Bette Davis Biography (Actress) 1908–1989

Short Story original name Ruth Elizabeth Davis: Actress. Born on April 5, 1908, in Lowell, Massachusetts. For decades, Bette Davis was one of Hollywood's greatest leading ladies. She started out on the stage, making her Broadway debut in 1929. The next year she made her way to Hollywood.

Bette Davis started her film career as a contract player for Universal, but she found success when she signed with Warner Brothers in 1932. That year she appeared in The Man who Played God (1932), the first in a long line of strong performances by Davis. Her role in Of Human Bondage (1934) led to her first Academy Award nomination. Two of her other films, Dangerous (1935) and Jezebel (1938), from that decade won her acting highest honor—the Academy Award for Best Actress.

All of these accolades helped establish Bette Davis as one of the top film actresses of her time. She continued to make several movies a year from the 1930s to the mid-1940s. Her flagging film career received a boost from her performance as Margo Channing, an aging stage actress, in All About Eve (1950). Another of her most memorable roles pitted her against Joan Crawford, a longtime rival, in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). Davis starred as a former child star carrying for her disabled sister played by Crawford. The two actresses gave stellar performances as one of the most dysfunctional families to make to the screen.

In the later part of her career, Bette Davis took on a variety of roles. She appeared such films as the horror movie Burnt Offerings (1976) and the Agatha Christie mystery Death on the Nile (1979) . One of her final appearances was as a blind woman in The Whales of August (1987) opposite Lillian Gish, and many television productions. She died on October 6, 1989, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.

Bette Davis was married four times. With third husband, William Grant Sherry, she had a daughter named Barbara. While married to Gary Merrill, she adopted two children, Margot and Michael.

With more than 100 films and 11 Academy Award nominations to her credit, Bette Davis truly earned her nickname of "First Lady of the American Screen." The Bette Davis Foundation was established by her estate to honor her. The organization provides scholarships to up-and-coming actors and actresses.