regardless
   of her personal beliefs, that she could be required to support a
   political party against her beliefs, and that her image and likeness
   could be displayed in any manner deemed applicable by the studio. Jack
   Warner testified, and was asked, "Whatever part you choose to call upon
   her to play, if she thinks she can play it, whether it is distasteful
   and cheap, she has to play it?" Warner replied, "Yes, she must play
   it."

   Davis lost the case and returned to Hollywood, in debt and without
   income, to resume her career. Olivia de Havilland mounted a similar
   case in 1943 and won.

Success as "The Fourth Warner Brother"

   Davis began work on Marked Woman (1937), as a prostitute in a
   contemporary gangster drama inspired by the case of Lucky Luciano. The
   film, and Davis's performance, received excellent reviews and her
   stature as a leading actress was enhanced.

   David O. Selznick was conducting a search for an actress to play
   Scarlett O'Hara, a role Davis coveted, in Gone With the Wind, and a
   radio poll named Davis as the audience favorite. She won a second
   Academy Award for her next film, Jezebel (1938), in which she portrayed
   a willful and self absorbed Southern Belle, much like Scarlett. Warner
   offered her services to Selznick as part of a deal that also included
   Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, but Selznick did not consider
   Davis as suitable, and rejected the offer. During the filming of
   Jezebel, Davis entered a relationship with the director, William Wyler.
   She later described him as the "love of my life", and said that making
   the film with him was "the time in my life of my most perfect
   happiness".

   Jezebel marked the beginning of the most successful phase of Davis's
   career, and over the next few years she was listed in the annual
   "Quigley Poll of the Top Ten Money Making Stars", which was compiled
   from the votes of movie exhibitors throughout the U.S. for the stars
   that had generated the most revenue in their theaters over the previous
   year. In contrast to Davis's success, her husband, Ham Nelson, had
   failed to establish a career for himself, and their relationship
   faltered. In 1938, Nelson obtained evidence that Davis was engaged in a
   sexual relationship with Howard Hughes and subsequently filed for
   divorce citing Davis's "cruel and inhuman manner".

   She was emotional during the making of her next film, Dark Victory
   (1939), and considered abandoning it until the producer Hal Wallis
   convinced her to channel her despair into her acting. The film became
   one of the highest grossing films of the year, and the role of Judith
   Traherne brought her an Academy Award nomination. In later years, Davis
   cited this performance as her personal favorite.

   She appeared in three other box office hits in 1939, The Old Maid with
   Miriam Hopkins, Juarez with Paul Muni and The Private Lives of
   Elizabeth and Essex with Errol Flynn. The latter was her first color
   film, and was one of her few colour films made during the height of her
   career. To play the elderly Elizabeth I of England, Davis shaved her
   hairline and eyebrows. During filming she was visited on the set by the
   actor, Charles Laughton. She commented that she had a "nerve" playing a
   woman in her sixties, to which Laughton replied, "Never not dare to
   hang yourself. That's the only way you grow in your profession. You
   must continually attempt things that you think are beyond you, or you
   get into a complete rut". Recalling the episode many years later, Davis
   remarked that Laughton's advice had influenced her throughout her
   career.

   By this time, Davis was Warner Brother's most profitable star,
   described as "The Fourth Warner Brother", and she was given the most
   important of their female leading roles. Her image was considered with
   more care; although she continued to play character roles, she was
   often filmed in close-ups that emphasized her distinctive eyes. All
   This and Heaven Too (1940) was the most financially successful film of
   Davis's career to that point, while The Letter was considered "one of
   the best pictures of the year" by the Hollywood Reporter, and Davis won
   admiration for her portrayal of an adulterous killer. During this time
   she was in a relationship with her former costar George Brent, who
   proposed marriage. Davis refused, as she had met Arthur Farnsworth, a
   New England innkeeper. They were married in December 1940.

   In January 1941, Davis became the first female president of the Academy
   of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences but antagonized the committee
   members with her brash manner and radical proposals. In view of the war
   in Europe, Davis advocated changing the venue for Academy Awards
   ceremonies from banquet halls to theaters, and charging admission to
   raise funds for the British War Relief. She also advocated that film
   extras should not have the opportunity to vote for awards. Faced with
   the disapproval and resistance of the committee, Davis resigned, and
   was succeeded by Jean Hersholt, who implemented the changes she had
   suggested.

