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Bette Davis: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth Davis was born on the 5th of April 1908 in Lowell, Massachusetts, into a family that would soon fracture under the weight of its own contradictions. Her father, Harlow Morrell Davis, was a law student turned patent attorney, while her mother, Ruth Augusta Favór, hailed from Tyngsborough. The stability of their early life evaporated in 1915 when the parents separated, forcing the young Davis and her sister Barbara to attend Crestalban, a spartan boarding school in Lanesborough, Massachusetts. To fund this education, her mother moved to New York City, renting an apartment on 144th Street and Broadway, and worked as a portrait photographer after enrolling in the Clarence White School of Photography. The children were enrolled in local public schools, but the distance between mother and children created a void that would shape Davis's future. She later changed the spelling of her first name from Betty to Bette, inspired by a character in Honoré de Balzac's La Cousine Bette, signaling a desire to shed her ordinary identity for something more dramatic. By 1926, at the age of 18, she saw a production of Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck featuring Blanche Yurka and Peg Entwistle, and it was Entwistle's performance that ignited her desire to enter the theater. Her early attempts to join the Clarence White School of Photography were rebuffed by Eva Le Gallienne, who described her attitude as insincere and frivolous, yet Davis persisted, eventually securing her first paid acting assignment in a one-week stint as a chorus girl in the play Broadway. Her Broadway debut arrived in 1929 with Broken Dishes, followed by Solid South, establishing her as a bona fide stage actress before she ever stepped onto a film set.
The War Over A Contract
In the spring of 1936, Bette Davis found herself in a legal battle that would define her career and challenge the very power structure of Hollywood. After more than twenty film roles and a critical breakthrough in Of Human Bondage, she demanded a salary increase from Warner Bros., refusing to work on God's Country and the Woman. The studio, which had been paying her $1,250 per week, offered $2,250, but Davis wanted $3,500 per week plus radio rights and permission to make outside pictures. When Warner Bros. suspended her for refusal to work, Davis traveled to England with her husband, Harmon Nelson, and signed a contract with Toplitz to make I'll Take the Low Road for a $50,000 salary. On the 9th of September 1936, Warner Bros. filed a legal injunction in England forbidding her from appearing in film productions without their consent. Davis publicly declared her intent to defy the injunction while on a shopping spree in Paris. The British court hearing on the 14th of October 1936, resulted in a ruling by Mr. Justice Branson on October 19, which dismissed Davis's claims that she was an underpaid slave and ruled that she was in breach of her contract for no discoverable reason except that she wanted more money. She was ordered to pay Warner Bros. $80,000 in restitution and the studio's legal fees. The British press offered little support, calling her overpaid and ungrateful, yet this legal defeat marked the beginning of the most successful period of her career. The controversy forced Warner Bros. to reconsider their treatment of her, and she soon became one of American cinema's most celebrated leading ladies, winning her second Academy Award for Jezebel in 1938.
Ruth Elizabeth Davis was born on the 5th of April 1908 in Lowell, Massachusetts. Her parents were Harlow Morrell Davis and Ruth Augusta Favór, and the family later separated in 1915.
What legal battle did Bette Davis fight with Warner Bros in 1936?
Bette Davis sued Warner Bros in 1936 after the studio suspended her for refusing to work on God's Country and the Woman. The British court ruled against her on the 19th of October 1936, ordering her to pay $80,000 in restitution and legal fees.
Which film earned Bette Davis her second Academy Award in 1938?
Bette Davis won her second Academy Award for her role in Jezebel in 1938. This victory followed a successful period in her career that began after her legal battle with Warner Bros.
What role did Bette Davis play in the 1950 film All About Eve?
Bette Davis played Margo Channing, a fading Broadway star, in the 1950 film All About Eve. Her performance earned her an Oscar nomination and the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress.
How did the feud between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford affect the 1962 film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Bette Davis and Joan Crawford argued constantly on set while filming What Ever Happened to Baby Jane in 1962, with reports of physical altercations and verbal abuse. Despite their animosity, the film became a major success and remains an iconic horror film of the 1960s.
When and where did Bette Davis die?
Bette Davis died from breast cancer on the 6th of October 1989 at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. She was 81 years old and had been diagnosed with the disease in 1983.
