Bette Davis was a two time Academy Award winning American actress who led the way for women on the big screen. April 5, 2008 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of this screen legend.Ruth Elizabeth Davis was born in Massachusetts who studied at the John Murray Anderson School f Theatre after being inspired by Rudolph Valentino in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Mary Pickford in Little Lord Fauntleroy to become an actress.After performing in theatres in Boston, Washington and Philadelphia she made her Broadway debut in Broken Dishes in 1929, followed by Solid South.But by 1930 the young Bette Davis had moved to Hollywood, after being spotted by a Universal Studios talent scout, to screen test for Universal Pictures.She was signed up for six minor roles and made her big screen debut in 1931 in The Bad Sister.But after nine months and six unsuccessful movies her contract was not renewed. She moved back to New York and Broadway.
However her movie career was far from over as Hollywood again came calling, this time in the form of Warner Bros, who signed her up to a seven year contract.
She returned to the big screen in The Man Who Played God in 1932. Yet it wasn’t until 1934’s Of Human Bondage that she received critical acclaim.
Just a year later she became the first Warner Bros actress to win the Best Actress Academy Award for her role as a troubled actress in Dangerous.
But she felt that her career was being damaged by the string of poor roles given to her by Warner Bros so she travelled to England to appear in two movies, this was a breach of contract and she was sued by Jack Warner the head of the studio.
She was forced t honour her contract.
Despite these legal wrangling the late thirties to mid forties was the peak of Davis’ career, winning her second Oscar for her role in Jezebel as a headstrong young Southern woman during the antebellum period, in 1938.
In just fifteen years Davis had gone from a bit part actress to a major Hollywood player receiving five Oscar nominations back to back during the forties: Dark Victory (1940), The Letter (1941), The Little Foxes (1942), Now Voyager (1943) and Mr Skettington (1944).
By 1942 she was the highest paid actress and she used her wealth and her influence to make a major contribution to the World War II effort, helping to organise the Hollywood Canteen for soldiers that were passing through L.A.
In 1980 Davis’ work was recognised by the Defence Department when she was rewarded with the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal, the highest civilian award.
After the war her career continued and she received her eight Academy Award nomination in 1950 for her role in All About Eve, which is often seen as her best on screen performance.
Her final and tenth Oscar nod came in 1962 for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Only Meryl Streep and Katherine Hepburn have been received more nominations fourteen and twelve respectfully.
Bette Davis helped women find a way onto the big screen in an industry, which was at the time, dominated by men. She was the first actor to receive ten Oscar nominations and was the first woman to collect the Lifetime Achievement Award for the American Film Institute.
Bette Davis died in 1989 from breast cancer aged eighty one.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw