Bette Davis

Davis, Bette 

(Ruth Elizabeth Davis). Born Apr. 5, 1908, in Lowell, Mass. American motion picture actress.

Davis studied in drama school, and made her Broadway debut in 1928. From 1930 to 1935 she played ingenues and femmes fatales in films. It was only in the role of Mildred (in Of Human Bondage, based on the W. S. Maugham novel, 1934) that Davis first revealed the inner world of a complex and contradictory personality. In the psychological dramas Jezebel (1938), Dark Victory (1939), and Juarez (1939) the Davis heroine took shape—a strong, domineering woman, willing to attain her goal at any price and disdaining public opinion and moral codes. In 1941, Davis created her most significant character, Regina Hubbard, in The Little Foxes (based on L. Hellman’s play). She had roles in several important films of the 1950’s: All About Eve (1950), Storm Center (1956), and The Catered Affair (1956). In the 1960’s she played women affected pathologically by loneliness and frustration: Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Dead Ringer (1964), and Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1965).

WORKS

The Lonely Life: An Autobiography. New York, 1962.

REFERENCE

Kartseva, E. N. Bett Devis. Moscow, 1967.

V. A. UTILOV