INTRODUCTION

HER STORY

QUOTES

She intimidated Marilyn Monroe so badly on the set of All About Eve that Monroe went into the bathroom to vomit after her scenes with Davis. After one particular scene Davis whispered to her other co-stars-- within poor Marilyn's hearing-- "That little blonde slut can't act her way out of a paper bag!  She thinks if she wiggles her ass and coos away, she can carry her scene-- well, she can't!"

She hated colorization of her old films, called it "heartbreaking."

She called Veronica Lake "the most beautiful person who ever came to Hollywood."

Davis played twins in the murderous melodrama Dead Ringer in 1964. She had played twins eighteen years before in the romance A Stolen Life.

Joan Collins claims that she got her earliest lessons in how to play the bitchy, demanding, vixenish Alexis in the long-running Dynasty TV series from testing her mettle against Bette Davis in The Virgin Queen.

After his divorce from Bette, Gary Merrill took up with Rita Hayworth, who was between men. Once when Gary and Rita brought Michael-- Bette and Gary's adopted son-- home after an excursion, Bette stuck her head out of a second-floor window and called Rita a whore.

Screenwriters Katherine Albert and Dale Eunson had Joan Crawford in mind when they wrote the screenplay for The Star-- a harsh, unflattering portrait of an aging movie star-- not a stage refugee or dedicated artist but a movie star-- whose whole world revolves around the unrealities of Hollywood.  However, Bette landed the part and, in a way, got to portray Joan Crawford.

She has said that her favorite of all her film lines is the one from her 1932 film, Cabin in the Cotton: "I'd love to kiss ya, but I just washed ma hair!" spoken, of course, in the southern accent she adopted for the film.

In 1973 Bette Davis began appearing in a one-woman show, a sort of retrospective of her life and career. Her first appearance at Town Hall was a smash success, so she took it all around the country and even to Australia and Europe. The program for the evening never varied. The first half was a series of film clips, cleverly chosen by film historians like Don Koll. the second half had Davis fielding any and all sallies and queries, personal as well as professional. These sessions drew a large contingent of gay men, who delighted in her reminiscences and witty, tart remarks about former co-workers and, of course, her complex relationships with Miriam Hopkins and Joan Crawford.

Humphrey Bogart was in her first film Bad Sister, but Davis disliked him from the start, and nothing changed her opinion in later years, even when they did good work together.

Edward Albee wanted Bette and James Mason for the stars of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?  Albee sold the play to Warners thinking they were to be the stars. Jack Warner had other plans.

Though a lot of people told her The Little Foxes was their favorite of her films, she didn't like it.

Hepburn was to costar with her in The Night of the Iguana, but due to Spencer Tracy's poor health, Hepburn withdrew from the play. Bette felt if Kate had costarred with her, Tennessee Williams would have written a scene for them which would have balanced the roles of Hannah and Maxine. In the finished play Maxine (Bette) is the third lead and Hannah (Margaret Leighton) is the star part. Bette stated that she had her pick of either part. She chose Maxine because she thought Hannah's speech in the rowboat to Shannon "about underwear" was offensive. Bette planned to take Iguana to London, but was so unhappy in the play, she left it in New York.

She said the biggest mistake of her career was turning down the role of Blanche in the original stage production of A Streetcar Named Desire. She had just had her baby and didn't want to go to New York. Interestingly Vivien Leigh won the Oscar for this part as well as for another Bette "almost" role Gone With The Wind.

She thought Toys in the Attic by Lillian Hellman would have been the perfect vehicle for her and Katharine Hepburn.

Robert Ryan begged her to star with him in O'Neil's Long Day's Journey Into Night. She refused because she really didn't like the stage.

Considered her debut screen test for MGM to be so dreadful that she ran screaming from the projection room.

Her feud with Joan Crawford began when Bette was making the movie Dangerous with Franchot Tone. Davis apparently developed a very bad crush on Tone without knowing that he was having an affair with Crawford.  Tone would come back from his lunch with lipstick all over his face from the make-out sessions with Crawford and when Davis found out that Tone was having an affair with Crawford the feud began and it never really ended.

In October 1941 she was elected the first female president of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, only to resign two months later, publicly declaring herself too busy to fulfill her duties as president while angrily protesting in private that the Academy had wanted her to serve as a mere figurehead.

When Bette learned that her new brother-in-law was a recovering alcoholic, she sent the couple a dozen cases of liquor for a wedding present.

Her second husband Arthur Farnsworth was killed in an accidental fall in which he took a blow to the head.

Her real true love was director William Wyler but he was married and refused to leave his wife.

Bette wanted to play Martha with Henry Fonda as George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? but all involved wanted Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton instead.

Her real Christian name was Ruth. The Bette came from Balzac's novel Cousin Bette.

Had a legendary feud with Joan Crawford which reached its nadir when she said, "The best time I ever had with Joan in a film was when I pushed her down the stairs in What ever happened to Baby Jane?"