Bette Davis

Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (/ˈbɛti/; April 5, 1908 – October 6,

1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than
Bette Davis
50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing
unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her
performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime
melodramas to historical films, suspense horror, and occasional
comedies, although her greater successes were in romantic
dramas.[2] A recipient of two Academy Awards, she was the first
thespian to accrue ten nominations.

After appearing on Broadway in New York, the 22-year-old Davis

moved to Hollywood in 1930. After some unsuccessful films, she
had her critical breakthrough playing a vulgar waitress in Of
Human Bondage (1934) although, contentiously, she was not
among the three nominees for the Academy Award for Best
Actress that year. The next year, her performance as a down-and-
out actress in Dangerous (1935) did land Davis her first Best Davis in 1935
Actress nomination, and she won the award. Davis was known for Born Ruth Elizabeth Davis
her forceful and intense style of acting. April 5, 1908[1]
Lowell,
In 1937, she tried to free herself from her contract with Warner
Brothers Studio; although she lost the legal case, it marked the start Massachusetts, U.S.
of more than a decade as one of the most celebrated leading ladies Died October 6, 1989
of U.S. cinema. The same year, she starred in Marked Woman, a (aged 81)
film regarded as one of the most important in her early career. Neuilly-sur-Seine,
Davis's portrayal of a strong-willed 1850s southern belle in Jezebel France
(1938) won her a second Academy Award for Best Actress, and
was the first of five consecutive years in which she received a Best Resting Forest Lawn
Actress nomination; the others were for Dark Victory (1939), The place Memorial Park
Letter (1940), The Little Foxes (1941) and Now, Voyager (1942). Occupation Actress

Davis gained a reputation as a perfectionist in her craft. She could Years active 1929–1989
be combative and confrontational with studio executives and film Spouse(s) Harmon Oscar
directors, as well as with her co-stars, expecting the same high Nelson
standard of performance and commitment from them as she (m. 1932; div. 1938)
expected from herself. Her forthright manner, idiosyncratic speech, Arthur Farnsworth
and ubiquitous cigarette contributed to a public persona that has (m. 1940; died 1943)
been often imitated.[3] William Grant Sherry
(m. 1945; div. 1950)
She played a Broadway star in All About Eve (1950), which
Gary Merrill
earned her another Oscar nomination and won her the Cannes
(m. 1950; div. 1960)
Film Festival Award for Best Actress. Her last Oscar nomination
was for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), which also Children 3, including B. D.
starred her famous rival Joan Crawford. In the latter stage of her Hyman
career, her most successful films were Death on the Nile (1978) Signature
and The Whales of August (1987). Her career went through several
periods of eclipse, but despite a long period of ill health she
continued acting in film and on television until shortly before her
death from breast cancer in 1989.[4]

She admitted that her success had often been at the expense of her personal relationships. She was married
four times, divorcing three and widowed once, when her second husband died unexpectedly. She raised her
children largely as a single parent. Her daughter, B. D. Hyman, wrote a controversial memoir about her
childhood, 1985's My Mother's Keeper.[4]

Davis was the co-founder of the Hollywood Canteen, a club venue for food, dancing and entertainment for
servicemen during World War II, and was the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences. She was also the first woman to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American
Film Institute. In 1999, Davis was placed second behind Katharine Hepburn on the American Film
Institute's list of the greatest female stars of the classical Hollywood cinema era.

Contents
Life and career
1908–1929: Childhood and early acting career
1930–1936: Early years in Hollywood
Legal case
1937–1941: Success with Warner Bros.
1942–1944: War effort and personal tragedy
1945–1949: Professional setbacks
1949–1960: Starting a freelance career
1961–1970: Renewed success
1971–1983: Later career
1983–1989: Illness, awards, and final works
Death
Reception and legacy
Academy Awards
Selected filmography
See also
References
Bibliography
External links

Life and career

1908–1929: Childhood and early acting career

Ruth Elizabeth Davis, known from early childhood as "Betty", was born on April 5, 1908, in Lowell,
Massachusetts, the daughter of Harlow Morrell Davis (1885–1938), a law student from Augusta, Maine,
and subsequently a patent attorney, and Ruth Augusta (née Favór; 1885–1961), from Tyngsboro,
Massachusetts.[5] Davis's younger sister was Barbara Harriet.[6]

In 1915, Davis's parents separated, and Davis attended, for three years, a spartan boarding school called
Crestalban in Lanesborough, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires.[7] In the fall of 1921, Ruth Davis moved to
New York City, using her children's tuition money to enroll in the Clarence White School of Photography,
with an apartment on 144th Street at Broadway. She then worked as a portrait photographer.

