60 Fun Facts About Bette Davis

Bette Davis was born in 1908 in which Massachusetts city?

Her father Harlow was a law student who became a patent attorney; her younger sister was Barbara, known as Bobby.

Davis changed the spelling of her name from Betty to Bette after a character by which novelist?

The character was Bette Fischer of La Cousine Bette.

Which studio gave Davis her film debut in Bad Sister (1931), before nearly dropping her?

Studio boss Carl Laemmle wanted her out, but cinematographer Karl Freund said she had 'lovely eyes'.

Bette Davis signed a seven-year Warner Bros. contract in 1932. How long did she actually stay?

George Arliss had picked her for the female lead in The Man Who Played God.

Davis broke through as waitress Mildred Rogers in a 1934 adaptation of which Maugham novel?

She insisted on looking convincingly ravaged in her death scene: 'the last stages of consumption, poverty, and neglect are not pretty'.

When Davis was left off the 1934 Best Actress shortlist, the Academy allowed what for the only time ever?

The uproar changed how nominations were made, and Price Waterhouse began tabulating the results independently.

Davis won her first Academy Award for playing a washed-up Broadway actress in which 1935 film?

She called it a 'consolation prize' for the Of Human Bondage snub; the character was inspired by her idol Jeanne Eagels.

Bette Davis claimed for life that she nicknamed the Academy Award 'Oscar' because its rear resembled whose?

Harmon Oscar Nelson was a bandleader she married in Yuma, Arizona, in 1932; the Academy tells a different story.

Who anonymously bought Davis's first Oscar at auction in 2002 and returned it to the Academy?

The statuette had been sold at Sotheby's.

In 1936 Davis fled to England to make a film outside her contract. What happened when Warner Bros. sued?

Justice Branson dismissed the claim that she was an 'underpaid slave'; the British press called her overpaid and ungrateful.

Davis's second Oscar came for playing headstrong 1850s Southern belle Julie Marsden in which 1938 film?

Julie scandalises New Orleans by wearing a red satin dress to a ball where unmarried women wear white.

Which director of The Letter and The Little Foxes did Davis call 'the love of my life'?

He had once mocked her at a Universal screen test for showing her chest.

Who played Davis's leading man Preston Dillard in her 1938 antebellum drama?

Fay Bainter won Best Supporting Actress; the film was added to the National Film Registry in 2009.

In Dark Victory (1939) Davis's socialite Judith Traherne is diagnosed with what?

Humphrey Bogart played her stablehand and Ronald Reagan a playboy friend; Tallulah Bankhead had created the role on Broadway.

Which actor, Davis's most frequent co-star, played opposite her eleven times including Dark Victory?

'Of the men I didn't marry,' she said, 'the dearest was George Brent.'

Davis played the Tudor queen opposite Errol Flynn in which 1939 film?

She played the queen again in The Virgin Queen in 1955.

In The Letter (1940), Davis's Leslie Crosbie shoots a man on a rubber plantation in which colony?

The Maugham story was based on a real case; Davis walked off the set after arguing with Wyler about the climax.

In January 1941 Davis became the first woman to hold which position?

She antagonised the committee with her brash manner and radical proposals and did not last long.

Which actress created Davis's roles Regina Giddens and Judith Traherne on Broadway?

Davis and Wyler clashed over how to play the character in Lillian Hellman's drama.

Davis co-founded the Hollywood Canteen, a free wartime club for servicemen, with which actor?

It ran on Cahuenga Boulevard from 1942 to 1945; a uniform was the only ticket needed, and the Pentagon gave her a medal for it in 1983.

In Now, Voyager (1942), which actor famously lights two cigarettes at once and hands one to Davis?

Davis had thought his slicked-back look made him resemble Valentino; the film's last line asks not for the moon when they have the stars.

What was the name of Davis's repressed spinster heroine in Now, Voyager?

Hal Wallis talked her into the part by arguing that wartime women needed romantic escapism.

Davis's second husband, New England innkeeper Arthur Farnsworth, died in 1943 how?

He died two days later; Jack Warner halted production of Mr. Skeffington and then talked her into finishing it.

Davis gave birth to her daughter B.D. in 1947 at what age?

Her father was Davis's third husband, the artist and masseur William Grant Sherry.

In All About Eve (1950) Davis played which fading Broadway star?

She called the script the best she had ever read, and Mankiewicz called her 'the director's dream: the prepared actress'.

Complete the most quoted line from All About Eve: 'Fasten your seat belts, ...'

Critics such as Gene Ringgold called Margo her all-time best performance.

All About Eve set a record with how many Academy Award nominations?

It remains the only film with four female acting nominations: Davis and Anne Baxter for lead, Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter in support.

Which future star appears in one of her earliest roles in All About Eve?

George Sanders won an Oscar as the poisonous critic Addison DeWitt.

Davis's fourth and final husband, whom she married in July 1950, was her All About Eve co-star. Who?

They adopted two children, Margot and Michael, and lived on the coast at Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

Davis and Merrill named their adopted daughter Margot after what?

Margot was found to be severely brain-damaged and was placed in an institution at about three.

Davis's final Oscar nomination was for playing a demented ex-child star in which 1962 film?

