Bette Davis

**Ruth Elizabeth** "**Bette**" **Davis** (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress for stage, movies, and television. She was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. She was nicknamed "The Queen of Hollywood" or the "First Lady of the American Screen" and "The Fifth Warner Brother" during her career. She is thought to be one of the greatest actresses in Hollywood. She was able to play many mean and cynical characters. She also played in many different movie genres. Her most successful roles were ones in romantic dramas. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice. Davis had the most Academy Award nominations for acting (with 10) until Katharine Hepburn took her place with twelve. She was the first woman to have a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. In 1999, Davis was second on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest female stars of classic Hollywood cinema.

Bette Davis was in over 100 films across 60 years. Some of the most popular movies were _Of Human Bondage_ (1934), _Marked Woman_ (1937), _Jezebel_ (1938), _Dark Victory_ (1939), _The Letter_ (1940), _The Little Foxes_ (1941), _Now, Voyager_ (1942), _Watch on the Rhine_ (1943), _Mr. Skeffington_ (1944), _All About Eve_ (1950), _The Virgin Queen_ (1955), _The Catered Affair_ (1956), _Pocketful of Miracles_ (1961), _What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?_ (1962), _Death on the Nile_ (1978) and _The Whales of August_ (1987).

In 1981 Kim Carnes sang the hit song "Bette Davis Eyes". Davis liked the song. Carnes gave Davis a gold record. Davis hung the gold record on a wall.

The Kennedy Center honored Davis in 1987. She died of breast cancer in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.

## Academy Awards

Davis had many Academy Awards in her life. She also had many Oscar milestones.

She was the first person to earn five Academy Award nominations in a row for acting. All of these nominations were in the Best Actress category (1938–1942). Her record has only been matched by one other person. Greer Garson also earned five nominations in a row in the Best Actress category (1941–1945). In three of these years, both actresses were nominated.

In 1962, Bette Davis was the first person to have 10 Academy Award nominations for acting. Since then, only 3 people have had more nominations than her. Meryl Streep (with 21 nominations and three wins), Katharine Hepburn (12 nominations and 4 wins), and Jack Nicholson (12 nominations and 3 wins). Laurence Olivier also matched her (10 nominations and 1 win).

Steven Spielberg bought two of Davis's Oscars. The first Oscar was sold for $207,500. The oscar was for the movie _Dangerous_ (1935). The second Oscar was sold for $578,000. That Oscar was for the movie _Jezebel_ (1938).

|Year|Category|Film|Result||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1934|rowspan="11"|Best Actress|_Of Human Bondage_|(Write-in)|
|1935|_Dangerous_|rowspan="2"|||
|1938|_Jezebel_||||
|1939|_Dark Victory_|rowspan="8"|||
|1940|_The Letter_||||
|1941|_The Little Foxes_||||
|1942|_Now, Voyager_||||
|1944|_Mr. Skeffington_||||
|1950|_All About Eve_||||
|1952|_The Star_||||
|1962|_What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?_||||

## Other websites

- - operated by the Estate of Bette Davis
- Portraits from "The Little Foxes", 1941  by Ned Scott
- Kathryn Sermak recounts living with Bette Davis, interview October, 2017, News-Sentinel, accessed October 25, 2017.

## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Bette Davis
- **image**: BetteDavis1935.jpg
- **caption**: Davis in 1935
- **birth name**: Ruth Elizabeth Davis
- **birth place**: Lowell, Massachusetts, U.S.
- **death place**: Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
- **resting place**: Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills
- **occupation**: Actress
- **years active**: 1929–1989
- **party**: Democratic Party (United States), Democratic
- **children**: 3, including B. D. Hyman
- **signature**: Bette Davis signature, April 22nd, 1949.svg