Ruth Elizabeth Davis (April 5, 1908 -
October 6, 1989), better known as Bette Davis, was an Academy Award winning American actress.
Davis was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. Although Davis had wanted to be an actress from an
early age, she was denied admission to Eva LeGallienne's Manhattan Civic Repertory because she
was considered insincere. So she enrolled in John Murray Anderson's dramatic school, and
became a star.
Her first professional stage performance was The Earth Between, off-Broadway in 1923. Her
first Broadway performance was in 1929, in Broken Dishes and later in Solid South. The next
year, she was hired by Universal Studios, but they felt she was not star material, and in 1932,
they let her sign with Warner Brothers. Her first starring role was in The Man Who Played God,
and she became a star in Of Human Bondage.
She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Dangerous and Jezebel, and was
able to name her own roles, with the exception of Gone With the Wind in 1939. Her career
began to stagnate through the 1940s, but her performance in All About Eve, for which
she received another Oscar nomination, put her back on top. When her career began to fade
again, in 1961, she placed a notorious ad for "job wanted" in the trade papers. Her role in
1962's over-the-top What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, in which she played a parody of herself
opposite her long-time rival Joan Crawford, earned her another Oscar nomination.
In 1977, Davis received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 1979
she won a Best Actress Emmy. She wrote a biography, "The Lonely Life", in the 1960s, and "Mother
Goddam" in 1975.
In 1985, her daughter, B.D. Hyman, wrote a tell-all book, "My Mother's Keeper", in which she
savaged her mother. Davis wrote another book, "This N That", in the late 1980s, and "Bette Davis, The Lonely Life",
which appeared the year after her death, updating what had happened since her first biography
had been published.
On July 19, 2001, Steven Spielberg purchased Davis' Oscar statuette for Jezebel at a Christie's
auction and returned it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This was to
protect an Oscar from commercial exploitation.
Bette Davis died in 1989 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France following a long battle with breast
cancer, and after having suffered at least one serious stroke. On Davis's tombstone is written,
"She did it the hard way."
Academy Awards and Nominations
Nominated What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
Nominated The Star (1952)
Nominated All About Eve (1950)
Nominated Mr. Skeffington (1944)
Nominated Now, Voyager (1942)
Nominated The Little Foxes (1941)
Nominated The Letter (1940)
Nominated Dark Victory (1939)
Won Jezebel (1938)
Won Dangerous (1935)
Nominated Of Human Bondage (1934)
Filmography
Mina Tannenbaum (1994)
Wicked Stepmother (1989)
The Whales of August (1987)
As Summers Die (1986)
Murder with Mirrors (1985)
Right of Way (1983)
Hotel (1982)
Little Gloria, Happy at Last (1982)
A Piano for Mrs. Cimino (1982)
Family Reunion (1981)
Skyward (1980)
The Watcher in the Woods (1980)
White Mama (1980)
Strangers, The Story of a Mother and Daughter (1979)
Return from Witch Mountain (1978)
Death on the Nile (1978)
Dark Secret of Harvest Home (1978)
The Disappearance of Aimee (1976)
Burnt Offerings (1976)
Scream, Pretty Peggy (1973)
Connecting Rooms (1972)
The Judge and Jake Wyler (1972)
The Scientific Cardplayer (1972)
Madame Sin (1972)
Bunny O'Hare (1971)
The Anniversary (1968)
The Nanny (1965)
Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
Where Love Has Gone (1964)
Dead Ringer (1964)
The Empty Canvas (1964)
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
Pocketful of Miracles (1961)
The Scapegoat (1959)
John Paul Jones (1959)
Storm Center (1956)
The Catered Affair (1956)
The Virgin Queen (1955)
The Star (1952)
Phone Call from a Stranger (1952)
Another Man's Poison (1952)
Payment on Demand (1951)
All About Eve (1950)
Beyond the Forest (1949)
June Bride (1948)
Winter Meeting (1948)
Deception (1946)
A Stolen Life (1946)
The Corn Is Green (1945)
Mr. Skeffington (1944)
Old Acquaintance (1943)
Watch on the Rhine (1943)
Now, Voyager (1942)
In This Our Life (1942
The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)
Shining Victory (1941)
The Little Foxes (1941)
The Bride Came C.O.D.(1941)
The Great Lie (1941)
The Letter (1940) BR>
All This, and Heaven Too (1940)
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
The Old Maid (1939)
Juarez (1939)
Dark Victory (1939)
The Sisters (1938)
Jezebel (1938)
It's Love I'm After (1937)
That Certain Woman (1937)
Kid Galahad (1937)
Marked Woman (1937)
Satan Met a Lady (1936)
The Golden Arrow (1936)
The Petrified Forest (1936)
Dangerous (1935)
Special Agent (1935)
Front Page Woman (1935)
The Girl from 10th Avenue (1935)
Bordertown (1935)
Housewife (1934)
Of Human Bondage (1934)
Fog Over Frisco (1934)
Jimmy the Gent (1934)
Fashions of 1934 (1934)
The Big Shakedown (1934)
Bureau of Missing Persons (1933)
Ex-Lady (1933)
The Working Man (1933)
Parachute Jumper (1933)
20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)
Three on a Match (1932)
Cabin in the Cotton (1932)
The Dark Horse (1932)
The Rich Are Always with Us (1932)
So Big! (1932)
The Man Who Played God (1932)
Hell's House (1932)
The Menace (1932)
Way Back Home (1931)
Waterloo Bridge (1931)
Seed (1931)
The Bad Sister (1931)
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