Davis later changed the spelling of her first name to Bette after Bette Fischer, a character in Honoré de
Balzac's La Cousine Bette.[8] During their time in New York, Davis became a Girl Scout where she
became a patrol leader.[9][10] Her patrol won a competitive dress parade for Mrs. Herbert Hoover at
Madison Square Garden.[11]

Davis attended Cushing Academy, a boarding school in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, where she met her
future husband, Harmon O. Nelson, known as Ham. In 1926, a then 18-year-old Davis saw a production of
Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck with Blanche Yurka and Peg Entwistle. Davis later recalled, "The reason I
wanted to go into theater was because of an actress named Peg Entwistle."[12] She auditioned for
admission to Eva Le Gallienne's Manhattan Civic Repertory, but was rejected by Le Gallienne, who
described her attitude as "insincere" and "frivolous".[13]

Davis auditioned for George Cukor's stock theater company in Rochester, New York; although he was not
very impressed, he gave Davis her first paid acting assignment – a one-week stint playing the part of a
chorus girl in the play Broadway. Ed Sikov sources Davis's first professional role to a 1929 production by
the Provincetown Players of Virgil Geddes play The Earth Between; however, the production was
postponed by a year.[14] In 1929, Davis was chosen by Blanche Yurka to play Hedwig, the character she
had seen Entwistle play in The Wild Duck.[15] After performing in Philadelphia, Washington, and Boston,
she made her Broadway debut in 1929 in Broken Dishes and followed it with Solid South.[16]

1930–1936: Early years in Hollywood

In 1930, 22-year-old Davis moved to Hollywood to screen test for

Universal Studios. Davis and her mother travelled by train to Hollywood.
She later recounted her surprise that nobody from the studio was there to
meet her. In fact, 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."[17] A second test was arranged for Davis, for the 1931 film A
House Divided. Hastily dressed in an ill-fitting costume with a low
neckline, she was rebuffed by the film 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?".[18]

Carl Laemmle, the head of Universal Studios, considered terminating Davis in her film debut, Bad
Sister (1931)
Davis's employment, but cinematographer Karl Freund told him she had
"lovely eyes" and would be suitable for Bad Sister (1931), in which she
subsequently made her film debut.[19] 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.[20] 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 a small role in Waterloo
Bridge (1931), before being lent to Columbia Pictures for The Menace, and to Capital Films for Hell's
House (all 1932). After one year, and six unsuccessful films, Laemmle elected not to renew her
contract.[21]

Davis was preparing to return to New York when actor George Arliss chose Davis for the lead female role
in the Warner Bros. picture 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.[22] Warner Bros. signed her to a five-year contract, and she remained with the studio for the next
18 years.

Davis's first marriage was to Harmon Oscar Nelson on August 18, 1932, in Yuma, Arizona.[23] Their
marriage was scrutinized by the press; his $100 a week earnings ($1,885 in 2020 dollars) compared
unfavourably with Davis's reported $1,000 a week income ($18,850). 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.[24] Davis had several abortions during the marriage.[25]

After more than 20 film roles, the role of the vicious and slatternly Mildred
Rogers in the RKO Radio production of Of Human Bondage (1934), a
film adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's novel, 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 co-star, 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: "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."[26]
Davis in Of Human Bondage
(1934) The film was a success, and Davis's characterization earned praise from
critics, with Life writing that she gave "probably the best performance ever
recorded on the screen by a U.S. actress".[27] Davis anticipated that her
reception would encourage Warner Bros. to cast her in more important roles, and was disappointed when
Jack L. Warner refused to lend her to Columbia Studios to appear in It Happened One Night, and instead
cast her in the melodrama Housewife.[28] When Davis was not nominated for an Academy Award for Of
Human Bondage, 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.[29] The uproar led, however, to a
change in academy voting procedures the following year, wherein nominations were determined by votes
from all eligible members of a particular branch rather than by a smaller committee,[30] with results
independently tabulated by the accounting firm Price Waterhouse.[31]

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.[32]

The New York Times hailed her as "becoming one of the most interesting of our screen actresses".[33] She
won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the role, but commented that it was belated recognition for
Of Human Bondage, calling the award a "consolation prize".[34] For the rest of her life, Davis maintained
that she gave the statue its familiar name of "Oscar" because its posterior resembled that of her husband,
whose middle name was Oscar,[35][36] although, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
officially makes reference to another story.[37]

In her next film, The Petrified Forest (1936), Davis co-starred with Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart.

Legal case

Convinced that her career was being damaged by a succession of mediocre films, Davis accepted an offer
in 1936 to appear in two films in Britain. Knowing that she was breaching her contract with Warner Bros.,
she fled to Canada to avoid legal papers being served on her. Eventually, Davis brought her case to court in
Britain, hoping to get out of her contract.[38] She later recalled the opening statement of the barrister
representing Warner Bros., Patrick Hastings, in which he 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.[39]

Davis explained her viewpoint to a journalist: "I knew that, if I continued to appear in any more mediocre
pictures, I would have no career left worth fighting for."[40] Her counsel presented the 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."[41] Davis lost the case,[42] and returned to
Hollywood, in debt and without income, to resume her career. Olivia de Havilland mounted a similar case
in 1943, and won.

1937–1941: Success with Warner Bros.

Davis began work on Marked Woman (1937), portraying a prostitute in a contemporary gangster drama
inspired by the case of Lucky Luciano. For her performance in the film, she was awarded the Volpi Cup at
the 1937 Venice Film Festival.[43] Her next picture was Jezebel (1938), and during production, Davis
entered a relationship with 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".[44] The film was
a success, and Davis's performance as a spoiled Southern belle earned her a second Academy Award.

