Bette Davis (1908–1989)
Auteur de Ceci et cela
A propos de l'auteur
Crédit image: Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery (image use requires permission from the New York Public Library)
Œuvres de Bette Davis
The Bette Davis Collection, Vol. 2: Jezebel / What Ever Happened to Baby Jane Two-Disc Special Edition / The Man Who… 2 exemplaires
The Bette Davis Collection * All About Eve * Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte * The Anniversary * The Nanny * The Virgin… 1 exemplaire
Bette Davis 100th Birthday Box Set [DVD] [2008] 1 exemplaire
Stardust - The Bette Davis Story 1 exemplaire
A Woman's Face: Classic Movies on the Radio 1 exemplaire
Bette Davis - The Way of Life 1 exemplaire
The Nanny 1 exemplaire
Oeuvres associées
Escape to Witch Mountain [and] Return from Witch Mountain (Double Feature Video) (2006) — Actor — 47 exemplaires
Take My Advice: Letters to the Next Generation from People Who Know a Thing or Two (2002) — Contributeur — 45 exemplaires
TCM Archives: Forbidden Hollywood Collection - Volume One (Waterloo Bridge (1931) / Baby Face / Red-Headed Woman) (2006) — Actor — 23 exemplaires
The Agatha Christie Collection: Murder on the Orient Express / Death on the Nile / The Mirror Crack'd / Evil Under the… (2009) — Actor — 16 exemplaires
TCM Archives - Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 2 (The Divorcee / A Free Soul / Night Nurse / Three on a Match /… (1930) — Actor — 13 exemplaires
The Bette Davis Collection (The Star / Mr. Skeffington / Dark Victory / Now, Voyager / The Letter) (2005) — Actor — 11 exemplaires
Another Man's Poison [1951 film] 5 exemplaires
The Bette Davis Collection, Vol. 3: The Old Maid; All This, and Heaven Too; The Great Lie; In This Our Life; Watch on… (2008) — Actor — 5 exemplaires
Homefront Collection (Irving Berlin's This Is the Army / Thank Your Lucky Stars / Hollywood Canteen) — Actor — 3 exemplaires
Double Feature: Directed by William Wyler [1986 American Masters TV episode] / The Love Trap [1929 film] [DVD] (1929) — Actor — 3 exemplaires
Twentieth Century Fox Presents: Studio Classics: The "Best Picture" Collection — Actor — 2 exemplaires
50 Movie Pack: Hollywood Legends — Actor — 2 exemplaires
Bette Davis: 100th Anniversary Collection 2 exemplaires
Front Page Woman [1935 film] — Actor — 2 exemplaires
Where Love Has Gone [1964 film] 2 exemplaires
Beyond the Forest [1949 film] 1 exemplaire
Now, Voyager Booklet (Criterion Collection 1004) — Contributeur — 1 exemplaire
The Catered Affair [1956 film] 1 exemplaire
The Disappearance of Aimee [1976 film] 1 exemplaire
Hollywood Rivals: Joan Crawford vs. Bette Davis [2005 film] — Performer — 1 exemplaire
Little Gloria... Happy at Last [1982 TV miniseries] — Actor — 1 exemplaire
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Autres noms
- Davis, Ruth Elizabeth (birth name)
- Date de naissance
- 1908-04-05
- Date de décès
- 1989-10-06
- Lieu de sépulture
- Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Sexe
- female
- Nationalité
- USA
- Lieu de naissance
- Lowell, Massachusetts, USA
- Lieu du décès
- Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France
- Lieux de résidence
- Lowell, Massachusetts, USA
Los Angeles, California, USA - Études
- John Murray Anderson School of Theatre
- Professions
- actor
- Relations
- Hyman, B. D. (daughter)
- Organisations
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Warner Brothers
Screen Actors Guild - Prix et distinctions
- Academy Award (1935)
Academy Award (1938)
Kennedy Center Honors (1987)
Hollywood Walk of Fame
Cannes Film Festival, Best Actress (1950)
Volpi Cup (1937) (tout afficher 7)
Golden Nymph (1983)
Membres
Critiques
Bette Davis comes across in this tell-all much as she does on the screen – confident, outspoken and decidedly unapologetic. She fixes her eye on the goal, and powers ahead until she gets here, quite happily stepping on as many toes as need be.