   William Wyler directed Davis in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes
   (1941), but they clashed over the interpretation of the character,
   Regina Giddens. Originally played on stage by Tallulah Bankhead, Davis
   did not want to duplicate Bankhead's performance, although in many
   scenes Wyler felt that Bankhead's interpretation was more appropriate.
   Davis refused to compromise on several points, and although she
   received another Academy Award nomination for her performance, she
   never worked with Wyler again.

War effort, and the Hollywood Canteen

   Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, Davis spent the early
   months of 1942 traveling across the U.S. selling war bonds. Criticized
   by Jack Warner for her tendency to cajole and harangue crowds into
   buying, she reminded him that her audiences responded most strongly to
   her "bitch" performances. She considered herself to be proven correct
   when she sold two million dollars worth of bonds in two days, as well
   as a picture of herself in Jezebel for $250,000. She also performed for
   black regiments as the only white member of an acting troupe formed by
   Hattie McDaniel, that also included Lena Horne and Ethel Waters.

   When John Garfield discussed opening a serviceman's club in Hollywood,
   Davis responded enthusiastically. With the aid of Warner, Cary Grant
   and Jule Styne, they transformed an old nightclub into the " Hollywood
   Canteen", which opened on October 3, 1942. Hollywood's most important
   stars volunteered their time and talents to entertain servicemen prior
   to them being sent to war. Davis ensured that every night there would
   be at least a few important "names" for the visiting soldiers to meet,
   often calling on friends at the last moment to ensure the soldiers
   would not be disappointed. She appeared as herself in the film
   Hollywood Canteen (1944) which used the canteen as the setting for a
   fictional story. The canteen remained in operation until the end of
   World War II. Davis later commented, "There are few accomplishments in
   my life that I am sincerely proud of. The Hollywood Canteen is one of
   them." In 1980, she was awarded the Distinguished Civilian Service
   Medal, the United States Department of Defense's highest civilian
   award, for her work with the Hollywood Canteen.

   Davis had initially shown little interest in the film Now, Voyager
   (1942) until Hal Wallis advised her that female audiences needed
   romantic dramas to distract them from the reality of their lives. It
   became one of the best known of her "women's pictures". In it she
   portrayed dowdy, repressed spinster Charlotte Vale, who is forced to
   cater to her domineering mother's demands until psychiatric therapy and
   a physical makeover transform her into a beautiful, confident woman.
   The cigarette, often used by Davis as a dramatic prop, featured
   prominently in one of the film's most imitated scenes, in which Paul
   Henreid lit two cigarettes before passing one to Davis. Film reviewers
   complimented Davis on her performance despite some perceived weaknesses
   in the film's narrative, with the National Board of Review commenting
   that Davis gave the film "a dignity not fully warranted by the script".

   During the early 1940s several of Davis's film choices were influenced
   by the war; Watch on the Rhine (1943) featured her in a relatively
   low-key role, as the wife of the leader of an underground anti-Nazi
   movement, while Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) was a lighthearted
   all-star musical cavalcade, with each of the featured stars donating
   their fee to the Hollywood Canteen. Davis performed a novelty song,
   "They're Either Too Young or Too Old", which became a hit record after
   the film's release.

   Old Acquaintance (1943) reunited her with Miriam Hopkins in a story of
   two old friends who deal with the tensions created when one of them
   becomes a successful novelist. Davis felt that Hopkins tried to upstage
   her throughout the film's production, and the director Vincent Sherman
   and costar Gig Young later recalled the intense competitiveness and
   animosity between the two actresses, and Davis often joked that she
   held back nothing in a scene in which she was required to shake Hopkins
   in a fit of anger.

Personal and professional setbacks

   In August 1943, Davis's husband, Arthur Farnsworth, collapsed while
   walking along a Hollywood street, and died two days later. An autopsy
   revealed that his fall had been caused by a skull fracture which had
   occurred about two weeks earlier. Davis testified before an inquest
   that she knew of no event that might have caused the injury, and a
   finding of "accidental death" was reached. Highly distraught, she
   attempted to withdraw from her next film Mr. Skeffington (1944), but
   Jack Warner, who had halted production following Farnsworth's death,
   convinced her to continue.

