Bette Davis

….First Lady of the Silver Screen
1908-1989

She was the consummate actress, skilled at her craft and making every character she played both legendary and incredible. She preferred roles that portrayed strong-willed women who may have wreaked havoc in the lives of others but were never weak. Submissive wives, contented mothers or pious martyrs were not on her agenda. Miss Bette Davis, in her entire career, never played a nun!

In 1934, Life Magazine claimed that her performance as Mildred Rogers, the illiterate waitress in “Of Human Bondage” was “probably the best performance ever recorded on the screen by a U.S. actress”. Yet only 4 years before she had failed a screen test for Sam Goldwyn and Carl Laemmle, Jr, at Universal Studios called her “the little brown wren” who had “as much sex appeal as Slim Summerville.” But Bette dyed her hair blonde and parlayed an ingénue role in “The Man who Played God”(1932) into a 7 year contract with Warner Bros.

She was born Ruth Elizabeth Davis in Lowell, Massachusetts on April 5th 1908. Betty (as she came to be called) was such a tiny sickly baby that her worried parents constantly hovered over her. Her father, Harlow Morrell Davis, was a law student at Harvard and kept Betty close by while he studied. Mama Ruthie, an amateur photographer, took endless pictures of “the most beautiful child in the world” and Betty grew to love the attention and even demanded it.

But by 1910 things had changed dramatically. A baby sister named Barbara Harriet Davis (but called Bobbie) was born weighing a full pound more than her sister at birth. Harlow graduated from Harvard and took a position with a Boston law firm and the family moved into a new and larger home. But Harlow was seldom in it. Ruthie became depressed, Betty became angry and Bobbie became withdrawn.

By 1917, when it became apparent that Harlow was deeply involved in an extramarital affair, things went from bad to worse. Harlow and Ruthie divorced and Betty never forgave her father.

Ruthie took a series of photography jobs to keep Betty (now Bette, the French spelling from Balzac’s “Cousin Bette”) in a series of private schools where she excelled in school dramatic classes. Ruthie continued to take pictures of her apparently never noticing that little Bobby was virtually melting into the shadows. She eventually had a complete breakdown requiring long hospital care.

Bette busied herself with school productions. summer stock and local theater groups. Rejected by Eva Le Gallienne’s Civic Repertory Theatre, she enrolled in John Murray Anderson’s acting school. In November 1929 she made her Broadway debut in “Broken Dishes”, a comedy by Michael Flavin. Within 5 years she had left Broadway for Hollywood, made 24 films , was known on both coasts , and fought Warner Bros in court to get pictures she felt worthy of her talents. The studio won the case but Bette made her point.

In the summer of 1932, at the request of her ever doting mother, Bette reluctantly married an admirer from her school days, Harmon Oscar Nelson Jr. (Ham) who took over the job of being at Bette’s beck and call. In 1934 just before shooting began on “Fog over Frisco” Bette found out she was pregnant. She decided to terminate the pregnancy; the first of three abortions (Another in 1938, after a torrid affair with Director William Wyler and the third in 1940). When she almost flaunted her affair with Howard Hughes, Ham divorced her.

After several more much publicized affairs Bette married Arthur Austin Farnsworth in December of 1940. “Farney” was a hotel clerk she met while vacationing at a New Hampshire inn. Less then 3 years later, Farnsworth died suddenly after collapsing on a Hollywood Street. But the marriage had already fizzled.

In 1942, Bette and John Garfield were instrumental in the founding of the Hollywood Canteen, a place where servicemen could rub elbows with the Hollywood elite. The stars acted as waiters and waitresses and the famous actresses they adored on the screen became dancing partners for the GIs. It was Bette’s clout that turned Garfield’s idea into reality and she served as president with John as vice-president.
By 1944, Bette’s temper outbursts and frequent “illnesses” when things weren’t going her way had become common knowledge. But it was hard to argue with success and she had been nominated for the Oscar 5 years in a row since making “Jezebel”. Finally, to alleviate the problem, Jack Warner agreed to a new 5-year contract that allowed Bette to produce 5 independent films under the banner of “B.D., Inc.” in addition to the 9 pictures she would owe the studio. It was thought that if she was in charge things would go more smoothly on all the sets but it seldom worked that way.

In late November, 1945 Bette took a third husband, artist-body builder William Grant Sherry, seven years her junior. He was not a moldable as “Farney or Ham”. On the drive to Mexico City just after the wedding, Bette threw one of her tantrums and “Sherry” threw her out of the car. But this time when she found herself pregnant, she decided it was time for motherhood. She was 38 years old, and the golden days of Bette Davis films were coming to a close.

Precisely at the time she had designated, May Day 1947, Bette gave birth by caesarean section to Barbara Davis Sherry, hereafter to be known as just “B.D.”. And even after B.D. was well into her teen years, a maypole was a required part of her birthday festivities at Bette’s insistence. The marriage to Sherry ended in divorce 5 years later. Bette had already begun an affair with her bushy-browed, still-very-married leading man Gary Merrill. But her relationship with Warner Bros. had ended and she would free lance her future films.

On the morning of July 28, 1950 Gary Merrill got a Mexican divorce and by afternoon Bette was Mrs. Gary Merrill. “An hour after I married him, I knew I had made a terrible mistake”, she later told her assistant. The marriage began a 10-year reign of abuse for both Bette and her daughter.