Davis's career was built on a foundation of tragedy, a philosophy she openly embraced when she told an interviewer in 1943 that she had molded her film career on her motto, I love tragedy. This approach led her to play unsympathetic, sardonic characters that many actresses feared, including the vicious and slatternly Mildred Rogers in Of Human Bondage and the adulterous killer Leslie Crosbie in The Letter. Her willingness to embrace these roles earned her critical acclaim but also made her a target for caricature. In Dark Victory, she played Judith Traherne, a spirited heiress suffering from a malignant brain tumor, a role she later cited as her personal favorite. The film was among the high-grossing films of the year, and her performance brought her an Academy Award nomination. Her relationship with director William Wyler, whom she described as the love of her life, was intense, but their collaboration on The Little Foxes in 1941 ended in a clash over the character of Regina Giddens. Davis wanted to make the role her own, while Wyler encouraged her to emulate Tallulah Bankhead's interpretation. The film was a success, but Davis never worked with Wyler again. Her marriage to Arthur Farnsworth, a New England innkeeper, ended in tragedy when he collapsed and died two days later in August 1943 from a skull fracture he had suffered two weeks earlier. Highly distraught, Davis attempted to withdraw from her next film Mr. Skeffington, but Jack Warner persuaded her to continue. Her behavior during filming was erratic and out of character, alienating director Vincent Sherman and earning criticism from James Agee, who wrote that she demonstrated the horrors of egocentricity on a marathonic scale. Despite these reviews, Mr. Skeffington was another box-office hit and earned Davis another Academy Award nomination.
The Rebirth Of A Star
In 1950, Bette Davis found herself at the center of a cinematic phenomenon that would redefine her career and cement her legacy. She played Margo Channing, a fading Broadway star, in All About Eve, a role she described as the best script she had ever read. The film earned her another Oscar nomination and won her the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress. Her performance was so precise that director Joseph L. Mankiewicz remarked, Bette was letter perfect. She was syllable-perfect. The director's dream: the prepared actress. Critics such as Gene Ringgold described her Margo as her all-time best performance, while Pauline Kael wrote that the film was saved by one performance that was the real thing: Bette Davis is at her most instinctive and assured. The film's most imitated scene, where Paul Henreid lights two cigarettes and passes one to Davis, became an iconic moment in cinema history. Davis's marriage to Gary Merrill, her fourth and final husband, began during the production, and they adopted two children, Margot and Michael. However, the 1950s were a period of decline for Davis, with many of her films receiving poor reviews and her popularity waning. Her marriage to Merrill deteriorated, and she filed for divorce in 1960. Despite these challenges, Davis's performance in All About Eve remained a high point, and she continued to take on challenging roles, including the demented former child star Baby Jane Hudson in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? in 1962, which earned her a final Academy Award nomination.
The Feud That Became Legend
The relationship between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford became one of the most famous feuds in Hollywood history, culminating in the 1962 film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Davis and Crawford played two aging sisters, one a former child star and the other an accomplished film actress, forced to share a decaying Hollywood mansion. Despite their personal animosity, both actresses spoke highly of each other's acting talent, yet on set, they constantly argued and called director Robert Aldrich nightly to complain about one another. Davis reportedly called Crawford obscene words while she was within earshot, and they physically attacked each other in scenes where Jane drags Blanche and where Jane beats Blanche. Crawford made herself as heavy as possible to make the scene agonizing for Davis, who was struggling with back problems, while Davis hit Crawford as hard as she could. The film became one of the year's big successes, but the feud continued to fuel public interest. At the 35th Academy Awards, actress Anne Bancroft won Best Actress for The Miracle Worker, while Crawford accepted the Oscar in her place, likely to slight Davis. The alleged feud was eventually turned into the 2017 limited series Feud by Ryan Murphy, ensuring that the rivalry between Davis and Crawford would be remembered for generations. Davis's performance as Baby Jane Hudson earned her a final Academy Award nomination, and the film remains one of the most iconic horror films of the 1960s.
The Last Act Of A Legend
In the final years of her life, Bette Davis faced a series of personal and professional challenges that tested her resilience. In 1983, after filming the pilot episode for the television series Hotel, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. Within two weeks of her surgery, she had 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. Despite her health issues, she continued to act, appearing in films like The Whales of August in 1987, where she played the blind sister of Lillian Gish. Her last performance was the title role in Larry Cohen's Wicked Stepmother in 1989, but 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. Her final years were marred by a long period of ill health, but she continued acting until shortly before her death from breast cancer on the 6th of October 1989, at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. She was 81 years old, and her legacy as one of the greatest actresses in Hollywood history remained intact.