The quality of writing is quite good, if a bit choppy in style – lots of short sentences. There often seems to be an assumption that the reader will have prior knowledge of whatever’s being discussed. Fair enough, coming from such a celebrity; this memoir was published at a time when most people reading it would have been fans, with intimate knowledge of the career of this prominent movie star.
Bette Davis was born Ruth Elizabeth Davis in 1908, famously during a thunderstorm, as she relates in The Lonely Life:
"I happened between a clap of thunder and a streak of lightning. It almost hit the house and destroyed a tree out front. As a child I fancied that the Finger of God was directing the attention of the world to me … I always felt special – part of a wonderful secret. I was always going to be somebody. I didn’t know exactly what at first … but when my dream became clear, I followed it."
Bette, her younger sister Bobby, and their mother Ruth – “Ruthie” – were deserted by their father and husband when Bette was seven years old. Her mother refused to wallow in self-pity, but set herself to make a successful and prosperous life for herself and her daughters. Ruthie took on a wide variety of jobs, sending the girls to good boarding schools, and always arranging to spend vacation times together in interesting locations.
Bette received an unorthodox but adequate education; she was a great reader, and took singing, piano and dance lessons, apparently excelling at all of these pursuits. At some point she decided that her Great Big Goal was a theatrical career, and several seasons of New England theatre made up Bette’s dramatic apprenticeship.
As we all know, Bette eventually made the jump from dusty New York theatres to California sound stages. Roundly criticized as being homely in appearance and with zero sex appeal, there was paradoxically a certain something about Bette that came across as mesmerizing when she took on a dramatic role, and of course, there were those beautiful eyes.
Bette was never meek or humble. From a very early age she was tremendously focussed and not afraid to set her sights high, though she often fell afoul of fellow actors and her employers for her outspoken ways. She wasn’t afraid to take on unpopular characters, or to look less than glamorous if the role called for it – another characteristic which shocked many in “the business” was her insistence on realism over “pretty”. And though she full well knew what people were saying about her, she brazenly professed not to care.
"If you aim high, the pygmies will jump on your back and tug at your skirts.The people who call you a driving female will come along for the ride. If they weigh you down, you will fight them off. It is then that you are called a bitch.
"I do not regret one professional enemy I have made. Any actor who doesn’t dare to make an enemy should get out of the business. I worked for my career and I’ll protect it as I would my children – every inch of the way. I do not regret the dust I kicked up."
Speaking of those children, it is very obvious from this book that Bette’s dedication to her family matched her ambition. Frankly and with bitter regret, Bette reports that her first husband convinced her to have an abortion, fearing that a baby would damage her career. Years later, with husband number three, Bette did at last have a child. Barbara Davis Sherry – “B.D.” – was born in 1947, when Bette was 39. Under doctor’s orders to avoid further pregnancies, Bette and her fourth husband later adopted two more children, Michael and Margot. Margot was later found to have been brain-damaged at birth, and after being diagnosed as severely mentally handicapped, was then institutionalized, though she continued to spend much time with her family, and appears prominently in Bette Davis’s family publicity photos.
Bette’s personal life was predictably tumultuous; she was married four times, divorced from three of those husbands, and widowed tragically when her “true love”, her second husband, died suddenly of a blood clot in his brain after collapsing while walking down the street.
The Lonely Life was written in 1961, the year after Bette’s divorce from her fourth and final husband, actor Gary Merrill, her co-star and screen husband in the iconic All About Eve.
