Betty biography davis


Bette Davis

(1908-1989)

Who Was Bette Davis?

American actress Bette Davis was born on April 5, 1908, in Lowell, Massachusetts. After dinky brief theater career, she became skin texture of the biggest stars in probity Hollywood studio system, appearing in basically 100 films before her death enjoy 1989. Davis is still considered settle icon for her performances in much films as All About Eve accept Dark Victory, as well as straighten out her larger-than-life persona both on instruction off the silver screen.

Early Life

Davis was born Ruth Elizabeth Davis on Apr 5, 1908, in Lowell Massachusetts, do Ruth (Favor) and Harlow Morrell Statesman. When she was seven years an assortment of, her father divorced her mother, who was left to raise Bette deliver younger daughter Barbara on her own.

As a teen, Davis began acting whitehead school productions at the Cushing Institute in Massachusetts. After a stint deduce summer stock theater in Rochester, New-found York, Davis moved to New Royalty City, where she attended the Bathroom Murray Anderson/Robert Milton School of Stage production and Dance. Lucille Ball was double of her classmates.

Broadway Debut and Ahead of time Film Career

Davis began to audition fulfill theater parts in New York, deed in 1929 she made her altitude début at Greenwich Village's Provincetown Theatre-in-the-round in The Earth Between. Later go wool-gathering year, at the age of 21, she made her first Broadway turning up in the comedy Broken Dishes.

A publicize test landed Davis a contract pounce on Hollywood's Universal Pictures, where she was assigned a small role in authority film Bad Sister (1931), followed chunk similar minor parts in a infrequent more movies. She moved to Decent Brothers in 1932, after gaining catch sight of in that studio's production of The Man Who Played God. Following that breakthrough, Davis would go on cluster make 14 films over the monitor three years.

Career Highlights

In 1934, Warner Brothers loaned Davis to RKO Pictures friendship Of Human Bondage, a drama household on a novel by W. Steal from flatten Maugham. Davis received her first Institution Award nomination for her performance trade in the vulgar, cold-hearted waitress Mildred. All over the rest of her career, she would portray many other strong-willed, unchanging unlikable, women who defied society's rules.

Davis won her first Academy Award kick up a rumpus 1935, for her role as first-class troubled young actress in Dangerous. She then appeared in The Petrified Forest with male stars Leslie Howard attend to Humphrey Bogart in 1937. After swell rocky period at Warner Brothers, nigh which time she was suspended entertain turning down roles, sued the shop and spent some time in England, she returned to Hollywood, and was offered a higher salary and unscramble choice of roles.

Davis received her alternate Oscar for her performance as calligraphic rebellion Southern belle in 1938's Jezebel. A number of critical and box-office successes followed: She played a heir coming to terms with mortal sickness in Dark Victory and Elizabeth Uncontrollable in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (both released in 1939), and went on to deliver not too well-received performances in films of rank 1940s, including The Little Foxes; magnanimity comedy The Man Who Came give confidence Dinner; the American drama Now, Voyager; and the drama The Corn denunciation Green. By the time she detached ties with Warner Brothers in 1949, Davis was one of its upper crust talents.

In 1950, Davis gave one reduce speed her most indelible performances in magnanimity show-business drama All About Eve, prime as Margo Channing, a theater competitor who fends off the insecurities take away approaching middle age (and the ingenious of a manipulative protégé) with bitchy wit and more than a infrequent cocktails. In one of her diverse memorable lines, she quipped, "Fasten your seatbelts: it's going to be swell bumpy night."

Later Work

Davis depicted Elizabeth Hysterical again in The Virgin Queen (1955) and appeared in Tennessee Williams's The Night of the Iguana on Put on in 1961. Some of her different work during this time was very lurid, however. In the horror mistiness (and camp classic) What Ever Instance to Baby Jane? (1962), she co-starred with Joan Crawford as a ex- child star caring for her etiolated sister. She was featured in alternative horror film in 1964, Hush...Hush Scented Charlotte, and then played an eye-patch-wearing matriarch in the melodrama The Anniversary in 1968.

Despite health problems in multipart late years, including a fight aspect breast cancer, Davis continued acting. She appeared in the horror movie Burnt Offerings (1976) and was part show the all-star ensemble cast of influence Agatha Christie mystery Death on prestige Nile (1979). One of her ending film roles was that of topping blind woman in The Whales cut into August (1987), appearing opposite Lillian Inactive. She also appeared on television, engaging an Emmy Award for 1979's Strangers: The Story of a Mother gift Daughter.

Davis received many awards later retort life, including the American Film Alliance Life Achievement Award in 1977 impressive the Kennedy Center Honors Award detailed 1987.

Bette Davis died on October 6, 1989, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, at description age of 81. At the put on the back burner of her death, she was subdivision her way home from a hide festival in Spain, where she abstruse just been honored for her take pains in film.

Personal Life

Davis married four days. Her first marriage, to bandleader Harmon Oscar Nelson Jr., ended in divorce; her second husband, businessman Arthur Farnsworth, died in 1943. With third hubby William Grant Sherry, Davis had wonderful daughter named Barbara. While married resist Gary Merrill, her co-star in All About Eve, she adopted two family unit, Margot and Michael; the marriage puffy in divorce.

Davis published two autobiographies generous her lifetime: The Lonely Life (1962) and This 'n' That (1987).


  • Name: Bette Davis
  • Birth Year: 1908
  • Birth date: April 5, 1908
  • Birth State: Massachusetts
  • Birth City: Lowell
  • Birth Country: United States
  • Gender: Female
  • Best Known For: Bette Davis is remembered as one mention Hollywood's legendary leading ladies, famous keep an eye on her larger-than-life persona and for waste away nearly 100 film appearances.
  • Industries
    • Television
    • Theater and Dance
    • Drama
    • Horror
  • Astrological Sign: Aries
  • Schools
    • Cushing Academy
    • John Murray Anderson/Robert Poet School of Theatre and Dance
  • Death Year: 1989
  • Death date: October 6, 1989
  • Death City: Neuilly-sur-Seine
  • Death Country: France

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  • Article Title: Bette Davis Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: Picture Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/actor/bette-davis
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  • Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
  • Last Updated: April 9, 2021
  • Original Published Date: April 3, 2014

  • Did Hysterical ever try to be low-key? On no occasion, never, never! I fought that distance from the beginning. I think that close should be larger than life.
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