Bette Davis

It was certainly not easy for Ruth Elizabeth Davis (Lowell, Massachusetts, 1908), born into a troubled home, to succeed on the screen. The absence of her father, who left the family when Betty was ten years old, forced her mother to work. So the girl had to wake up early. And when she discovered her acting talent at school, she insisted on studying acting and doing theater. Through tenacity and willpower she made it, and she came to work in George Cukor ‘s repertory company . Press acclaim for her role in the off-Broadway play, `The Earth Between,’ in 1928, and her Broadway debut in `Broken Dishes,’ put her on the Hollywood trigger. Universal claimed it, but that was a disappointment. in 1931Bad Sister , Seed , Waterloo Bridge , did not meet their expectations. Her next title, Coming Home , almost seemed like a message for her to pack her bags and head back to Broadway. And that was when he received an unexpected call, which he thought was a joke: from the prestigious British actor George Arliss , who wanted him to work with him on The Hidden Providence . He would always appreciate this opportunity: “Universal wanted to see my legs. Mr. Arliss searched my soul.” And indeed, the actor told him about his composition: “I myself had not seen in Grace all the dimension that you give her.”

The hidden providence was also the beginning of a long contract with Warner, which lasted until 1949. And Jack L. Warner became a kind of father figure, arousing conflicting feelings in the actress. In fact, the tyranny of the studio forced him to leave Hollywood for a year, in 1939, to breathe a little; she thus broke her contract, which led to a lawsuit, until the waters returned to her course and she returned.

The harpy roles of Davis remain to be remembered: the wife denying her medicine to her heart-sick husband in La loba (1941), or the guilty woman, chased by the moonlight in La carta (1940); but also, when she played the role of a bad and capricious lady, she knew how to humanize her characters, which happened in Jezebel (1939), Oscar for Davis and consolation for not having been able to do Gone with the Wind . The actress won two statuettes throughout her career (her other for Peligrosa , in 1935), out of eleven nominations. In addition to these three unforgettable titles with William Wyler , she captivated us in Bitter Victory , Captive of Desire, A marked woman , The private life of Elizabeth and Essex , Mr. Skeffington … Her role as a lady of the theater whose position is threatened by the new generations in Eva Naked (1950) was dazzling. And the puppet character that she knew how to give to the characters that she composed for Robert Aldrich in Lullaby for a Corpse (1964) and What Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) was perfect in those titles. And of course, she was right up there with May Robson in A Gangster for a Miracle (1961), Capra’s remake of his Lady of Hers for a Day .

Bette Davis lived to act. In fact, in her personal life she had four unfortunate marriages, and several sentimental adventures. It was difficult for her to focus, she preferred to leave her skin on the set, surpassing herself in each new job of hers. At the end of her her big round face, her big eyes, her unprepossessing physique, helped him prolong her career. Once her talent was established, her appearance no longer mattered, and in fact she was able to play interesting roles at a certain age, such as The Whales in August , alongside Lillian Gish , two years before her death, in 1989, when she was almost eighty years old. .