This led to speculation in the press that she would be chosen to play Scarlett O'Hara, a similar character, in
Gone with the Wind. Davis expressed her desire to play Scarlett, and while David O. Selznick was
conducting a search for the actress to play the role, a radio poll named her as the audience favorite. 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,[45]
while Davis did not want Flynn cast as Rhett Butler. Newcomer Vivien
Leigh was cast as Scarlett O'Hara, de Havilland landed a role as Melanie,
and both of them were nominated for the Oscars, with Leigh winning.

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 who had
generated the most revenue in their theaters over the previous year.[46]

In contrast to Davis's success, her husband Ham Nelson had failed to

establish a career for himself, and their relationship faltered. In 1938, Davis in Jezebel (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".[47]

Davis was emotional during the making of her next film, Dark Victory
(1939), and considered abandoning it until the producer Hal B. Wallis
convinced her to channel her despair into her acting. The film was among
the high-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.[48]

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 last was her first color film, and
her only color film made during the height of her career. To play the
elderly Elizabeth I of England, Davis shaved her hairline and eyebrows.
Davis with Errol Flynn in
The Private Lives of During filming, she was visited on the set by the actor Charles Laughton.
Elizabeth and Essex (1939) She commented that she had a "nerve" playing a woman in her 60s, 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.[49]

By this time, Davis was Warner Bros.' most profitable star, 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.

The Letter (1940) 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, a role originated by Katharine Cornell.[50] During this
time, she was in a relationship with her former co-star George Brent, who
proposed marriage. Davis refused, as she had met Arthur Farnsworth, a
New England innkeeper, and Vermont dentist's son. Davis and Farnsworth Davis with Spencer Tracy at
were married at Home Ranch, in Rimrock, Arizona, in December 1940, the 1939 Academy Awards
her second marriage.[51]
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. Davis rejected the
idea of her being just "a figurehead only". Faced with the disapproval and
resistance of the committee, Davis resigned, and was succeeded by her
predecessor Walter Wanger.[52]

Davis starred in three movies in 1941, the first being The Great Lie, with
George Brent. It was a refreshingly different role for Davis as she played a Davis often played unlikable
kind, sympathetic character. characters such as Regina
Giddens in The Little Foxes
William Wyler directed Davis for the third time in Lillian Hellman's The (1941).
Little Foxes (1941), but they clashed over the character of Regina
Giddens, a role originally played on Broadway by Tallulah Bankhead
(Davis had portrayed in film a role initiated by Bankhead on the stage once before– in Dark Victory). Wyler
encouraged Davis to emulate Bankhead's interpretation of the role, but Davis wanted to make the role her
own. She received another Academy Award nomination for her performance, and never worked with
Wyler again.[53]

1942–1944: War effort and personal tragedy

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Davis spent the early months of 1942 selling war bonds. After Jack
Warner criticized her tendency to cajole crowds into buying, she reminded him that her audiences
responded most strongly to her "bitch" performances. She sold $2 million 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, which included Lena Horne and Ethel
Waters.[54]

At John Garfield's suggestion of opening a servicemen's club in Hollywood, Davis – with the aid of
Warner, Cary Grant, and Jule Styne – transformed an old nightclub into the Hollywood Canteen, which
opened on October 3, 1942. Hollywood's most important stars volunteered to entertain servicemen. Davis
ensured that every night, a few important "names" would be there for the visiting soldiers to meet.[55]

She appeared as herself in the film Hollywood Canteen (1944), which used the canteen as the setting for a
fictional story. 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.[56]

Davis showed 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 better
known of her "women's pictures". In one of the film's most imitated
scenes, Paul Henreid lights two cigarettes as he stares into Davis's eyes,
and passes one to her. Film reviewers complimented Davis on her
performance, the National Board of Review commenting that she gave the
Davis with Paul Henreid in
film "a dignity not fully warranted by the script".[57]
Now, Voyager (1942), one of
During the early 1940s, several of Davis's film choices were influenced by
her most iconic roles
the war, such as Watch on the Rhine (1943), by Lillian Hellman, and
Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), a lighthearted all-star musical cavalcade,
with each of the featured stars donating their fees 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. Director Vincent Sherman recalled the intense competition 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.[58]

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 he had
suffered two weeks earlier. Davis testified before an inquest that she knew of no event that might have
caused the injury. A finding of accidental death was reached. Highly distraught, Davis attempted to
withdraw from her next film Mr. Skeffington (1944), but Jack Warner, who had halted production following
Farnsworth's death, persuaded her to continue.

Although she had gained a reputation for being forthright and demanding, her behavior during filming of
Mr. Skeffington was erratic and out of character. She alienated Vincent Sherman by refusing to film certain
scenes and insisting that some sets be rebuilt. She improvised dialogue, causing confusion among other
actors, and infuriated the writer Julius Epstein, who was 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".[59]

1945–1949: Professional setbacks

In 1945, Davis married artist William Grant Sherry, her third husband, who
also worked as a masseur. She had been drawn to him because he claimed
he had never heard of her and was, therefore, not intimidated by her.[60]
The same year, Davis refused the title role in Mildred Pierce (1945),[61] a
role for which Joan Crawford won an Academy Award, and instead made
The Corn Is Green (1945), based on a play by Emlyn Williams.

In The Corn Is Green Davis played Miss Moffat, an English teacher who
saves a young Welsh miner (John Dall) from a life in the coal pits, by
offering him education. The part had been played in the theatre by Ethel
Barrymore (who was 61 at the play's premiere), but Warner Bros. felt that
the film version should depict the character as a younger woman. Davis
disagreed, and insisted on playing the part as written, and wore a gray wig
and padding under her clothes, to create a dowdy appearance.[62] The film
was well received by critics, and made a profit of $2.2 million.[63] The
critic E. Arnot Robertson observed: In The Corn Is Green (1945):
Despite the studio's
suggestion that she play the
Only Bette Davis...could have combated so successfully the role as a young woman,
obvious intention of the adaptors of the play to make Davis (age 37) insisted on
frustrated sex the mainspring of the chief character's interest in aging her appearance to fit
the young miner.[64] the part.

She concluded that "the subtle interpretation she insisted on giving" kept
the focus on the teacher's "sheer joy in imparting knowledge".[64]
Her next film, A Stolen Life (1946), was the only film that Davis made with her own production company,
BD Productions.[65] Davis played dual roles, as twins. The film received poor reviews, and was described
by Bosley Crowther as "a distressingly empty piece";[66] but, with a profit of $2.5 million, it was one of her
biggest box office successes.[67] In 1947, the U.S. Treasury named Davis as the highest-paid woman in the
country,[68] with her share of the film's profit accounting for most of her earnings. Her next film was
Deception (1946), the first of her films to lose money.[69]

Possessed (1947) had been tailor-made for Davis,[70] and was to have been her next project after
Deception. However, she was pregnant and went on maternity leave. Joan Crawford played her role in
Possessed, and was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress. In 1947, at the age of 39, Davis
gave birth to daughter Barbara Davis Sherry (known as B.D.), and later wrote in her memoir that she
became absorbed in motherhood and considered ending her career. As she continued making films,
however, her relationship with her daughter B.D. began to deteriorate, and her popularity with audiences
steadily declined.[71]

Among the film roles offered to Davis following her return to film-making was Rose Sayer in The African
Queen (1951). When informed that the film was to be shot in Africa, Davis refused the part, telling Jack
Warner "If you can't shoot the picture in a boat on the back lot, then I'm not interested." Katharine Hepburn
played the role, and was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress.[72]

Davis was offered a role in a film version of the Virginia Kellogg prison drama Women Without Men.
Originally intended to pair Davis with Joan Crawford, Davis made it clear that she would not appear in any
"dyke movie". It was filmed as Caged (1950), and the lead roles were played by Eleanor Parker (who was
nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress) and Agnes Moorehead.[73]

In 1948, Davis was cast in the melodrama Winter Meeting. Although she
initially was enthusiastic, she soon learned that Warner had arranged for
"softer" lighting to be used to disguise her age. She recalled that she had
seen the same lighting technique "on the sets of Ruth Chatterton and Kay
Francis, and I knew what they meant".[74] To add to her disappointment,
she was not confident in the abilities of her leading man – James Davis in
his first major screen role. She disagreed with changes made to the script
because of censorship restrictions, and found that many of the aspects of
Beyond the Forest (1949)
the role that initially appealed to her had been cut. The film was described
was the last film Davis
made for Warner Bros. after
by Bosley Crowther as "interminable", and he noted that "of all the
17 years with the studio.
miserable dilemmas in which Miss Davis has been involved ... this one is
probably the worst". It failed at the box office, and the studio lost nearly $1
million.[75]

While making June Bride (1948), Davis clashed with co-star Robert Montgomery, later describing him as
"a male Miriam Hopkins... an excellent actor, but addicted to scene-stealing".[76] The film marked her first
comedy in several years, and earned her some positive reviews, but it was not particularly popular with
audiences, and returned only a small profit.

Despite the lackluster box-office receipts from her more recent films, in 1949, she negotiated a four-film
contract with Warner Bros. that paid $10,285 per week and made her the highest-paid woman in the United
States.[77] However, Jack Warner had refused to allow her script approval, and cast her in Beyond the
Forest (1949). Davis reportedly loathed the script, and begged Warner to recast the role, but he refused.
After the film was completed, her request to be released from her contract was honored.