   Although she had gained a reputation for being forthright and somewhat
   confrontational during the making of some of her previous films, her
   behaviour during filming of Mr. Skeffington was erratic and
   out-of-character. She alienated the director, Vincent Sherman, by
   refusing to film certain scenes, and insisted that some sets be
   rebuilt. She improvised dialogue, causing confusion among other actors,
   and infuriated the writer Julius Epstein, who was also called upon to
   rewrite scenes at her whim. Davis later explained her actions with the
   observation, "when I was most unhappy I lashed out rather than whined."
   Some reviewers criticized Davis for the excess of her performance;
   James Agee wrote that she "demonstrates the horrors of egocentricity on
   a marathonic scale", but despite the mixed reviews, she received
   another Academy Award nomination.

   She married an artist, William Grant Sherry, in 1945. She had been
   drawn to him partly because he had never heard of her and was therefore
   not intimidated by her, but after their marriage the disparity between
   their levels of professional success and earnings led to tensions and
   arguments.

   The Corn is Green (1945) starred Davis as a dowdy English teacher, who
   saves a young Welsh miner from a life in the coal pits, by offering him
   education. The film was well received by critics but did not find a
   substantial audience. A Stolen Life (1946) received poor reviews, but
   was one of her biggest box-office successes. It was followed by
   Deception (1946), the first of her films to lose money.

   In 1947, Davis gave birth to a daughter, Barbara (known as B.D.) and
   later wrote in her memoir that she became absorbed in motherhood and
   considered ending her career. Her relationship with Sherry began to
   deteriorate and she continued making films, but her popularity with
   audiences was steadily declining. After the completion of Beyond the
   Forest (1949), Jack Warner released Davis from her contract, at her
   request. The reviews that followed were scathing; Newsweek called it
   "undoubtedly one of the most unfortunate stories [Davis] has ever
   tackled", while Dorothy Manners writing for the Los Angeles Examiner,
   criticized the "sheer hysteria and overexposed histrionics" of Davis's
   performance, and described the film as "an unfortunate finale to her
   brilliant career". Hedda Hopper wrote, "If Bette had deliberately set
   out to wreck her career, she could not have picked a more appropriate
   vehicle." The film contained the line, "What a dump!", which became
   closely associated with Davis after impersonators used it in their
   acts. In later years, Davis often used it as her opening line at
   speaking engagements.

Starting a freelance career

   By 1949, Davis and Sherry were estranged and Hollywood columnists were
   writing that Davis's career was at an end. She filmed The Story of a
   Divorce (released in 1951 as Payment on Demand) and then, when original
   star Claudette Colbert injured her back and was unable to perform,
   appeared as the glamorous, aging theatrical actress, Margo Channing, in
   All About Eve (1950), directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Davis described
   the script as "the best I ever read" and during production, she
   established what would become a life-long friendship with her costar,
   Anne Baxter, and a romantic relationship with her leading man, Gary
   Merrill, which led to marriage. Mankiewicz later remarked, "Bette was
   letter perfect. She was syllable-perfect. The director's dream: the
   prepared actress".

   Critics responded positively to Davis's performance and several of her
   lines became well known, particularly, "Fasten your seatbelts, it's
   going to be a bumpy night." She was again nominated for an Academy
   Award and critics such as Gene Ringgold described her Margo as her
   "all-time best performance". Pauline Kael wrote that much of
   Mankiewicz's vision of "the theatre" was "nonsense" but commended
   Davis, writing "[the film is] saved by one performance that is the real
   thing: Bette Davis is at her most instinctive and assured. Her actress
   – vain, scared, a woman who goes too far in her reactions and emotions
   – makes the whole thing come alive."

   Davis won a "Best Actress" award from the Cannes Film Festival, and the
   New York Film Critics Circle Award. She also received the San Francisco
   Film Critics Circle Award as "Best Actress", having been named by them
   as the "Worst Actress" of 1949 for Beyond the Forest. During this time
   she was invited to leave her handprints in the forecourt of Grauman's
   Chinese Theatre.

