Line #87 Creator/BetteDavis


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bette_davis.jpg]]
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3	->''"All the boys think she's a spy,\
4	She's got Bette Davis eyes!"''
5	-->--'''Kim Carnes''', "Bette Davis Eyes"
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7	Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis [[note]]Pronounced "Betty", not like Creator/BetteMidler -- in fact, according to Creator/JoanCrawford, calling her "Bet" was Davis' BerserkButton, even though even the song named after her "Bette Davis Eyes" makes that mistake. Named after Honoré de Balzac's ''La Cousine Bette''[[/note]] (April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress from Lowell, Massachusetts. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres; from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies, though her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas.
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9	After appearing in Broadway plays, Davis moved to Hollywood in 1930, but her early films for Creator/{{Universal}} were unsuccessful. She joined Creator/WarnerBros in 1932 and established her career with several critically acclaimed performances. In 1937, she attempted to free herself from her contract and although she lost a well-publicized legal case, it marked the beginning of the most successful period of her career. (She wound up staying at Warners until 1949.)
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11	Until the late 1940s, she was one of American cinema's most celebrated leading ladies, known for her forceful and intense style. Davis gained a reputation as a perfectionist who could be highly combative, and her confrontations with studio executives, film directors and costars were often reported. Her forthright manner, clipped vocal style, and ubiquitous cigarette contributed to a public persona which has often been imitated and satirized.
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13	Davis was the co-founder of the Hollywood Canteen and was the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. During her career, she received 10 nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won twice, and she was the first woman to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. Her career went through several periods of eclipse, and she admitted that her success had often been at the expense of her personal relationships. Married four times, she was once widowed and thrice divorced, and raised her children as a single parent.
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15	Her final years were marred by a long period of ill health, but she continued acting until shortly before her death from breast cancer, with more than 100 film, television and theater roles to her credit. She also lucked out with the above Kim Carnes song catapulting her back into the pop culture spotlight.[[note]]She sent thank-you notes to both Carnes and the song's two writers.[[/note]] In 1999, Davis was placed second, behind Creator/KatharineHepburn, on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest female stars of all time.[[note]]Davis no doubt would have ''deeply'' resented finishing second behind Hepburn, as she ''already'' resented Hepburn for beating her to three Oscars. (Yes, we know she never won three Oscars. Davis resented ''that'' too.)[[/note]]
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17	Davis is portrayed by Creator/SusanSarandon in the 2017 Creator/{{FX\|Networks}} series ''Series/{{Feud}}: Bette and Joan'', which depicts her rocky relationship with the aforementioned Creator/JoanCrawford during the filming of ''What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?'' in 1962.
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20	!!Bette Davis films with pages on TV Tropes include:
21	* ''Film/WaterlooBridge'' (1931)
22	* ''Film/TheDarkHorse'' (1932)
23	* ''[[Literature/SoBig So Big!]]'' (1932)
24	* ''Film/ThreeOnAMatch'' (1932)
25	* ''Film/TwentyThousandYearsInSingSing'' (1932)
26	* ''Film/ExLady'' (1933)
27	* ''Film/ParachuteJumper'' (1933)
28	* ''Film/{{Fashions of 1934}}'' (1934)
29	* ''Film/FogOverFrisco'' (1934)
30	* ''Film/JimmyTheGent'' (1934)
31	* ''Literature/OfHumanBondage'' (1934)
32	* ''Film/{{Bordertown}}'' (1935)
33	* ''Film/{{Dangerous\|1935}}'' (1935) -- Academy Award for Best Actress
34	* ''Film/TheGirlFromTenthAvenue'' (1935)
35	* ''Film/ThePetrifiedForest'' (1936)
36	* ''Film/SatanMetALady'' (1936)
37	* ''Film/ItsLoveImAfter'' (1937)
38	* ''Film/KidGalahad'' (1937)
39	* ''Film/{{Jezebel}}'' (1938) -- Academy Award for Best Actress
40	* ''Film/DarkVictory'' (1939) -- nominated for Best Actress