The reviews of the film were scathing. Dorothy Manners, writing for the Los Angeles Examiner, described
the film as "an unfortunate finale to her brilliant career".[78] Hedda Hopper wrote: "If Bette had deliberately
set out to wreck her career, she could not have picked a more appropriate vehicle."[79] The film contained
the line "What a dump!", which became closely associated with Davis after it was referenced in Edward
Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and impersonators began to use it in their acts. Arthur Blake was a
famous female impersonator of the post World-War II era who was particularly known for his performances
as Bette Davis; notably impersonating her in the 1952 film Diplomatic Courier.[80]

1949–1960: Starting a freelance career

Davis filmed The Story of a Divorce (released by RKO Radio Pictures in

1951 as Payment on Demand). Shortly before filming was completed,
producer Darryl F. Zanuck offered her the role of the aging theatrical
actress Margo Channing in All About Eve (1950). Davis read the script,
described it as the best she had ever read, and accepted the role. Within
days, she joined the cast in San Francisco to begin filming. During
production, she established what became a lifelong friendship with her co-
star Anne Baxter and a romantic relationship with her leading man Gary
Merrill, which led to marriage. The film's director Joseph L. Mankiewicz
later remarked: "Bette was letter perfect. She was syllable-perfect. The
director's dream: the prepared actress."[81] Davis posing as Margo
Channing in a promotional
Critics responded positively to Davis's performance, and several of her
image for All About Eve
lines became well-known, particularly "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to (1950): She is pictured with
be a bumpy night". She was again nominated for an Academy Award, and Gary Merrill, to whom she
critics such as Gene Ringgold described her Margo as her "all-time best was married from 1950 to
performance".[82] Pauline Kael wrote that much of Mankiewicz's vision of 1960 (her fourth, and final,
"the theater" was "nonsense", but commended Davis, writing "[the film is] husband).
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."[83]

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
hand prints in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre.[84]

On July 3, 1950, Davis's divorce from William Sherry was finalized, and on July 28, she married Gary
Merrill, her fourth and final husband. With Sherry's consent, Merrill adopted B.D., Davis's daughter with
Sherry. In January 1951, Davis and Merrill adopted a five-day-old baby girl they named Margot Mosher
Merrill (born January 6, 1951),[85][86] after the character Margo Channing. Davis and Merrill lived with
their three children – in 1952, they adopted a baby boy, Michael (born February 5, 1952)[87] – on an estate
on the coast of Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Davis, after semi-retirement in the mid-1950s, again starred in
several movies during her time in Maine, including The Virgin Queen (1955), in which she played Queen
Elizabeth I.[88]

The family traveled to England, where Davis and Merrill starred in the murder-mystery film Another Man's
Poison (1951). 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 at the box office.[89]

In 1952, Davis appeared in the Broadway revue Two's Company, directed by Jules Dassin. She was
uncomfortable working outside of her area of expertise; she never had been a musical performer, and her
limited theater experience had been more than 20 years earlier. She was also severely ill, and was operated
on for osteomyelitis of the jaw.[90] Margot was diagnosed as severely brain-damaged due to an injury
sustained during or shortly after her birth, and was placed in an institution around the age of 3.[91] Davis
and Merrill began arguing frequently, and B.D. later recalled episodes of alcohol abuse and domestic
violence.[92]

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.[93]

Her films of this period included Storm Center (1956) and The Catered Affair (1956). As her career
declined, her marriage continued to deteriorate until she filed for divorce in 1960. The following year, her
mother died. During the same time, she tried television, appearing in three episodes of the popular NBC
Western Wagon Train as three different characters in 1959 and 1961; her first appearance on TV had been
February 25, 1956, on General Electric Theatre.[94]

In 1960, Davis, a registered Democrat, appeared at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los
Angeles, where she met future President John F. Kennedy, whom she greatly admired.[95] Outside of
acting and politics, Davis was an active and practicing Episcopalian.[96]

1961–1970: Renewed success

In 1961, 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 Hope
Lange for the Frank Capra film Pocketful of Miracles (1961), a remake of
Capra's 1933 film, Lady for a Day, based on a story by Damon Runyon.
Exhibitors protested her star billing as they considered it would negatively
Davis received her final
impact the box office performance and, despite the appearance of Ford, the
Academy Award nomination
for her role as demented
film failed at the box office.[97]
Baby Jane Hudson in What
She accepted her next role, in the Grand Guignol horror film What Ever
Ever Happened to Baby
Jane? (1962).
Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), after Joan Crawford showed interest in
the script and considered Davis for the part of Jane. Davis believed 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 10 percent of the worldwide gross
profits in addition to her salary. The film became one of the year's big successes.[98]

Davis and 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.".[99] There were stories that Davis and
Crawford would purposely annoy each other on set. One such story describes Crawford putting heavy
weights in her pockets to make it hard for Davis to drag her on the floor in one scene, though there is no
proof of these claims.
After filming was completed, their public comments against each other allowed the tension to develop into
a lifelong feud. When Davis was nominated for an Academy Award, Crawford contacted the other Best
Actress nominees (who were unable to attend the ceremonies) and offered to accept the award on their
behalf, should they win. When Anne Bancroft was announced as winner, Crawford accepted the award on
Bancroft's behalf. Despite their dislike for each other, Davis and Crawford spoke highly of each other's
talent in acting. Crawford said Davis was a "fascinating actress" but they were never able to become
friends as they only worked on the one film together. Davis also said Crawford was a good, professional
actress, but cared a lot about the way she looked, and her vanity. Their feud was eventually turned into the
2017 limited series Feud by Ryan Murphy.

Davis also received her only BAFTA nomination for this performance. Daughter Barbara (credited as B.D.
Merrill) played a small role in the film, and when she and Davis visited the Cannes Film Festival to
promote it, Barbara met Jeremy Hyman, an executive for Seven Arts Productions. After a short courtship,
she married Hyman at the age of 16, with Davis's permission.