Shortly after the marriage, Bette decided to adopt two children to keep B.D. company. In 1951 she found a 5-day-old little girl she named Margot after the character she played in “All about Eve.” In 1951, Bette and Gary adopted a 5 day old boy the named Michael Woodman Merrill and the only child Gary really accepted. In time it was discovered that Margot was severely brain damaged and after age 3 she spent most of her life in a special school for retarded children. On July 6 1960 Bette sued for divorce, claiming extreme cruelty. One year later, Ruthie Davis died of heart disease. Bette was now just left with just her sister Bobbie and BD to see to her wants and needs.

In 1962 Bette was paired with arch-enemy Joan Crawford in “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” Both wanted to do the role of onetime vaudeville star Baby Jane Hudson but eventually Crawford agreed to play the chair ridden Blanche. The “comedy of terrors” on the screen was nothing compared to the dynamics on the set. But audiences loved it and Bette was nominated to win an Oscar. She was devastated when Anne Bancroft walked off with the prize for “The Miracle Worker”.

In 1963 Bette was pressing B.D. to firm up planes for a film career (B.D. had taken a small part in “…Baby Jane?”). “I’m not an actress” BD told reports in London. At 16 she had already decided to get married to Jeremy Hyman, 29 year old vice president of Seven Arts, the production company that backed the Crawford-Davis film. B.D. wanted to get away from her mother’s thumb and Bette consented because she felt her daughter would soon come running home. Bette was mistaken.

After “What Happened to Baby Jane?”, Bette’s career took a brief upswing with some good films (“Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte” 1964 and “The Nanny” 1965) but by the late 1960’s it was evident the good times were about over. Bette’s famous mannerisms and acting tricks didn’t fit well into the new age of film and too often were the subject of mimicry. Television wasn’t always kind to the aging actress either, although 3 of the films she did on the small screen were very successful including “Right of Way” with James Stewart for HBO in 1983.

On June 9, 1983 Bette underwent a radical mastectomy for a malignant tumor found in her left breast. Shortly after the surgery she suffered a minor stroke leaving a facial distortion and speech impairment. While she was recovering she learned about the tell-all book BD had written titled “My Mother’s Keeper”. The breach with her daughter was irreparable and Bette cut her completely out of her will leaving everything to son Michael Merrill and assistant Kathryn Seimak.

In 1987 Bette Davis made her last successful film “The Whales of August” with Lillian Gish. She was almost unrecognizable, gaunt and grim with long pure white hair but the power was still there albeit restrained.

In the late summer of 1989 Bette secretly underwent radiation for a returning cancer and then left for Spain and the San Sebastian Film Festival. She became ill and too weak to return home so the doctors advised that she fly to the American hospital in Neuilly, France for treatment. On Friday October 6, 1989 Bette Davis died there at the age of 81. According to her plan she was buried in the pink marble mausoleum in Forest Lawn Memorial Park with Ruthie and Bobbie (who had died in 1980). The marble statue she had modeled after BD still stood outside but the daughter she repudiated never came.

 

For more on Bette Davis on the set and off, see Arabella’s Notes.

To obtain a list of my sources, e-mail me at mamalion27@aol.com

Filmography

Bad Sister (1931)

Seed (1931)

Waterloo Bridge (1931)

Way Back Home (1932)

The Menace (1932)

Hell’s House (1932)

The Man Who Played God (1932)

So Big (1932)

The Rich Are Always With Us (1932)

The Dark Horse (1932)

Cabin in the Cotton (1932)

Three on a Match (1932)

20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1933)

Parachute Jumper (1933)

The Working Man (1933)

Ex-Lady (1933)

Bureau of Missing Persons (1933)

Fashions of 1934 (1934)

The Big Shakedown (1934)

Jimmy the Gent (1934)

Fog Over Frisco (1934)

Of Human Bondage (1934)

Housewife (1934)

Bordertown (1935)

The Girl From Tenth Avenue (1935)

Front Page Woman (1935)

Special Agent (1935)

Dangerous (1935)

The Petrified Forest (1936)

The Golden Arrow (1936)

Satan Met a Lady (1936)

Marked Woman (1937)

Kid Galahad (1937)

That Certain Woman (1937)

It’s Love I’m After (1937)

Jezebel (1938)

The Sisters (1938)

Dark Victory (1939)

Juarez (1939)

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)

All This and Heaven Too (1940)

The Letter (1940)

The Great Life (1941)

The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941)

The Little Foxes (1941)

The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941)

In This Our Life (1942)

Now, Voyager (1942)

Watch on the Rhine (1943)

Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)

Old Acquaintance (1943)

Mr. Skeffinton (1944)

Hollywood Canteen (1944)

The Corn is Green (1945)

A Stolen Life (1946)

Deception (1946)

Winter Meeting (1948)

June Bride (1948)

Beyond The Forest (1948)

All About Eve (1950)

Payment on Demand (1951)

Another Man’s Poison (1952)

Phone Call from a Stranger (1952)

The Star (1952)

The Virgin Queen (1955)

Storm Center (1956)

The Catered Affair (1956)

John Paul Jones (1959)

The Scapegoat (1959)

Pocketful of Miracles (1961)

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1961)

Dead Ringer (1964)

The Empty Canvas (1964)

Where Love Has Gone (1964)

Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

The Nanny (1965)

The Anniversary (1968)

Connecting Rooms (1969)

Bunny O’Hare (1971)

The Scientific Cardplayer (1972)

Burnt Offerings (1976)

Return from Witch Mountain (1978)

Death on the Nile (1978)

Watcher in the Woods (1980)

The Whales of August (1987)

Wicked Stepmother …cameo (1989)