   In July 3, 1950 Davis's divorce from William Sherry was finalized, and
   on July 28 she married Gary Merrill. With Sherry's consent, Merrill
   adopted B.D., Davis's daughter with Sherry, and in 1950, Davis and
   Merrill adopted a baby girl they named Margot. The family traveled to
   England, where Davis and Merrill starred in a murder-mystery film,
   Another Man's Poison. When it received lukewarm reviews and failed at
   the box office, Hollywood columnists wrote that Davis's comeback had
   petered out, and an Academy Award nomination for The Star (1952) did
   not halt her decline.

   Davis and Merrill adopted a baby boy, Michael, in 1952, and Davis
   appeared in a Broadway revue, Two's Company. She was uncomfortable
   working outside of her area of expertise; she had never been a musical
   performer and her limited theatre experience had been more than twenty
   years earlier. She was also severely ill and was operated on for
   osteomyelitis of the jaw. Margot was diagnosed as severely brain
   damaged due to an injury sustained during or shortly after her birth,
   and was eventually placed in an institution. Davis and Merrill began
   arguing frequently, with B.D. later recalling episodes of alcohol abuse
   and domestic violence.

   Few of Davis's films of the 1950s were successful and many of her
   performances were condemned by critics. The Hollywood Reporter wrote of
   mannerisms "that you'd expect to find in a nightclub impersonation of
   [Davis]", while the London critic, Richard Winninger, wrote, "Miss
   Davis, with more say than most stars as to what films she makes, seems
   to have lapsed into egoism. The criterion for her choice of film would
   appear to be that nothing must compete with the full display of each
   facet of the Davis art. Only bad films are good enough for her". As her
   career declined, her marriage continued to deteriorate until she filed
   for divorce in 1960. The following year, her mother died.

Renewed success

   In 1962, Davis opened in the Broadway production, The Night of the
   Iguana to mostly mediocre reviews, and left the production after four
   months due to "chronic illness." She then joined Glenn Ford and
   Ann-Margret for the Frank Capra film A Pocketful of Miracles, based on
   a story by Damon Runyon. She accepted her next role, in the Grand
   Guignol horror film, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? after reading the
   script and believing it could appeal to the same audience that had
   recently made Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) a success. She
   negotiated a deal that would pay her ten percent of the worldwide gross
   profits, in addition to her salary. The film became one of the year's
   biggest successes.

   Davis and Joan Crawford played two aging sisters, former actresses
   forced by circumstance to share a decaying Hollywood mansion. The
   director, Robert Aldrich, explained that Davis and Crawford were each
   aware of how important the film was to their respective careers and
   commented, "It's proper to say that they really detested each other,
   but they behaved absolutely perfectly". After filming was completed,
   their public comments against each other allowed the tension to develop
   into a lifelong feud, and when Davis was nominated for an Academy
   Award, Crawford campaigned against her. Davis also received her only
   BAFTA Award nomination for this performance.

   B.D. also played a small role in the film, and when she and Davis
   visited the Cannes Film Festival to promote it, she met Jeremy Hyman,
   an executive for Seven Arts Productions. After a short courtship, she
   married Hyman at the age of sixteen, with Davis's permission.

   Davis sustained her comeback over the course of several years. Dead
   Ringer (1964) was a crime drama in which she played twin sisters and
   Where Love Has Gone (1964) was a romantic drama based on a Harold
   Robbins novel. Davis played the mother of Susan Hayward but filming was
   hampered by heated arguments between Davis and Hayward. Hush... Hush,
   Sweet Charlotte (1964) was Robert Aldrich's follow-up to What Ever
   Happened to Baby Jane?, in which he planned to reunite Davis and
   Crawford, but when Crawford withdrew allegedly due to illness soon
   after filming began, she was replaced by Olivia de Havilland. The film
   was a considerable success and brought renewed attention to its veteran
   cast, which also included Joseph Cotten, Mary Astor and Agnes
   Moorehead.

   By the end of the decade, Davis had also appeared in the British films
   The Nanny (1965) and The Anniversary (1968), but her career again
   stalled.