In October 1962, it was announced that four episodes of the CBS-TV

series Perry Mason would feature special guest stars who would cover for
Raymond Burr during his convalescence from surgery. A Perry Mason
fan, Davis was the first of the guest stars. "The Case of Constant Doyle"
began filming on December 12, 1962,[100] and aired January 31,
1963.[101]

In 1962, Davis appeared as Celia Miller on the TV western The Virginian

in the episode titled "The Accomplice."

In September 1962, Davis placed an advertisement in Variety under the

heading of "Situations wanted – women artists", which read: "Mother of
three – 10, 11, & 15 – divorcee. American. Thirty years experience as an
actress in Motion Pictures. Mobile still, and more affable than rumor would Davis and William Hopper in
have it. Wants steady employment in Hollywood. (Has had the Perry Mason episode,
Broadway.)"[102] Davis said that she intended it as a joke, and she "The Case of Constant
sustained her comeback over the course of several years. Doyle" (January 31, 1963)

Dead Ringer (1964) was a crime drama in which she played twin sisters.
The film was an American adaptation of the Mexican film La Otra, starring Dolores del Río.[103] 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.[104]

Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) was Robert Aldrich's follow-up to What Ever Happened to Baby
Jane?. Aldrich planned to reunite Davis and Crawford, but the latter 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 included Joseph Cotten, Mary Astor, Agnes
Moorehead, and Cecil Kellaway.

The following year, Davis was cast as the lead in an Aaron Spelling sitcom, The Decorator.[105] A pilot
episode was filmed, but was not shown, and the project was terminated. By the end of the decade, Davis
had appeared in the British films The Nanny (1965), The Anniversary (1968), and Connecting Rooms
(1970), none of which were reviewed well, and her career again stalled.[89]

1971–1983: Later career

In the early 1970s, Davis was invited to appear in New York City in a stage presentation titled 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, Sylvia Sidney, 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; its success allowed her to take the production to
the United Kingdom.[106]

In 1972, Davis played the lead role in two television films that were each intended as pilots for upcoming
series for ABC and NBC, Madame Sin, with Robert Wagner, and The Judge and Jake Wyler, with Doug
McClure and Joan Van Ark, but in each case, the network decided against producing a series.

She appeared in the stage production Miss Moffat, a musical adaptation of her film 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 Luigi Comencini's Lo Scopone scientifico (1972) with Joseph Cotten and
Italian actors Alberto Sordi and Silvana Mangano, Burnt Offerings (1976), a Dan Curtis film, and The
Disappearance of Aimee (1976), but she clashed with Karen Black and Faye Dunaway, the stars of the
two latter respective productions, because she felt that neither extended her an appropriate degree of respect
and that their behavior on the film sets was unprofessional.[107]

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 re-film a scene
from The Letter to which Davis nodded. Jane Fonda, Henry Fonda,
Natalie Wood, and Olivia de Havilland were among the performers who
paid tribute, with de Havilland commenting that Davis "got the roles I
always wanted".[108]

Following the telecast, she found herself in demand again, often having to
Davis (left) and Elizabeth
choose between several offers. She accepted roles in the television
Taylor in late 1981 during a
miniseries The Dark Secret of Harvest Home (1978) and the theatrical film
show celebrating Taylor's life
Death on the Nile (1978), an Agatha Christie murder mystery. The bulk of
her remaining 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 the Disney films Return from Witch Mountain (1978) and The Watcher in the Woods (1980).[109]

Davis's name became well known to a younger audience when Kim Carnes's song "Bette Davis Eyes"
(written by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon) became a worldwide hit and the best-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.[110][111]

She continued acting for television, appearing in Family Reunion (1981) with her grandson J. Ashley
Hyman, A Piano for Mrs. Cimino (1982), and Right of Way (1983) with James Stewart. In 1983, she was
awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award.[112]

1983–1989: Illness, awards, and final works

In 1983, after filming the pilot episode for the television series
Hotel, Davis was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a
mastectomy. Within two weeks of her surgery, she suffered four
strokes which caused paralysis in the left 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. Even late in life, Davis smoked 100 cigarettes per
day.[113]

During this time, her relationship with her daughter B.D. Hyman Davis (aged 79) completed her
deteriorated when Hyman became a born-again Christian and penultimate role in The Whales of
attempted to persuade Davis to follow suit. With her health stable, August (1987), which brought her
she traveled to England to film the Agatha Christie mystery acclaim during a period in which she
Murder with Mirrors (1985). Upon her return, she learned that was beset with failing health and
Hyman had published My Mother's Keeper, in which she personal trauma.
chronicled a difficult mother-daughter relationship and depicted
scenes of Davis's overbearing and drunken behavior.[4]

Several of Davis's friends commented that Hyman's depiction of events was not accurate; one said "So
much of the book is out of context". Mike Wallace re-broadcast a 60 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 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 disinherited her.[114]

Davis with President Ronald Reagan
(her co-star in 1939's Dark Victory) in
1987, two years before her death
In her second 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."[115]

Davis appeared in the television film As Summers Die (1986), and in Lindsay Anderson's film The Whales
of August (1987), in which she played the blind sister of Lillian Gish. Though in poor health at the time,
Davis memorized her own and everyone else's lines as she always had.[116] 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."[117] Davis became an honouree of the Kennedy
Center Honors for her contribution to films in 1987.

