Bette Davis

Bette Davis (1908-1989), American film actress, renowned for the intensity and controlled flamboyance of her acting, and for her vivid portrayals of eccentric heroines and diabolical schemers. Born Ruth Elizabeth Davis, she made her successful New York stage debut in 1929 and entered film in 1931 in Bad Sister. She became a star after her success in the film Of Human Bondage (1934) and won two Academy Awards as best actress of the year for Dangerous (1935) and Jezebel (1938). Among her more than 80 films are The Petrified Forest (1936), Dark Victory (1939), The Letter (1940), The Little Foxes (1941), Now Voyager (1942), Deception (1946), All About Eve (1950), The Star (1952), and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962); in the last of these, her portrayal of a grotesque child star looking after her infirm sister, played by Joan Crawford, was especially memorable. In her later films and television appearances, Davis concentrated on extreme character parts. She appeared on the stage in New York in the revue Two's Company (1952), the dramatized reading The World of Carl Sandburg (1960), and the drama Night of the Iguana (1961).

In a film career that spanned nearly 60 years, Davis won more Academy Award nominations than any other actress up to that time, and in 1977 she became the first woman to receive the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award. The French film industry also awarded her a special César for her life's work. Davis wrote two autobiographical books, The Lonely Life (1962) and This 'n' That (1987), and was the subject of many biographies.