The Lonely Life, Bette says, refers to her resolution to live without a man in her life. She’s had rotten luck with husbands; better to go it alone.
After 1962 Bette had a number of career ups and downs and come-backs; she never really retired, never rested on her considerable laurels.
Several other memoirs followed The Lonely Life. Mother Goddam (1974) and This ‘n’ That (1987), continue the tale. Bette Davis died in 1989 from breast cancer, at the age of 81.
I wondered how much of The Lonely Life was actually written by Bette herself; it did have an authentic-sounding ring to it. The dedication gives the answer to this question:
"I attribute the enormous research, the persistence of putting together the pieces of this very “crossed”-word puzzle which comprises my life, to Sandford Dody.
Without him this book could never have been! His understanding of my reluctance to face the past was his most valuable contribution. We were collaborators in every sense of the world.
-Bette Davis
March 8, 1962"
Sandford Dody was an aspiring actor-turned-writer who ghost-wrote a number of Hollywood memoirs. His own story seems worthy of a follow-up, and my attention was caught by his 2009 obituary in the Washington Post. Dody’s version of his own life, Giving Up the Ghost (1980), is now on my wish list of future Hollywood memoirs to read.
The Lonely Life was a fast-paced and engaging, once I found my way into the choppy rhythm of the writing style. I particularly enjoyed the well-depicted childhood and young adulthood reminiscences. My interest faded a bit in the later parts, when Bette Davis talks about her film career and the encounters with studio owners, directors, and fellow stars – lots of name-dropping, and assumptions that we know what she’s going on about. Much of the time it made sense – the names were mostly very recognizable - but occasionally I felt out of the loop.
While Bette is gracious about most of the people in her life – loyalty to her chosen friends is one of her positive traits - it is obvious that there was also a substantial baggage of animosity and bitterness in some of her working and personal relationships.
I don’t necessarily like Bette Davis any more after reading this personal saga, but I did feel like I understood her, and appreciated what she had to say, and why she said it. She was frequently too strident in her self-justification for me to feel that I could really relate to the egoism of the “star” aspect of her personality, but I did feel that she came across as worthy of admiration and respect for her many accomplishments.
The perfectionist little girl with the lofty goals did achieve her ambitious destiny. She stood up for her ideals of artistic integrity her entire career. She was literate, thoughtful and highly intelligent and articulate, and she was a darned hard worker.
I put down this book with the strong inclination to seek out and watch some more of Bette Davis’s films – the ones she spoke favourably of, among the vast array of B-movies she also appeared in – so you may take this as a pleased-with-the-read recommendation.… (plus d'informations)
The quality of writing is quite good, if a bit choppy in style – lots of short sentences. There often seems to be an assumption that the reader will have prior knowledge of whatever’s being discussed. Fair enough, coming from such a celebrity; this memoir was published at a time when most people reading it would have been fans, with intimate knowledge of the career of this prominent movie star.
Bette Davis was born Ruth Elizabeth Davis in 1908, famously during a thunderstorm, as she relates in The Lonely Life:
"I happened between a clap of thunder and a streak of lightning. It almost hit the house and destroyed a tree out front. As a child I fancied that the Finger of God was directing the attention of the world to me … I always felt special – part of a wonderful secret. I was always going to be somebody. I didn’t know exactly what at first … but when my dream became clear, I followed it."
Bette, her younger sister Bobby, and their mother Ruth – “Ruthie” – were deserted by their father and husband when Bette was seven years old. Her mother refused to wallow in self-pity, but set herself to make a successful and prosperous life for herself and her daughters. Ruthie took on a wide variety of jobs, sending the girls to good boarding schools, and always arranging to spend vacation times together in interesting locations.
Bette received an unorthodox but adequate education; she was a great reader, and took singing, piano and dance lessons, apparently excelling at all of these pursuits. At some point she decided that her Great Big Goal was a theatrical career, and several seasons of New England theatre made up Bette’s dramatic apprenticeship.
