Bette Davis dating history

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Bette Davis had a contentious relationship with her home studio of Warner Brothers and especially with Jack Warner who was head of production. Davis would find herself going to battle over the entrenched Warner's system and traditional male ethics but somehow managing to reshape her screen image into a "Star" persona that was as powerful and provocative and distinctly feminine as any in the industry. Her struggles with Jack Warner extended throughout her eighteen-year tenure at Warner, from 1931 to 1949. The release of Bordertown in January 1935 bolstered the image that Davis established a few months earlier in Of Human Bondage (RKO, 1934), the image of an intense, ruthless, sexually aggressive woman who relied on her will and wits to get what she wanted had struck a cord with the public. But Jack Warner and Hal B. Wallis failed to exploit these qualities, casting Davis in a second-rate woman's picture and then two routine crime thrillers after Bordertown. Not until late 1935 was she given roles that she could really work with: an alcoholic, self-destructive actress in Dangerous, and a naive love-struck waitress in The Petrified Forest. Dangerous was released in December while Davis was filming The Petrified Forest, and though it brought her an Academy Award nomination it scarcely improved her stature at the studio. Her next film assignment was in Satan Met A Lady (1936), a cut-rate version of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. Davis found both the part and the film unacceptable and refused to report. A suspension changed her mind and she did the film under duress. Her next film assignment The Golden Arrow was so weak that Kay Francis had taken a suspension to avoid it. When production closed in February 1936 Davis resolved not to start another film without a new contract and the assurance of better roles. This was not an unreasonable endeavor, considering Davis' market value, which climbed even higher in late February 1936 when Davis was awarded the "Best Actress" academy award for her performance in Dangerous. Not too long after this triumph, Davis was offered the lead role in Mary, Queen of Scots and set to direct was John Ford, who himself just won an Academy Award for "Best Director" and "Best Picture" for The Informer. Davis desperately wanted the role, but when Jack Warner received a memo on RKO's request to borrow Davis, he simply returned it with "Not interested" scrawled across the bottom. For Davis that was the last straw: Davis resolved to stay out of film making until her status at her home studio changed. While Davis was in New York, her agent sent Warner a list of her desires for a new contract on these terms: five years, with salaries escalating from $100,000 to $220,000 per year (she was then earning $64,000 per year); a maximum of four films annually, star or costar billing with her name above the title and in type size equal to that of her costar, the services of Tony Gaudio, Sol Polito, or Ernest Haller as cinematographer, three months' consecutive vacation each year with the right to do one outside film. Davis refused to start another film without the new pact, so she was promptly put on suspension. After receiving a vague promise of better roles she still held out. In mid-August Davis sailed to England to work for an independent company, Toeplitz Productions. Warners sued to prevent Davis from signing and the case was tried in London in October 1936, with Warner Brothers prevailing. But soon, Jack realized that he was the victor in one skirmish but Davis would continue to fight him until she was satisfied. Jack Warner soon realized he'd been without a lead actress for over a year and was ready to compromise. Jack had all ready set several Davis projects in motion beginning with Marked Woman (1937), a crime thriller based on true events, he also bought Davis a property that he knew she wanted, one that featured a difficult role he now believed she could pull off (which would be Jezebel). Davis expressed her appreciation to Warner in a hand-written note in January 1937, "I am thrilled to death about Jezebel," she wrote. "I think it can be great, if not greater than Gone With The Wind - thank you for buying it for me." Jack Warner decided to look for an outside director for Jezebel and so William Wyler who was under contract with Samuel Goldwyn was hired. Still in his mid-thirties he had recently handled such A-class Goldwyn projects as These Three and Dodsworth (both 1936), and had a reputation as a good script doctor. Wyler had some help from John Huston who was staying with Wyler at his home and would discuss his views on the film. Bette Davis was also seeing Wyler at night and soon the two began an affair. With Huston and Davis working evenings rewriting the script and polishing the dialogue, and blocking out each day's camera set-ups. Wyler was a thorough and deliberate director which the studio thought he could work faster. There was talk about bring another director William Dieterle to film Henry Fonda's scenes but Davis refused to work with anyone else but Wyler, so the matter was dropped. Jack Warner and some other executives did not want to upset both their temperamental star or director, who clearly was getting from Davis a performance of her career. Her Julie Marsden struck the perfect balance of b*tchery and captivating charm, of euphoria and barely subdued hysteria, evoking both sympathy and grating irritation. It was equally evident as the rough cut came together to see how important Wyler's skills as a director were to the film Marsden to life, shaping the moviegoer's conception of both character and story. Cinematographer Ernest Haller was capturing Davis' physical beauty as no previous filmmaker had done before. Wyler use of point-of-view shots, reaction shots, glance-object cutting, and shot/reverse exchanges, had orchestrated the viewer's identification with and the audience could sympathize for Julie which was so essential if the film was to succeed. To watch Jezebel was to be wedded to Julie Marsden's consciousness, to adopt her way of seeing and perverse logic in making sense of her world and her plight. A huge success commercially and critically after its March 1938 release, Jezebel brought Davis her second Academy Award and solidified Warner's commitment to Bette Davis. Bette Davis over the next few years starred in some of the greatest dramas in Hollywood's history and made Davis into a legend for these films: The Sisters (1938), Dark Victory (1939), Juarez (1939), The Old Maid (1939), Elizabeth and Essex (1939), All This, and Heaven Too (1940), The Letter (1940), The Great Lie (1941), The Little Foxes (1941, with director Wyler for the third and final film together), Now, Voyager (1942), In This Our Life (1942) The Man Who Came To Dinner (1942), Old Acquaintance (1943), Watch On The Rhine (1943), and Mr. Skeffington (1944), and finally A Stolen Life (1946). Davis fought hard for Jezebel and Jack Warner to his credit went with it, but the process of struggle and negotiation was fairly dramatic in Davis' case, since her transformation went against Warner's traditional male principles. Almost all of the major stars at Warner's: Davis, Gagney, Flynn, Robinson, de Havilland, Bogart and Sheridan by the end of the 1940s proved to the studio that they had an ideal balance between efficiency and excess, convention and innovation, administrative constraint and creative freedom. They proved to Warner Brothers that after two decades of struggle and perseverance the studio had come of age.

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wjerryz

One of the greatest. Love all your movies.

The greatest actress to have ever lived.

OMGGGGG I love her so much! She's so cute!

JBella

She really had stunning eyes. So large and blue. Great actress. Wish they made them like her nowadays.

I LIKE HER VERY MUCH BETTE DEVIS SHE IS NOT A DIED SHE IS IN MY HEART.

Bette`s real claim to fame is her eyes...because she has `Bette Davis Eyes.`

it seems to me that eddie fisher is everywhere.BY THE WAY BETTE U R A GREAT ACTRESS ENJOY YOU`RE FILMS OVER AND OVER. BLESS YOU;;