She negotiated 10 percent of the worldwide gross on top of her salary, and a condition that Joan Crawford not sleep with the director.

Who directed Davis and Crawford in their 1962 horror hit, and then Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte?

Baby Jane was shot in Los Angeles in summer 1962 on a budget of about $1 million.

Which close friend of Davis replaced Joan Crawford in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte?

Crawford blamed illness; the real reason, per Davis's biography, was to avoid her.

The Davis-Crawford feud supposedly began in 1933 when Crawford's divorce from whom stole headlines from a Davis film?

Two years later Crawford married Franchot Tone, with whom Davis had been in love.

In the 2017 series Feud: Bette and Joan, who played Davis?

Jessica Lange played Crawford; the show was based on the 1989 book Bette and Joan: The Divine Feud.

In 1977 Davis became the first woman to receive which honour?

At the televised tribute, William Wyler joked that she would still like to reshoot a scene from The Letter, and she nodded.

Davis played the wealthy kleptomaniac Mrs Van Schuyler in which 1978 Agatha Christie film?

Peter Ustinov played Poirot for the first time, alongside Maggie Smith, Angela Lansbury and David Niven.

Davis won an Emmy for the 1979 TV film Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter, opposite whom?

She was also nominated for White Mama (1980) and Little Gloria... Happy at Last (1982).

Whose 1981 recording of 'Bette Davis Eyes' was the best-selling US single of the year?

Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon had written it in 1974; the synth-driven remake spent nine weeks at number one.

'Bette Davis Eyes' won which two Grammy Awards in 1982?

It topped the charts in 21 countries.

In 1983, after a mastectomy for breast cancer, Davis suffered four of what within two weeks?

They paralysed the left side of her face and her left arm and slurred her speech; she still smoked 100 cigarettes a day.

Davis's daughter B.D. Hyman published which 1985 memoir depicting the star as an overbearing drunk?

Friends disputed it, and Davis cut B.D. out of her will, leaving her estate to her son Michael and her assistant Kathryn Sermak.

In The Whales of August (1987), Davis played the blind sister of which silent-film legend?

Vincent Price and Ann Sothern co-starred in the Maine-set drama, her last complete film role.

Davis died in October 1989 at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine, outside which city?

She was 81 and too weak to fly home; at her Burbank memorial a work light was switched on to signal the end of production.

What epitaph is carved on Davis's tomb at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills?

Joseph L. Mankiewicz suggested it to her just after they made All About Eve.

Davis's last performance was the title role in which 1989 Larry Cohen film she walked off?

The script was rewritten around Barbara Carrera and released after Davis's death.

On the AFI's 1999 list of the greatest female stars of classic Hollywood, Davis was placed second behind whom?

She had more than 100 film, television and theatre roles to her name.

Davis's 1937 drama Marked Woman was inspired by the prosecution of which mobster?

Bogart met his third wife Mayo Methot on the set.

Davis was nominated for Best Actress for how many consecutive years from 1938?

The run covered Jezebel, Dark Victory, The Letter, The Little Foxes and Now, Voyager.

Which child actress co-starred with Davis in the 1952 film The Star?

Sterling Hayden played her love interest; the character was reportedly modelled partly on Joan Crawford.

Which actress's suicide inspired the young Davis to go into the theatre, by her own account?

Entwistle famously jumped from the Hollywoodland sign in 1932; Davis had seen her on stage in Boston.

Which theatrical grande dame rejected the young Bette Davis as 'insincere' and 'frivolous'?

Davis made her Broadway debut in Broken Dishes in 1929 anyway.

On her rival's death in 1977, Bette Davis said one should only speak well of the departed, then added what?

The remark came the same year as her AFI tribute, after which she found herself in demand again.

What was Bette Davis's given first name at birth?

Born Ruth Elizabeth Davis in Lowell, Massachusetts, she was called Betty from early childhood before adopting the Balzac-inspired spelling.

Which award did Davis win at the 1937 Venice Film Festival for Marked Woman?

The gangster drama, inspired by the Lucky Luciano case, paired her with Humphrey Bogart and is regarded as one of the key films of her early career.

Why was Davis drawn to artist William Grant Sherry, whom she married in 1945?

Sherry, who also worked as a masseur, was not intimidated by her; their daughter B.D. was born in 1947 when Davis was 39.

Davis's 1949 Warner Bros. contract, at $10,285 a week, gave her what distinction?

Jack Warner still refused her script approval and cast her in Beyond the Forest, which she loathed; she was released from the contract afterwards.

What had the San Francisco Film Critics called Davis for 1949, just before honouring her for All About Eve?

The 1949 slap was for Beyond the Forest; Eve also brought her the Cannes Best Actress prize and the New York Film Critics Circle Award.

Which school, home to a large Davis archive, hosted the first-day ceremony for her 2008 postage stamp?

The stamp marked her centenary and shows her as Margo Channing; her son Michael Merrill and Lauren Bacall spoke at the event.

In which 1943 all-star musical did Davis sing the novelty number 'They're Either Too Young or Too Old'?

Several of her early-1940s choices reflected the war; that same year Old Acquaintance reunited her with rival Miriam Hopkins.