As we all know, Bette eventually made the jump from dusty New York theatres to California sound stages. Roundly criticized as being homely in appearance and with zero sex appeal, there was paradoxically a certain something about Bette that came across as mesmerizing when she took on a dramatic role, and of course, there were those beautiful eyes.
Bette was never meek or humble. From a very early age she was tremendously focussed and not afraid to set her sights high, though she often fell afoul of fellow actors and her employers for her outspoken ways. She wasn’t afraid to take on unpopular characters, or to look less than glamorous if the role called for it – another characteristic which shocked many in “the business” was her insistence on realism over “pretty”. And though she full well knew what people were saying about her, she brazenly professed not to care.
"If you aim high, the pygmies will jump on your back and tug at your skirts.The people who call you a driving female will come along for the ride. If they weigh you down, you will fight them off. It is then that you are called a bitch.
"I do not regret one professional enemy I have made. Any actor who doesn’t dare to make an enemy should get out of the business. I worked for my career and I’ll protect it as I would my children – every inch of the way. I do not regret the dust I kicked up."
Speaking of those children, it is very obvious from this book that Bette’s dedication to her family matched her ambition. Frankly and with bitter regret, Bette reports that her first husband convinced her to have an abortion, fearing that a baby would damage her career. Years later, with husband number three, Bette did at last have a child. Barbara Davis Sherry – “B.D.” – was born in 1947, when Bette was 39. Under doctor’s orders to avoid further pregnancies, Bette and her fourth husband later adopted two more children, Michael and Margot. Margot was later found to have been brain-damaged at birth, and after being diagnosed as severely mentally handicapped, was then institutionalized, though she continued to spend much time with her family, and appears prominently in Bette Davis’s family publicity photos.
Bette’s personal life was predictably tumultuous; she was married four times, divorced from three of those husbands, and widowed tragically when her “true love”, her second husband, died suddenly of a blood clot in his brain after collapsing while walking down the street.
The Lonely Life was written in 1961, the year after Bette’s divorce from her fourth and final husband, actor Gary Merrill, her co-star and screen husband in the iconic All About Eve.
The Lonely Life, Bette says, refers to her resolution to live without a man in her life. She’s had rotten luck with husbands; better to go it alone.
After 1962 Bette had a number of career ups and downs and come-backs; she never really retired, never rested on her considerable laurels.
Several other memoirs followed The Lonely Life. Mother Goddam (1974) and This ‘n’ That (1987), continue the tale. Bette Davis died in 1989 from breast cancer, at the age of 81.
I wondered how much of The Lonely Life was actually written by Bette herself; it did have an authentic-sounding ring to it. The dedication gives the answer to this question:
"I attribute the enormous research, the persistence of putting together the pieces of this very “crossed”-word puzzle which comprises my life, to Sandford Dody.
Without him this book could never have been! His understanding of my reluctance to face the past was his most valuable contribution. We were collaborators in every sense of the world.
-Bette Davis
March 8, 1962"
Sandford Dody was an aspiring actor-turned-writer who ghost-wrote a number of Hollywood memoirs. His own story seems worthy of a follow-up, and my attention was caught by his 2009 obituary in the Washington Post. Dody’s version of his own life, Giving Up the Ghost (1980), is now on my wish list of future Hollywood memoirs to read.
The Lonely Life was a fast-paced and engaging, once I found my way into the choppy rhythm of the writing style. I particularly enjoyed the well-depicted childhood and young adulthood reminiscences. My interest faded a bit in the later parts, when Bette Davis talks about her film career and the encounters with studio owners, directors, and fellow stars – lots of name-dropping, and assumptions that we know what she’s going on about. Much of the time it made sense – the names were mostly very recognizable - but occasionally I felt out of the loop.
While Bette is gracious about most of the people in her life – loyalty to her chosen friends is one of her positive traits - it is obvious that there was also a substantial baggage of animosity and bitterness in some of her working and personal relationships.