Late career

   Davis and Elizabeth Taylor in late 1981 during a show that was
   celebrating Taylor's life. Image by Alan Light
   Enlarge
   Davis and Elizabeth Taylor in late 1981 during a show that was
   celebrating Taylor's life. Image by Alan Light

   In the early 1970s, Davis was invited to appear in New York, in a stage
   presentation, Great Ladies of the American Cinema. Over five successive
   nights, a different female star discussed her career and answered
   questions from the audience; Myrna Loy, Rosalind Russell, Lana Turner
   and Joan Crawford were the other participants. Davis was well received
   and was invited to tour Australia with the similarly themed, Bette
   Davis in Person and on Film, and its success allowed her to take the
   production to the United Kingdom.

   In the U.S., she appeared in the stage production, Miss Moffat, a
   musical adaptation of The Corn is Green, but after the show was panned
   by the Philadelphia critics during its pre-Broadway run, she cited a
   back injury and abandoned the show, which closed immediately. She
   played supporting roles in Burnt Offerings (1976) and The Disappearance
   of Aimee (1976), but she clashed with Karen Black and Faye Dunaway,
   respectively the stars of the two productions, because she felt that
   neither extended her an appropriate degree of respect, and that their
   behaviour on the film sets was unprofessional.

   In 1977, Davis became the first woman to receive the American Film
   Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award. The televised event included
   comments from several of Davis's colleagues including William Wyler who
   joked that given the chance Davis would still like to refilm a scene
   from The Letter to which Davis nodded. Jane Fonda, Henry Fonda and
   Olivia de Havilland were among the actors who paid tribute, with de
   Havilland commenting that Davis "got the roles I always wanted".

   Following the telecast she found herself in demand again, often having
   to choose between several offers. She accepted roles in the television
   miniseries The Dark Secret of Harvest Home (1978) and the film Death on
   the Nile (1978). For the rest of her career the bulk of her work was
   for television. She won an Emmy Award for Strangers: The Story of a
   Mother and Daughter (1979) with Gena Rowlands, and was nominated for
   her performances in White Mama (1980) and Little Gloria... Happy at
   Last (1982). She also played supporting roles in two Disney films,
   Return from Witch Mountain (1978) and The Watcher in the Woods (1980).

   Her name became well known to a younger audience, when Kim Carnes's
   song " Bette Davis Eyes" became a worldwide hit and the highest selling
   record of 1981 in the U.S., where it stayed at number one on the music
   charts for more than two months. Davis's grandson was impressed that
   she was the subject of a hit-song and Davis considered it a compliment,
   writing to both Carnes and the songwriters, and accepting the gift of
   gold and platinum records from Carnes, and hanging them on her wall.

   She continued acting for television, appearing in Family Reunion (1981)
   opposite her grandson J. Ashley Hyman, A Piano for Mrs. Cimino (1982)
   and Right of Way (1983) with James Stewart.

Illness, betrayal and death

   In 1983, she was acting in the television series Hotel when she was
   diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. Within two
   weeks of her surgery she suffered four strokes which caused paralysis
   in the right side of her face and in her left arm, and left her with
   slurred speech. She commenced a lengthy period of physical therapy and,
   aided by her personal assistant, Kathryn Sermak, gained partial
   recovery from the paralysis.

   During this time, her relationship with her daughter, B. D. Hyman,
   deteriorated when Hyman became a born again Christian and attempted to
   persuade Davis to follow suit. With her health stable, she travelled to
   England to film the Agatha Christie mystery, Murder with Mirrors
   (1985). Upon her return, she learned that Hyman had published a memoir,
   titled My Mother's Keeper in which she chronicled a difficult mother
   and daughter relationship and depicted scenes of Davis's overbearing
   and drunken behaviour.

   Several of Davis's friends commented that Hyman's depictions of events
   were not accurate; one said, "so much of the book is out of context".
   Mike Wallace rebroadcast a Sixty Minutes interview he had filmed with
   Hyman a few years earlier in which she commended Davis on her skills as
   a mother, and said that she had adopted many of Davis's principles in
   raising her own children. Critics of Hyman noted that Davis had
   financially supported the Hyman family for several years and had
   recently saved them from losing their house. Despite the acrimony of
   their divorce years earlier, Gary Merrill also defended Davis.
   Interviewed by CNN, Merrill said that Hyman was motivated by "cruelty
   and greed". Davis's adopted son, Michael Merrill, ended contact with
   Hyman and refused to speak to her again, as did Davis, who also
   disinherited her.

