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Questions about Bette Davis

Short answers, pulled from the story.

How many Academy Award nominations did Bette Davis receive during her career?

Bette Davis received ten Academy Award nominations for acting, plus one write-in nomination, making her the first person to accumulate that many nominations. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, for Dangerous in 1935 and Jezebel in 1938.

What was the outcome of the Warner Bros. lawsuit against Bette Davis in 1936?

Warner Bros. won the case. On the 19th of October, 1936, Mr. Justice Branson ruled in the studio's favor, finding Davis in breach of her contract. She was ordered to pay Warner Bros. $80,000 in restitution and to cover the studio's legal fees.

What film is considered Bette Davis's greatest performance?

All About Eve (1950) is most often cited as Davis's finest performance. Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz described her as "syllable-perfect," critic Gene Ringgold called her portrayal of Margo Channing her "all-time best performance," and Premiere magazine ranked it fifth on their list of 100 Greatest Performances of All Time in 2006.

What was the Hollywood Canteen and what role did Bette Davis play in it?

The Hollywood Canteen was an organization founded in 1942 that offered food, dancing, and entertainment to servicemen during World War II, staffed by members of the entertainment industry. Davis and John Garfield were credited as its driving founders, supported by 42 unions and guilds. Davis served as president of the Canteen through the end of the war and received the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal from the Department of Defense in 1983 for her work.

What happened between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford on the set of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Davis and Crawford argued constantly on set and called director Robert Aldrich nightly to complain about one another. Crawford made herself as heavy as possible during a dragging scene to aggravate Davis's back problems, and Davis hit Crawford as hard as she could in a scene requiring her to strike Crawford's character. Despite this, both actresses publicly praised each other's professional abilities.

What awards and honors did Bette Davis receive later in her career?

Davis became the first woman to receive the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1977. She won an Emmy Award for Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter in 1979. In 1987 she became a Kennedy Center Honors honoree, and in 1988 and 1989 she received the Legion of Honor from France, the Campione d'Italia from Italy, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center Lifetime Achievement Award.