Bette Davis

Davis was born at 22 Chester Street in the Lowell Highlands to Harlow Morrell Davis (1885–1938), a law student from Augusta , Maine , and Ruth Augusta Favor (1885–1961) from Tingsboro, Massachusetts. She had a younger sister, Barbara Harriet, who was born October 25, 1909, at 55 Ward Street, Somerville , Massachusetts, where their father was then a patent attorney. The name "Bette", which Davis later adopted as a pseudonym, was her childhood nickname, but spelled "Betty"

In 1915, the parents divorced, and the Davis sisters ended up in Lanesboro at the Crestalban closed school with very strict rules. In 1921, the sisters moved with their mother to New York , where Ruth began working as a portrait photographer. During this same period, Davies, inspired by the novel Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac , changed the spelling of her nickname to "Bette".

Davies later attended Cushing Academy and boarding school at Ashburnham, where she met her future husband, Harmon Nelson.

In 1926, Davies saw a production of The Wild Duck , based on a play by Henrik Ibsen , starring actresses Blanche Yurka and Peg Entwistle . As Davies later claimed, it was Entwhistle that made such an impression on her that she decided to try herself on stage. She auditioned for the Civic Repertory Theatre, owned by Eva Le Gallienne , but she rejected her candidacy, calling Davis's behavior "insincere" and "frivolous." Davis then went to Rochester to audition for the company of George Cukor , who similarly was unimpressed with her candidacy, but still took her for one week as a chorus girl in a play.Broadway .

Davis landed her first full role in 1929 in Virgil Geddes' play The Earth Between for the Provincetown Players. That same year, Blanche Yurka cast Davis in the same play "Wild Duck" she had previously played, and after performances in Philadelphia, Washington, and Boston, Davis made her Broadway debut in Broken Dishes .

In 1930, 22-year-old Davis traveled by train to Hollywood with her mother for a screen test for Universal Studios . Davis was told that they would be waiting for her there, but to her surprise no one met her in the studio - the employee who was supposed to meet her, when he saw Davis, ignored her and left because he did not see an actress in Davis and decided that this was not she. Davis failed her first personal screen test, but she was then used in paired screen tests for other actors. This experience was very shocking for Davis - she was laid on the sofa, after which about 15 guys in turn had to lay down on top of her and kiss passionately. The second full screen test for Davis was for the 1931 film Hearth Divided.. Hastily dressed in a completely inappropriate low-cut suit, Davis was rejected here by director William Wyler, who, in front of the entire film crew, compared her to a girl of easy virtue who expects to get a role in a movie thanks to her body.

Although the head of the studio , Karl Laemmle , was about to announce to Davis that she was not suitable for them, at the very last moment, director Karl Freund , stating that Davis had beautiful eyes, approved her in his film Bad Sister - so in 1931 Davis still made her film debut . True, at some point Davis heard Lemle Jr. tell one of the studio executives that there was absolutely no sex appeal in Davis. Like most other studio films of the time, the film was not a success, and her next role in Seedwas too short to capture the attention of the public. However, the studio did extend Davis's contract for another three months, yet she starred in only one of her films in a small role, after which the studio loaned her to two more films from two other studios.

As a result, after one year and as many as six unsuccessful films, Laemmle decided not to renew the contract with Davis and she was already preparing to return to New York when actor George Arliss chose her as a partner in the film " The Man Who Played God " by Warner Brothers. ". It was Davies' first major role, and the film itself was such a success that Warner Brothers signed her to a five-year contract and then extended it for nearly 18 years. Over the next two years, her repertoire was dominated by the roles of fatal seductresses, traditional for Hollywood of those years.

Davis' breakthrough to a new level of acting came in 1934 when she starred in the film version of Somerset Maugham 's The Burden of Human Passions . A more psychologically difficult role has not yet been given to any Hollywood movie star. While Davies' performance in the film appears to be one of her biggest accomplishments from today's perspective, rivalry between studios resulted in the Oscar -nominated actress being left without a statuette , losing the award to actress Claudette Colbert .

Finally receiving the most prestigious award in the American film industry for her role as an alcoholic in the film Dangerous (1935), Davis, however, considered that Warner Brothers were offering her rather mediocre roles and entered into a period of legal battles with the studio. She demanded more independence in choosing film roles and, in order to confirm the seriousness of her intentions, in violation of the contract, she left Hollywood for some time and went to London , where she accepted an offer to star in two British films.