   In her memoir, This 'N That (1987), Davis wrote, "I am still recovering
   from the fact that a child of mine would write about me behind my back,
   to say nothing about the kind of book it is. I will never recover as
   completely from B.D.'s book as I have from the stroke. Both were
   shattering experiences." Her memoir concluded with a letter to her
   daughter, in which she addressed her several times as "Hyman", and
   described her actions as "a glaring lack of loyalty and thanks for the
   very privileged life I feel you have been given". She concluded with a
   reference to the title of Hyman's book, "If it refers to money, if my
   memory serves me right, I've been your keeper all these many years. I
   am continuing to do so, as my name has made your book about me a
   success."

   Davis appeared in the television film, As Summers Die (1986) and
   Lindsay Anderson's The Whales of August (1987), in which she played the
   blind sister of Lillian Gish. The film earned good reviews, with one
   critic writing, "Bette crawls across the screen like a testy old hornet
   on a windowpane, snarling, staggering, twitching – a symphony of
   misfired synapses". Her last performance was the title role in Larry
   Cohen's Wicked Stepmother (1989). By this time her health was failing,
   and after disagreements with Cohen she walked off the set. The script
   was rewritten to place more emphasis on Barbara Carrera's character,
   and the reworked version was released after Davis's death.

   After abandoning Wicked Stepmother and with no further film offers,
   Davis appeared on several talk shows and was interviewed by Johnny
   Carson, Joan Rivers, Larry King and David Letterman, discussing her
   career but refusing to discuss her daughter. Her appearances were
   popular; Lindsay Anderson observed that the public enjoyed seeing her
   behaving "so bitchy". He commented, "I always disliked that because she
   was encouraged to behave badly. And I'd always hear her described by
   that awful word, feisty."

   During 1988 and 1989, Davis was feted for her career achievements,
   receiving the Kennedy Center Honour, the Legion of Honour from France,
   the Campione d'Italia from Italy and the Film Society of Lincoln Centre
   Lifetime Achievement Award. She collapsed during the American Cinema
   Awards in 1989 and later discovered that her cancer had returned. She
   recovered sufficiently to travel to Spain where she was honored at the
   Donostia-San Sebastián International Film Festival, but during her
   visit her health rapidly deteriorated. Too weak to make the long
   journey back to the U.S., she travelled to France where she died on
   October 6, 1989, at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine.

   She was interred in Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los
   Angeles, California, alongside her mother, Ruthie, and sister, Bobby.
   On her tombstone is written: "She did it the hard way", an epitaph that
   had been suggested to her by Joseph L. Mankiewicz shortly after they
   had filmed All About Eve.

   In 1997, the executors of her estate, Michael Merrill, her son, and
   Kathryn Sermak, her former assistant, established "The Bette Davis
   Foundation" which awards college scholarships to promising actors and
   actresses.

Comments and criticism

   In 1964, Jack Warner spoke of the "magic quality that transformed this
   sometimes bland and not beautiful little girl into a great artist", and
   in a 1988 interview, Davis remarked that, unlike many of her
   contemporaries, she had forged a career without the benefit of beauty.
   She admitted she was terrified during the making of her earliest films
   and that she became tough by necessity. "Until you're known in my
   profession as a monster, you are not a star", she said, "[but] I've
   never fought for anything in a treacherous way. I've never fought for
   anything but the good of the film". During the making of All About Eve,
   Joseph L. Mankiewicz told her of the perception in Hollywood that she
   was difficult, and she explained that when the audience saw her on
   screen, they did not consider that her appearance was the result of
   numerous people working behind the scenes. If she was presented as "a
   horse's ass... forty feet wide, and thirty feet high", that is all the
   audience "would see or care about".

   While lauded for her achievements, Davis and her films were sometimes
   derided; Pauline Kael described Now, Voyager as a "shlock classic", and
   by the mid 1940s her sometimes mannered and histrionic performances had
   become the subject of caricature. Reviewers such as Edwin Schallert for
   the Los Angeles Times praised Davis's performance in Mr. Skeffington
   (1944), while observing, "the mimics will have more fun than a box of
   monkeys imitating Miss Davis", and Dorothy Manners writing for the Los
   Angeles Examiner said of her performance in the poorly received Beyond
   the Forest, "no night club caricaturist has ever turned in such a cruel
   imitation of the Davis mannerisms as Bette turns on herself in this
   one." Time Magazine noted that Davis was compulsively watchable even
   while criticizing her acting technique, summarizing her performance in
   Dead Ringer (1964) with the observation, "her acting, as always, isn't
   really acting: it's shameless showing off. But just try to look away!"

