Bette Davis

This article is about Bette Davis the actress; there is also a singer named Betty Davis.

Davis, the established star

Davis was elected the ninth president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, whose award she claimed to have named the "Oscar", but only served from October to December 1941, when she resigned. With the outbreak of WWII, Davis took on a patriotic leadership role both as one of the founders and as the president of the Hollywood Canteen for visiting armed forces servicemen.

Related Topics:
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - Award - 1941 - WWII

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Her career began to stagnate through the 1940s, but her performance in All About Eve (1950), for which she received another Oscar nomination. Davis commented throughout the rest of her life that the role had "brought me back from the dead". The films that she appeared in through the remainder of the 1950s did not equal the quality of All About Eve, and by the end of the decade she was no longer in demand.

Related Topics:
All About Eve - 1950

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In 1961, she placed an advertisement for "job wanted" in the trade papers. Davis later observed that, although she intended it as a joke, there was considerable truth in it, and that above all else, she simply wanted the opportunity to continue working. Her role in 1962's over-the-top What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, in which she played a very scary parody of herself opposite her (mostly press-invented) long-time rival Joan Crawford, earned her another Oscar nomination. The film, which was the only time that Davis and Crawford ever worked together onscreen in either of their careers, was a smash hit and a top-grosser that year.

Related Topics:
1961 - 1962 - What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? - Joan Crawford - Oscar

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Sensing renewed box-office potential in his former contract player, Jack Warner signed Davis for another venture into the macabre in 1964's Dead Ringer, where she plays identical twin sisters (one of whom murders the other) opposite gigolo Peter Lawford and detective Karl Malden. In this updated homage to A Stolen Life (1946), Davis and her Now, Voyager (1942) co-star, Paul Henreid, were reunited as Henreid was the director.

Related Topics:
Box-office - Jack Warner - 1964 - Dead Ringer - Peter Lawford - Detective - Karl Malden - A Stolen Life - 1946 - Now, Voyager - 1942 - Paul Henreid

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