Although the studio emerged victorious in the dispute and forced Davis to return to Hollywood with no income and debt, she was given the freedom to perform her signature roles. According to the definition of the TSB , these were the roles of "strong, powerful women, striving at any cost, neglecting the opinion of society, the laws of morality, to achieve their goal." Such is the southern belle in Jezebel (1939), the largely controversial picture for which Davis won her second Oscar. This role was, to a certain extent, a consolation for the fact that, due to interstudio agreements, the famous actress was not destined to play in Gone with the Wind .

Until the end of her days, Davis claimed that it was she who came up with the name of the statuette of the Academy Award - "Oscar". In her opinion, this was due to the fact that the ass of the figurine outwardly resembled her ass of her husband, whose middle name was "Oscar".

In the forties, Davis remained one of the most famous and respected film actresses in the world. In 1939, she starred opposite Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland in her first color film, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex . Even more successful at the box office was her next film, All This and Heaven to boot (1940). At the Warner Bros. studio She enjoyed such prestige that she was jokingly called the "fourth brother Warner." Also, in January 1941, she was elected president of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences .

As the actress approached the age of forty, it became increasingly difficult for her to withstand the competition of young starlets. Critics began to complain that Davis was captured by years of cutesy poses and gestures. In 1943, her second husband died under mysterious circumstances. Two years later, Davies married the artist William Sherri and soon had a daughter.

In 1950, the actress played in one of the most striking films of classic Hollywood - " All About Eve ". Many of the lines she uttered dispersed into quotes, and the picture itself was nominated for 14 Oscars and brought Davis a prize at the Cannes Film Festival . In the wake of success, Davis divorced Sherry and married her co-star, Gary Merrill , however, this union could not be called happy either.

Virtually all of Davies' subsequent films were unsuccessful. In 1961, she was forced to place a newspaper job advertisement and soon agreed, albeit reluctantly, to work with longtime nemesis Joan Crawford in the thriller What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? in which they played two aging movie stars. Davis' nomination for an Academy Award for her role in this film led to an even greater feud with Crawford. She did not develop relationships with the stars of the younger generation either: she accused them of lacking proper training and professionalism. In 1962, Davis published a book of memoirs. Like many of her interviews, the book was rare frankness.

In the 1960s, the actress tried to return to Broadway, but without much success. She was constantly unwell, but she continued to act in films.

In the early 1970s, Davis was invited to New York to participate in the theatrical presentation of the "Great Ladies of American Cinema", where for six evenings Hollywood actresses such as Myrna Loy , Rosalind Russell , Lana Turner , Sylvia Sidney and Joan Crawford spoke about your life and career. The show turned out to be quite successful, after which Davis took part in productions on the same theme in Australia and the UK .

In 1972, the actress played leading roles in the television films The Judge and Jake Wyler and Madame Min, which were supposed to be pilot episodes of the television series of the same name, but in both cases, the television channels abandoned further plans for their release. Shortly thereafter, Davis appeared in the theater production of Miss Moffat, a musical adaptation of her film The Corn is Green. After the production in Philadelphia as part of a preview on Broadway was heavily criticized, the actress said that she suffered a back injury and refused to continue to participate in it. Four years later, she landed small roles in the horror film Burnt Offerings with Karen Black and the television drama Aimee Disappears with Faye Dunaway ., however, during filming, Davis constantly had conflicts with the leading actresses, due to the fact that she accused them of unprofessionalism, arrogant behavior, and disrespect for her age .

In 1977, Davis became the first woman to receive the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award. The event was televised and included commentary from fellow actresses including William Wyler , Jane Fonda , Henry Fonda , Natalie Wood and Olivia de Havilland , who spoke highly of Davies' professionalism and career. After this event, the actress again turned out to be quite in demand on the screen, and sometimes she even had to choose between several offers. The following year, Davis accepted offers to star in the miniseries The Dark Secret of the Harvest Festival, a film adaptation of Agatha Christie 's novel Death on the Nile .", as well as in the adventure film of the Walt Disney studio" Return from Witch Mountain. In 1979, Davis won an Emmy for her role in the TV movie Strangers: A Mother and Daughter Story opposite Gena Rowlands , and also received two more nominations for her roles in the TV movies White Mom (1980). and "Baby Gloria...Happy at Last" (1982).

In 1981, there was a new round of interest in the Davis persona, after the song " Bette Davis Eyes " by country singer Kim Carnes topped the US charts .