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.[113]

After abandoning Wicked Stepmother, and with no further film offers (though she was keen to play the
centenarian in Craig Calman's The Turn of the Century, and worked with him on adapting the stage play to
a feature-length screenplay), 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": "I always disliked that because she was encouraged to behave badly. And I'd always
hear her described by that awful word, feisty."[118]

During 1988 and 1989, Davis was honored for her career achievements, receiving the Legion of Honor
from France, the Campione d'Italia from Italy, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center Lifetime
Achievement Award. She appeared on British television in a special broadcast from the South Bank
Centre, discussing film and her career, the other guest being the renowned Russian director Andrei
Tarkovsky.

Death
Davis 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
traveled to France, where she died on October 6, 1989, at 11:35 PM, at the
American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Davis was 81 years old. A
memorial tribute was held by invitation only at Burbank Studio's stage 18
where a work light was turned on signaling the end of production.[119]
Davis's crypt at Forest Lawn
She was entombed in Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Memorial Park in Los
Angeles, alongside her mother Ruthie and sister Bobby, with her name in Angeles
larger type size. On her tombstone is written: "She did it the hard way", an
epitaph that she mentioned in her memoir Mother Goddam as having been
suggested to her by Joseph L. Mankiewicz shortly after they had filmed All About Eve.[120]

Reception and legacy

As early as 1936, Graham Greene summarized Davis:

Even the most inconsiderable film ... seemed temporarily better than they were because of that
precise, nervy voice, the pale ash-blond hair, the popping, neurotic eyes, a kind of corrupt and
phosphorescent prettiness ... I would rather watch Miss Davis than any number of competent
pictures.[121]

In 1964, Jack Warner spoke of the "magic quality that transformed this sometimes bland and not beautiful
little girl into a great artist",[120] and in a 1988 interview, Davis remarked that, unlike many of her
contemporaries, she had forged a career without the benefit of beauty.[122] She admitted she was terrified
during the making of her early 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."[123] During the making of All About Eve
(1950), 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".[124]

While lauded for her achievements, Davis and her films were sometimes derided; Pauline Kael described
Now, Voyager (1942) as a "shlock classic",[125] and by the mid-1940s, her sometimes mannered and
histrionic performances had become the subject of caricature. 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, at the Los Angeles Examiner, said of
her performance in the poorly received Beyond the Forest (1949): "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!"[126]

Davis attracted a following in the gay subculture, and was frequently imitated by female impersonators
such as Tracey Lee, Craig Russell, Jim Bailey, and Charles Pierce.[127] 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."[122]

Her film choices were often unconventional: Davis 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.[123]

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.[128] Individual performances continued
to receive praise; in 1987, Bill Collins analyzed The Letter (1940), and
described her performance as "a brilliant, subtle achievement", and wrote:
"Bette Davis makes Leslie Crosbie one of the most extraordinary females
in movies."[129] In a 2000 review for All About Eve (1950), Roger Ebert
noted: "Davis was a character, an icon with a grand style; so, even her
excesses are realistic."[130] In House of Wax (2005), in her attempt to
blend in with the other wax figures in the local movie house, the lead
Davis's signature and
female character has to sit through a scene from Whatever Happened to
handprints at Grauman's
Chinese Theatre
Baby Jane .[131] In 2006, Premiere magazine ranked her portrayal of
Margo Channing in the film as fifth on their list of 100 Greatest
Performances of All Time, commenting: "There is something deliciously
audacious about her gleeful willingness to play such unattractive emotions as jealousy, bitterness, and
neediness."[132] While reviewing What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) in 2008, Ebert asserted that,
"No one who has seen the film will ever forget her."[133]

A few months before her death in 1989, Davis was one of several actors featured on the cover of Life
magazine. 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 (1939) as one of the more important
films of the year.[134] Her death made front-page news throughout the world as the "close of yet another
chapter of the Golden Age of Hollywood". Angela Lansbury summarized the feeling of those of the
Hollywood community who attended her memorial service, commenting, after a sample from Davis's films
was 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".[135]

In 1977, Davis became the first woman to be honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award.[136] 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.[137]

The United States Postal Service honored Davis with a commemorative postage stamp in 2008, marking
the 100th anniversary of her birth.[138] The stamp features an image of her in the role of Margo Channing
in All About Eve. The First Day of Issue celebration took place September 18, 2008, at Boston University,
which houses an extensive Davis archive. Featured speakers included her son Michael Merrill and Lauren
Bacall. In 1997, the executors of her estate, Merrill and Kathryn Sermak, her former assistant, established
The Bette Davis Foundation, which awards college scholarships to promising actors and actresses.[56]

Journalist Jeanine Basinger of The New York Times wrote:

"I was once the goat elected to inform her that she couldn't smoke at a dinner honoring Frank
Capra, whose asthmatic wife, Lu, had stored her oxygen tank under the table. "Well, get her
out of here!" Davis bellowed at me, by way of a suggested solution."
[139]

