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Actor Credits
Literature/PublicityBooks AuthoredThis `n` That [1987] Biography (Print)My Mother`s Keeper: A Daughter`s Candid Portrait of Her Famous Mother (B. D. Hyman) [1986] |
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Bette Davis Biography |
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On her tombstone it`s written "She Did it the Hard Way." Her real true love was director William Wyler but he was married and refused to leave his wife.
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Trivia |
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BiographyMeasurementsBust: 34" C Waist: 21" Hips: 34"Friends and FamilyHedy Lamarr [Friend] :: Olivia De Havilland [Friend]Trivia and QuotesQuotes "Of course I replaced my father. I became my own father and everyone else`s." [referring to her parents` divorce when she was 7] An affair now and then is good for a marriage. It adds spice, stops it from getting boring. I ought to know. I would advise any woman against having an affair with a married man believing he will ever leave his wife, no matter how often he says his wife does not understand him. Love is not as necessary to a man`s happiness as it is to a woman`s. If her marriage is satisfactory, a woman will seldom stray. A man can be totally contented and still be out howling at the moon. [in reference to Katharine Hepburn`s tie for the 1968 Oscar with Barbra Streisand]: "I wanted to be the first to win three Oscars, but Miss Hepburn has done it. Actually it hasn`t been done. Miss Hepburn only won half an Oscar. If they`d given me half an Oscar I would have thrown it back in their faces. You see, I`m an Aries. I never lose." [when told not to speak ill of the dead] `Just because someone is dead does not mean they have changed!` "I wouldn`t piss on her if she was on fire." (in reference to `Joan Crawford`) Getting old is not for sissies. I went back to work because someone had to pay for the groceries. What a fool I was to come to Hollywood where they only understand platinum blondes and where legs are more important than talent. [On rival Joan Crawford]: "She has slept with every male star at MGM except Lassie."Trivia Described the last three decades of her life as a "my macabre period". She hated being alone at night and found growing older "terrifying". During her great film career, she reportedly did not get along with her co-stars Miriam Hopkins, Susan Hayward, Celeste Holm and most infamously Joan Crawford. Had a long running feud with Miriam Hopkins. Joan Crawford and Davis had feuded for years. During the making of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Bette had a Coca-Cola machine installed on the set due to Crawford`s affiliation with Pepsi (she was the widow of Pepsi`s CEO). Joan got her revenge by putting weights in her pockets when Davis had to drag her across the floor during certain scenes. Salary for 1948, $365,000. She claimed to have given the Academy Award the nickname "Oscar" after her first husband, Harmon Nelson, whose middle name was Oscar, although she later withdrew that claim. Most sources say it was named by Academy librarian and eventual executive director Margaret Herrick, who thought the statuette resembled her Uncle Oscar. Bette was elected as first female president of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in October 1941. She resigned less then two months later, publicly declaring herself too busy to fulfill her duties as president while angrily protesting in private that the Academy had wanted her to serve as a mere figurehead for the company. Director Steven Spielberg won the Christie`s auction of her 1938 Best Actress Oscar for Jezebel (1938) for $578,000. He then gave it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. [19 July 2001] Her third husband Arthur Farnsworth was killed in an accidental fall in which he took a blow to the head. On her tombstone is written "She did it the hard way". She considered her debut screen test for Universal Pictures to be so bad that she ran screaming from the projection room. She suffered a stroke and a mastectomy in 1983. When Bette learned that her new brother-in-law was a recovering alcoholic, she sent the couple a dozen cases of liquor for a wedding present. When she first came to Hollywood as a contract player, Universal Pictures wanted to change her name to Bettina Dawes. She informed the studio that she refused to go through life with a name that sounded like "Between the Drawers". While she was the star pupil at John Murray Anderson`s Dramatic School in New York, another of her classmates was sent home because she was "too shy". It was predicted that this girl would never make it as an actress. The girl was Lucille Ball. While touring the talk show circuit to promote What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), she told one interviewer that when she and Joan Crawford were first suggested for the leads, Warner studio head Jack L. Warner replied: "I wouldn`t give a plugged nickel for either of those two old broads." Recalling the story, Davis laughed at her own expense. The following day, she reportedly received a telegram from Crawford: "In future, please do not refer to me as an old broad!". | ||
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