INTRODUCTION

HER STORY

QUOTES

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 "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?'"