   She attracted a gay following and was frequently imitated by female
   impersonators such as Charles Pierce. Attempting to explain her
   popularity with gay audiences, the journalist Jim Emerson wrote, "Was
   she just a camp figurehead because her brittle, melodramatic style of
   acting hadn't aged well? Or was it that she was 'Larger Than Life', a
   tough broad who had survived? Probably some of both."

   Her film choices were often unconventional; she sought roles as
   manipulators and killers in an era when actresses usually preferred to
   play sympathetic characters, and she excelled in them. She favored
   authenticity over glamour and was willing to change her own appearance
   if it suited the character. Claudette Colbert commented that Davis was
   the first actress to play roles older than herself, and therefore did
   not have to make the difficult transition to character parts as she
   aged.

   As she entered old age, Davis was acknowledged for her achievements.
   John Springer, who had arranged her speaking tours of the early 1970s,
   wrote that despite the accomplishments of many of her contemporaries,
   Davis was "the star of the thirties and into the forties", achieving
   notability for the variety of her characterizations and her ability to
   assert herself, even when her material was mediocre. Individual
   performances continued to receive praise; in 1987, Bill Collins
   analyzed The Letter (1941), and described her performance as "a
   brilliant, subtle achievement", and wrote, "Bette Davis makes Leslie
   Crosbie one of the most extraordinary females in movies." In a 2000
   review for All About Eve, Roger Ebert noted, "Davis was a character, an
   icon with a grand style, so even her excesses are realistic."

   A few months before her death in 1989, Davis was one of several actors
   featured on the cover of Life. In a film retrospective that celebrated
   the films and stars of 1939, Life concluded that Davis was the most
   significant actress of her era, and highlighted Dark Victory as one of
   the most important films of the year. Her death made front-page news
   throughout the world as the "close of yet another chapter of the Golden
   Age of Hollywood". Angela Lansbury summed up the feeling of those of
   the Hollywood community who attended her memorial service, commenting
   after a sample from Davis's films were screened, that they had
   witnessed "an extraordinary legacy of acting in the twentieth century
   by a real master of the craft", that should provide "encouragement and
   illustration to future generations of aspiring actors".

   In 1999, the American Film Institute published its list of the " AFI's
   100 Years... 100 Stars", which was the result of a film industry poll
   to determine the "50 Greatest American Screen Legends" in order to
   raise public awareness and appreciation of classic film. Of the 25
   actresses listed, Davis was ranked at number two, behind Katharine
   Hepburn.

Academy Awards and nominations

   Bette Davis became the first woman to secure 10 nominations for the
   Best Actress Oscar, and in the intervening years, only Katharine
   Hepburn and Meryl Streep have surpassed this figure.

   Steven Spielberg purchased Davis's Oscars for Dangerous (1935) and
   Jezebel (1938) when they were offered for auction, and returned them to
   the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
     * 1962: Nominated for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
     * 1952: Nominated for The Star
     * 1950: Nominated for All About Eve
     * 1944: Nominated for Mr. Skeffington
     * 1942: Nominated for Now, Voyager
     * 1941: Nominated for The Little Foxes
     * 1940: Nominated for The Letter
     * 1939: Nominated for Dark Victory
     * 1938: Won for Jezebel
     * 1935: Won for Dangerous
     * 1934: Nominated for Of Human Bondage (write-in)

                                     Awards
        Preceded by:
  Claudette Colbert
  for It Happened One Night Academy Award for Best Actress
                            1935
                            for Dangerous                     Succeeded by:
                                                          Luise Rainer
                                                          for The Great Ziegfeld
        Preceded by:
  Luise Rainer
  for The Good Earth        Academy Award for Best Actress
                            1938
                            for Jezebel                       Succeeded by:
                                                          Vivien Leigh
                                                          for Gone with the Wind

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bette_Davis"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