41	* ''Film/{{Juarez}}'' (1939)
42	* ''Theatre/TheOldMaid'' (1939)
43	* ''Film/AllThisAndHeavenToo'' (1940)
44	* ''Film/TheLetter'' (1940) -- nominated for Best Actress
45	* ''Film/TheGreatLie'' (1941)
46	* ''Theatre/TheLittleFoxes'' (1941) -- nominated for Best Actress
47	* ''Film/InThisOurLife'' (1942)
48	* ''Theatre/TheManWhoCameToDinner'' (1942)
49	* ''Film/NowVoyager'' (1942) -- nominated for Best Actress
50	* ''Film/WatchOnTheRhine'' (1943)
51	* ''Film/ThankYourLuckyStars'' (1943)
52	* ''Film/OldAcquaintance'' (1943)
53	* ''Film/MrSkeffington'' (1944) -- nominated for Best Actress
54	* ''Film/{{Deception\|1946}}'' (1946)
55	* ''Film/AStolenLife'' (1946)
56	* ''Film/BeyondTheForest'' (1949)
57	* ''Film/AllAboutEve'' (1950) -- nominated for Best Actress
58	* ''Film/TheStar'' (1952) -- nominated for Best Actress
59	* ''Film/PocketfulOfMiracles'' (1961)
60	* ''Film/WhatEverHappenedToBabyJane'' (1962) -- nominated for Best Actress
61	* ''Franchise/PerryMason'' (1963)
62	* ''Film/HushHushSweetCharlotte'' (1964)
63	* ''Film/DeadRinger'' (1964)
64	* ''Film/BurntOfferings'' (1976)
65	* ''Film/{{Death on the Nile\|1978}}'' (1978)
66	* ''Film/ReturnFromWitchMountain'' (1978)
67	* ''Film/TheWatcherInTheWoods'' (1981)
68	* ''Film/TheWhalesOfAugust'' (1987)
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70	!!Tropes relating to Bette Davis' work include:
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72	* AsHerself: In ''Hollywood Canteen''. She reportedly kept flubbing her lines on set and joked that playing herself was hard.
73	* AwardSnub: [[invoked]] In 1934, her universally lauded performance in ''Of Human Bondage'' was actively prevented from being nominated for an Oscar by Jack Warner, as she'd done the film while on loan to another studio. The outrage was so great that the Academy changed its rules for that year to allow Davis to be nominated in a write-in vote. It was so obviously a deliberate snub that she got the award the following year for ''Dangerous'' as [[ConsolationAward basically an open apology]]. This is the reason that the Academy Awards now have Price-Waterhouse overseeing the voting process.
74	* BeautyInversion: Pulled this off quite a few times in her illustrious career:
75	** The first notable one was ''Literature/OfHumanBondage''. Her character Mildred ends up on the streets and eventually dies of tuberculosis. Bette designed the make-up Mildred would wear for her death scene, wanting her to accurately look like someone who had died of an illness and not "a deb who had missed her afternoon nap."
76	** She wanted to do this for ''Film/NowVoyager'', padding her costumes out to make Charlotte look even heavier in her 'before' appearance. The studio rejected this look for being "too grotesque" and she's HollywoodHomely in the finished film.
77	** ''Marked Woman'' after her character has been attacked by the Mafia. The original bandaging was rather [[BeautyIsNeverTarnished small]], so she went to a doctor and had the face bandaged more realistically.
78	** In ''Film/WhatEverHappenedToBabyJane'' she decided that Jane Hudson would never wash her face and only put a new layer of make-up on every day. She patterned the look off of numerous homeless ladies seen on Hollywood Boulevard. When Bette's daughter saw her in the make-up for the first time, she remarked "mother, this time you've gone too far." Elsewhere averted with her co-star Joan Crawford, who struggled to look unattractive. She wanted to have full hair and make-up, despite playing a wheelchair-bound woman who hadn't left her room in years. This did, however, give the impression that Blanche had aged better than Jane, giving her sister another reason to resent her.
79	* CatchPhrase:
80	** "What a dump!" (in ''Beyond the Forest'')
81	** "Ah'd love t' kiss ya, but ah jes washed ma hayuh," (in ''The Cabin in the Cotton'')
82	** "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night!" (in ''All About Eve'')
83	** "But ya ''aaah,'' Blanche, you ''aaah'' in that chair!" (in ''What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?'')
84	* DeadpanSnarker: One of the upsides of her willingness to play unsympathetic women is that they usually have the best lines.
85	* HollywoodBeautyStandards: She discusses this extensively in interviews. Davis is widely considered to be less attractive than her fellow actors.
86	* PrettyInMink: Wore several stylish furs in much of her movies, including a dress with fur trimmed pockets in ''All About Eve''.
87	* SmokingIsCool: Most of her movie roles featured her character smoking. The reason why she picked up smoking was because she thought it would make her look more sophisticated as an actor.

Context Creator / BetteDavis