Bette Davis may have been a star, but things didn’t come easy for her.
Early Life and Career
The actress was born Ruth Elizabeth Davis in Massachusetts on April 5, 1908, and nicknamed Betty. She took the name Bette from literature when she was older and changed her first name to Bette as an homage to Honoré de Balzac’s novel La Cousine Bette. A classy lady such as herself needed an appropriate name to make it in Hollywood. In 1930, Davis traveled to Hollywood for her first screen test and waited at the airport for ages as she was told that a studio head would meet her, but eventually left assuming that there had been a miscommunication or she had been stood up. Rude!
In 1930, Davis worked for Universal Studios after moving to Hollywood but achieved fame two years later after signing with Warner Bros. She was one of the studio’s biggest money-makers in the 1930s and 1940s and was even dubbed as the fourth Warner brother by the press. You know you’re doing something right at that point, and her career was indeed on the up-and-up.
Undeniable Charm
If you’ve seen any of Bette Davis’ work, especially in her heyday, you know that this woman was the queen of sass. Her sardonic humor was a focal point in her films, and it extended past her roles. Many a quip has been attributed to Davis, including the iconic, “I don’t take the movies seriously, and anyone who does is in for a headache.”
A Real Trooper
Although she didn’t fight in WWII, Davis founded the Hollywood Canteen, where soldiers passing through LA could interact with stars, toured and performed for all-black army divisions, starred in short films urging donations to the war effort, and contributed to the sale of war bonds.
Davis’s comeback vehicle, All About Eve almost didn’t star Bette as Claudette Colbert was originally meant to play Margo Channing. Colbert had to drop out of the project as she sustained a back injury and Davis was cast in her place at the last minute.