Bette Davis

Actor

Born April 5, 1908 in Lowell, Massachusetts, USA

Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres; from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies, though her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas. After appearing in Broadway plays, Davis moved to Hollywood in 1930, but her early films for Universal Studios were unsuccessful. She joined Warner Bros. in 1932 and established her career with several critically acclaimed performances. In 1937, she attempted to free herself from her contract and although she lost a well-publicized legal case, it marked the beginning of the most successful period of her career. Until the late 1940s, she was one of American cinema's most celebrated leading ladies, known for her forceful and intense style. Davis gained a reputation as a perfectionist who could be highly combative, and confrontations with studio executives, film directors and costars were often reported. Her forthright manner, clipped vocal style and ubiquitous cigarette contributed to a public persona which has often been imitated and satirized.

Filmography

This Is Joan Collins

Self (Archive Footage)

Madonna: Madame X

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Morceaux de Cannes

Mike Wallace Is Here

(archive footage)

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood

Self (archive footage)

Bette Davis: Larger Than Life

Self (archive footage)

The Fabulous Allan Carr

Self (archive)

Bette and Joan

Self (archive footage)

Leslie Howard: The Man Who Gave a Damn

Self (archive footage)

Listen to Me Marlon

Self (archive footage)

Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire

Self - Actress (archive footage)

Classic Movie Bloopers: Uncensored

Self (archive footage)

Talking Pictures

Self (archive footage)

Footsteps on the Ceiling

Margo Channing (archive footage)

Vito

Self (archive)

Marilyn at the Movies

Self (archive footage)

The Travels of Kinuyo Tanaka

Self (archive footage)

Queer Icon: The Cult of Bette Davis

Self (archive footage)

1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year

Self (archive footage)

Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema

Self (archive footage)

Bette and Joan: Blind Ambition

Self (archive footage)

Jezebel: Legend of the South

Self (archive footage)

Stardust: The Bette Davis Story

Self (archive footage)

The Petrified Forest: Menace in the Desert

Self (archive footage)

The Adventures of Errol Flynn

Queen Elizabeth (archive footage)

How Real is 'The Star'?

Self (archive footage)

Complicated Women

Self (archive footage)

Smothered: The Censorship Struggles of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour

Self (archive footage)

Goldwyn: The Man and His Movies

Self (archive footage)

Backstory: 'All About Eve'

Self (archive footage)

All About My Mother

The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender

Self (archive footage)

Frank Capra's American Dream

Self (archive footage)

Joan Crawford: Always the Star

Self (archive footage)

Intimate Portrait: Bette Davis

Self (archive footage)

The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies

Self (archive footage)

Biography: Bette Davis — If Looks Could Kill

Self (archive footage)

The World of Hammer

Self (archive footage)

All About Bette

Self

100 Years at the Movies

Self (archive footage)

Intimate Portrait

Self (archive footage)

Wicked Stepmother

Miranda Pierpoint

Hairway to the Stars

Self [Archive Footage]

The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind

Self (archive footage)

The Whales of August

Libby Strong

Hammer: The Studio That Dripped Blood

(archive footage)

As Summers Die

Hannah Loftin

Directed by William Wyler

Self

Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend

archive footage

Bette Davis at the Cinémathèque Française

Self

Murder with Mirrors

Carrie Louise Serrocold

Hollywood's Funniest All-Star Bloopers

Self (archive footage)

Going Hollywood: The '30s

(archive footage)

Right of Way

Miniature Dwyer

Bette Davis: The Benevolent Volcano

Self

Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Showbiz Goes to War

(archive footage)

Little Gloria... Happy at Last

Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt

Hotel

Laura Trent

Natalie - A Tribute to a Very Special Lady

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

(in "Deception") (archive footage)

Showbiz Ballyhoo

Self (archive footage)

Night of 100 Stars

Self

A Piano for Mrs. Cimino

Esther McDonald Cimino

Late Night with David Letterman

Self - Guest

Oops, Those Hollywood Bloopers!

Self (archive footage)

Family Reunion

Elizabeth Winfield

Family Reunion

Elizabeth Winfield

Skyward

Billie Dupree

The Watcher in the Woods

Mrs. Aylwood

White Mama

Estelle Malone

Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter

Lucy Mason

The Horror Show

(archive footage)

The Kennedy Center Honors

Self

Mickey's 50

Self

Death on the Nile

Marie Van Schuyler

Return from Witch Mountain

Letha Wedge

The Dark Secret of Harvest Home

Widow Fortune

The Disappearance of Aimee

Minnie Kennedy

Burnt Offerings

Aunt Elizabeth

Dinah!

Self

Miss Moffat

Hello Mother, Goodbye!

Mother

Hello Mother, Goodbye!

Mother

Scream, Pretty Peggy

Mrs. Elliott

The American Film Institute Salute to ...

