American actress, one of the most outstanding stars of Hollywood’s history. By 1980 she was the veteran of 45 years in show business with 82 films and ten Oscar nominations. She won an Oscar as Best Actress for “Dangerous,” 1935, and for “Jezebel,” 1938.
The first child of Harlow and Ruth Davis, Bette experienced her parents as opposites. Her father, a lawyer, ate at a separate table and had little to do with his two daughters. Bette’s mother infused her with her own theatrical dreams and took a job as a cleaning woman to send Bette and sister Barbara to a New England boarding school. Ruth also got Bette into prominent dramatic school in New York City where dancing instructor Martha Graham later recalled, “I knew she would be something.” Her portrayal as Hedvig in Ibsen’s “The Wild Duck” brought rave reviews.
Sam Goldwyn heard about her and arranged a screen test. He was appalled at the unglamorous starlet. Universal did a test and signed her to a contract. Her first film was “Bad Sister,” where actor George Arliss spotted her talent and took her to Warner Bros. Four years later she had won her first Oscar for “Dangerous.”
Davis was suspended by the studio 16 times while fighting for good roles. She starred in several roles for strong women including “Of Human Bondage,” “Jezebel,” “The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex,” “The Letter,” “All About Eve,” “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” and her final film with Lillian Gish, “The Whales of August.” She was known for her energy, talent and “shoot from the hip” kind of speech. She believed in being straightforward and honest.
She was married four times, in 1932 to musician and high school sweetheart Harmon Nelson for six years; in 1940 to New England aristocrat Arthur Farnsworth, widowed in three years; in 1945 to artist William Grant Sherry for five years; and in 1951 to actor Gary Merrill for nine years. The Merrill’s adopted two children, Michael and Margot. Her daughter with William Sherry, B.D. Hyman, wrote a telltale book about her mother in 1985 which devastated Davis. Her great lifelong passion was acting and she did not hide the fact that she loved to receive awards. She wrote two autobiographies, “The Lonely Life,” and “This ‘n That,” 1986.
In 1983 Davis was diagnosed with breast cancer, followed nine days later by a stroke and three months later had hip surgery. In great pain, she traveled 6,000 miles to a film a film festival in Spain to accept an award in October 1989. Too weak to make the long journey back to the U.S., she traveled to France where she died on 6 October 1989, at 11:20 pm, at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine. She was 81.
Link to Wikipedia biography