In 2017, Sermak published the memoir Miss D & Me: Life With the Invincible Bette Davis, a book Davis
had requested Sermak write, detailing their years spent together.[140]

Academy Awards
Davis established several Oscar milestones. Among them, she
became the first person to earn five consecutive Academy Award
nominations for acting, all in the Best Actress category (1938–
1942).[141] Her record has only been matched by one other
performer, Greer Garson, who also earned five consecutive
nominations in the Best Actress category (1941–1945), including
three years when both these actresses were nominated.[141]

In 1962, Bette Davis became the first person to secure 10

Academy Award nominations for acting. Since then only three
people have surpassed this figure, Meryl Streep (with 21
nominations and three wins), Katharine Hepburn (12 nominations Davis in the trailer for Dark Victory
and 4 wins), and Jack Nicholson (12 nominations and 3 wins) with (1939), in which she gave one of her
Laurence Olivier matching the number (10 nominations and 1 11 Oscar-nominated performances
win).[142]

Steven Spielberg purchased Davis's Oscars for Dangerous (1935) and Jezebel (1938), when they were
offered for auction for $207,500 and $578,000, respectively, and returned them to the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences.[143][144]
Davis's performance in Of Human Bondage (1934) was widely acclaimed and, when she was not
nominated for an Academy Award, several influential people mounted a campaign to have her name
included. The Academy relaxed its rules for that year (and the following year also) to allow for the
consideration of any performer nominated in a write-in vote; therefore, any performance of the year was
technically eligible for consideration. For a period of time in the 1930s, the Academy revealed the second-
and third-place vote getters in each category: Davis placed third for best actress above the officially
nominated Grace Moore.

Year Category Film Result

1934 Of Human Bondage Nominated (Write-in)
1935 Dangerous
Won
1938 Jezebel
1939 Dark Victory
1940 The Letter
1941 Best Actress The Little Foxes
1942 Now, Voyager
Nominated
1944 Mr. Skeffington
1950 All About Eve
1952 The Star
1962 What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Selected filmography
Bad Sister (1931)
20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)
The Cabin in the Cotton (1932)
The Working Man (1933)
Parachute Jumper (1933)
Of Human Bondage (1934)
Dangerous (1935)
The Petrified Forest (1936)
Marked Woman (1937)
Jezebel (1938)
Dark Victory (1939)
The Old Maid (1939)
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
Juarez (1939)
All This, and Heaven Too (1940)
The Letter (1940)
The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941)
The Little Foxes (1941)
The Great Lie (1941)
The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)
In This Our Life (1942)
 Now, Voyager (1942)
Watch on the Rhine (1943)
Old Acquaintance (1943)
Mr. Skeffington (1944)
The Corn is Green (1945)
A Stolen Life (1946)
Deception (1946)
Winter Meeting (1948)
Beyond the Forest (1949)
All About Eve (1950)
Payment on Demand (1951)
The Star (1952)
The Virgin Queen (1955)
The Catered Affair (1956)
Pocketful of Miracles (1961)
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
Dead Ringer (1964)
The Nanny (1965)
The Anniversary (1968)
Connecting Rooms (1970)
Madame Sin (1972)
Burnt Offerings (1976)
Return from Witch Mountain (1978)
Death on the Nile (1978)
Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter (1979)
The Watcher in the Woods (1980)
Right of Way (1983)
The Whales of August (1987)
Wicked Stepmother (1989)

See also
Motion Picture Production Code (Hays Code)
Classical Hollywood cinema

References
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pg=PA16). Macmillan. ISBN 9780805088632. Retrieved May 16, 2020 – via Google Books.
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com/books?id=IVF8dddede8C&q=%22There+was+a+contest%E2%80%94a+competitive+d
ress+parade+for+Mrs.+Herbert+Hoover+at+Madison+Square+Garden%E2%80%94and+Ru
th+Elizabeth%E2%80%99s+patrol+necessarily+won%22&pg=PA16). Macmillan.
ISBN 9780805088632. Retrieved May 16, 2020 – via Google Books. "There was a contest
—a competitive dress parade for Mrs. Herbert Hoover at Madison Square Garden—and
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External links
Official website (https://www.bettedavis.com/) - operated by the Estate of Bette Davis
Bette Davis (https://www.allmovie.com/artist/p17295) at AllMovie
Bette Davis (https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/37447) at the Internet Broadway
Database
Bette Davis (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000012/) at IMDb
Bette Davis (https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/45076/wp) at the TCM Movie Database
Bette Davis (https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/-/bette-davis/141778/) at TV Guide
Portraits from "The Little Foxes", 1941 (http://www.thenedscottarchive.com/galleries/film-star
s.html#bettedavis) by Ned Scott
Kathryn Sermak recounts living with Bette Davis, interview October, 2017, News-Sentinel,
accessed October 25, 2017. (http://www.news-sentinel.com/living/2017/10/24/tinseltown-talk
s-kathryn-sermak-recounts-living-with-bette-davis/)
Bette Davis (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/bette_davis) at Rotten Tomatoes

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