I don’t necessarily like Bette Davis any more after reading this personal saga, but I did feel like I understood her, and appreciated what she had to say, and why she said it. She was frequently too strident in her self-justification for me to feel that I could really relate to the egoism of the “star” aspect of her personality, but I did feel that she came across as worthy of admiration and respect for her many accomplishments.
The perfectionist little girl with the lofty goals did achieve her ambitious destiny. She stood up for her ideals of artistic integrity her entire career. She was literate, thoughtful and highly intelligent and articulate, and she was a darned hard worker.
I put down this book with the strong inclination to seek out and watch some more of Bette Davis’s films – the ones she spoke favourably of, among the vast array of B-movies she also appeared in – so you may take this as a pleased-with-the-read recommendation.… (plus d'informations)
2 
leavesandpages | Feb 21, 2013 |
leavesandpages | Feb 21, 2013 | 
Bette Davis' minimally organized but mostly engaging final book is probably best left to her biggest fans. It drifts from recuperation memoir to Hollywood reminiscences both fond and bitchy, ending with a tacked-on rebuttal to her daughter's stinging tell-all book. The Lonely Life is an all-round better (and by design, more comprehensive) autobio, with a few stories therein told repeated here, some oddly altered. But Bette's fans will find this an amusing, revealing, enjoyable quick read.
1 afinpassing | 1 autre critique | Jul 23, 2008 |
afinpassing | 1 autre critique | Jul 23, 2008 | Prix et récompenses
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Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 11
- Aussi par
- 101
- Membres
- 372
- Popularité
- #64,810
- Évaluation
- 3.8
- Critiques
- 4
- ISBN
- 20
- Langues
- 1
Marked Women (1936) - This gets three stars--because what would otherwise be a mediocre gangster crime drama is made very watchable by the presence of Bette Davis as the “marked woman” of the title and Humphrey Bogart as a New York City District Attorney reportedly modeled on the gang-busting exploits of Thomas Dewey--particularly his take down of Lucky Luciano. Three Stars
Jezebel (1938) - This is one of Bette Davis’ most famous roles--an academy-award winning performance as a Southern belle during the Civil War. Supposedly it was a consolation prize for not getting the part of Scarlett O’Hara. She was spectacular--as was Harry Fonda, the male lead. The film is famous for this scene with a red dress--in a black and white film--and the amazing thing is that so well is that scene played, I could swear I could see that the dress was red. Five Stars
The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) - This is a rather broad comedy centered on an eccentric overbearing character. Davis has a secondary role here as a secretary and straight woman--but is wonderful to watch whenever she appears--and the rest of the cast is strong. Not a favorite, but watchable and amusing, even if it starts slow. Three Stars and a Half Stars
Old Acquaintance (1943) - The two “old acquaintances” are Kit (Bette Davis) and Millie (Miriam Hopkins). Childhood friends, Kit is sensible, kind--and a literary light, while the narcissistic Millie following Kit’s success, becomes a writer of romantic trash. The film follows them through twenty years of friendship, is often funny and sometimes rather touching. (My favorite moment being when Kit finally gives Millie a good shaking.) Very enjoyable. Three Stars and a Half Stars
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962) - I’m a fan of Bette Davis--really am. I usually find her compulsively watchable. But god, I hated this thing and couldn’t make myself finish it. Mind you, Davis was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in this--although personally watching her in this role made me cringe. The whole film was just too repellant and campy and weird for me. One Star
Stardust (2006) - This is a documentary about Bette Davis’ life and career, backed up by her archive footage and new interviews and narrated by Susan Sarandon. For me the interviews with Dick Cavett among others with Davis telling her own story are the standouts. A review in Variety called it “a crash course in Bette Davis 101” and a stark, clear portrait of a star who merited that designation in every sense, for good and ill. Engaging viewing. Four Stars… (plus d'informations)