Self

The Men Who Made the Movies: King Vidor

Self (archive footage)

The Judge and Jake Wyler

Judge Meredith

The Scopone Game

'A vecchia

Madame Sin

Bunny O'Hare

Connecting Rooms

Wanda Fleming

The Dick Cavett Show

Self - Guest

The Anniversary

Mrs. Taggart

It Takes a Thief

Bessie Grindel

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour

Self

The Nanny

Nanny

The Decorator

Liz

Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte

Charlotte Hollis

Where Love Has Gone

Mrs. Gerald Hayden

Dead Ringer

Margaret DeLorca / Edith Phillips

The Hollywood Palace

Self

The Empty Canvas

Dino's Mother

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Baby Jane Hudson

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

Self

The Merv Griffin Show

Self

The Virginian

Celia Miller

Pocketful of Miracles

Apple Annie

The Mike Douglas Show

Self - Co-Host

The DuPont Show with June Allyson

Sarah Whitney

The Scapegoat

Countess

John Paul Jones

Empress Catherine the Great

Suspicion

Mrs. Wilfred Ellis

Perry Mason

Constant Doyle

Wagon Train

Ella Lindstrom

The Dinah Shore Chevy Show

Self

Storm Center

Alicia Hull

The Catered Affair

Agnes Hurley

Telephone Time

Tony Awards

Self - Presenter

The 20th Century Fox Hour

Marie Hoke

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Miss Fox

Gunsmoke

Etta Stone

The Virgin Queen

Queen Elizabeth I

Reflets de Cannes

Self

The Oscars

Self

General Electric Theater

Miss Burrows

The Star

Margaret Elliot

The Ford Television Theatre

Dolley Madison

Phone Call from a Stranger

Marie Hoke

Hallmark Hall of Fame

Mrs. Minnie Kennedy, Aimee's mother

Another Man's Poison

Janet Frobisher

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars

Irene Van Buren

Payment on Demand

Joyce Ramsey (nee Jackson)

All About Eve

Margo Channing

What's My Line?

Self

Breakdowns of 1949

Self

Beyond the Forest

Rosa Moline

June Bride

Linda Gilman

Winter Meeting

Susan Grieve

Deception

Christine Radcliffe

A Stolen Life

Kate Bosworth / Patricia Bosworth

The Corn Is Green

Miss Lilly Christabel Moffat

Breakdowns of 1944

Self

Hollywood Canteen

Self

Mr. Skeffington

Fanny Trellis

Golden Globe Awards

Self - Presenter

Old Acquaintance

Kit Marlowe

The Voice That Thrilled the World

Self (segment 'Dangerous') (archive footage)

Thank Your Lucky Stars

Self

Watch on the Rhine

Sara Müller

Show-Business at War

Self

Stars on Horseback

Breakdowns of 1942

Self

Now, Voyager

Charlotte Vale

In This Our Life

Stanley Timberlake Kingsmill

The Man Who Came to Dinner

Maggie Cutler

Breakdowns of 1941

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

The Little Foxes

Regina Hubbard Giddens

The Bride Came C.O.D.

Joan Winfield

Shining Victory

The Great Lie

Maggie Patterson Van Allen

The Letter

Leslie Crosbie

Cavalcade of the Academy Awards

Self

All This, and Heaven Too

Henriette Deluzy-Desportes

Breakdowns of 1939

Self

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex

Queen Elizabeth

The Old Maid

Charlotte Lovell

Juarez

Empress Carlotta von Hapsburg

Dark Victory

Judith Traherne

Breakdowns of 1938

Self (archive footage)

The Sisters

Louise Elliott Medlin

Jezebel

Julie Marsden

Breakdowns of 1937

Self

It's Love I'm After

Joyce Arden

That Certain Woman

Mary Donnell

Kid Galahad

Louise 'Fluff' Phillips

A Day at Santa Anita

Bette Davis (uncredited)

Marked Woman

Mary Dwight Strauber

Breakdowns of 1936

Self

Screen Snapshots (Series 16, No. 1)

Self

Satan Met a Lady

Valerie Purvis

The Golden Arrow

Daisy Appleby

The Petrified Forest

Gabrielle "Gabby" Maple

Dick Powell and Joan Blondell home movies: "No. 1, From beginning"

A Dream Comes True

Dangerous

Joyce Heath

Special Agent

Julie Gardner

Front Page Woman

Ellen Garfield

The Girl from 10th Avenue

Miriam A. Brady

Bordertown

Mrs. Marie Roark

Housewife

Patricia Berkeley

Of Human Bondage

Mildred Rogers

Fog Over Frisco

Arlene Bradford

Jimmy the Gent

Joan Martin

Fashions of 1934

Lynn Mason

The Big Shakedown

Norma Nelson

Bureau of Missing Persons

Norma Roberts

Ex-Lady

Helen Bauer

The Working Man

Jenny Hartland alias Jane Grey

The 42nd Street Special

Self (uncredited)

Parachute Jumper

Patricia 'Alabama' Brent

Just Around the Corner

Ginger

20,000 Years in Sing Sing

Fay Wilson

Three on a Match

Ruth Westcott

The Cabin in the Cotton

Madge Norwood

The Dark Horse

Kay Russell

The Rich Are Always with Us

Malbro

So Big!

Miss Dallas O'Mara

The Man Who Played God

Grace Blair

Hell's House

Peggy Gardner

The Menace

Peggy Lowell

Way Back Home

Mary Lucy Duffy

Waterloo Bridge

Janet Cronin

Seed

Margaret Carter

The Bad Sister

Laura Madison