Biography

Ruth Elizabeth Davis was born April 5, 1908, in Lowell, Massachusetts, to Ruth Augusta (Favor) and Harlow Morrell Davis, a patent attorney. Her parents divorced when she was 10. She and her sister were raised by their mother. Her early interest was dance. To Bette, dancers led a glamorous life, but then she discovered the stage, and gave up dancing for acting. To her, it presented much more of a challenge.

After graduation from Cushing Academy, she was refused admittance to Eva Le Gallienne's Manhattan Civic Repertory. She enrolled in John Murray Anderson's Dramatic School and was the star pupil. She was in the off-Broadway play "The Earth Between" (1923), and her Broadway debut in 1929 was in "Broken Dishes". She also appeared in "Solid South". Late in 1930, she was hired by Universal, where she made her first film, called Way Back Home (1931). When she arrived in Hollywood, the studio representative who went to meet her train left without her because he could find no one who looked like a movie star. An official at Universal complained she had "as much sex appeal as Slim Summerville" and her performance in The Bad Sister (1931) didn't impress.

In 1932, she signed a seven-year deal with Warner Brothers Pictures. Her first film with them was Os Filhos (1931). She became a star after her appearance in O Regresso Duma Alma (1932), known as the actress that could play a variety of very strong and complex roles. More fairly successful movies followed, but it was the role of Mildred Rogers in RKO's Escravos do Desejo (1934) that would give Bette major acclaim from the film critics. She had a significant number of write-in votes for the Best Actress Oscar, but didn't win. Warner Bros. felt their seven-year deal with Bette was more than justified. They had a genuine star on their hands. With this success under her belt, she began pushing for stronger and more meaningful roles. In 1935, she received her first Oscar for her role in Mulher Perigosa (1935) as Joyce Heath.

In 1936, she was suspended without pay for turning down a role that she deemed unworthy of her talent. She went to England, where she had planned to make movies, but was stopped by Warner Bros. because she was still under contract to them. They did not want her to work anywhere. Although she sued to get out of her contract, she lost. Still, they began to take her more seriously after that.

Returning after losing her lawsuit, her roles improved dramatically. In 1938, Bette received a second Academy Award nomination for her work in Jezebel, a Insubmissa (1938) opposite the soon-to-be-legendary Henry Fonda. The only role she didn't get that she wanted was Scarlett O'Hara in E Tudo o Vento Levou (1939). Warners wouldn't loan her to David O. Selznick unless he hired Errol Flynn to play Rhett Butler, which both Selznick and Davis thought was a terrible choice. It was rumored she had numerous affairs, among them George Brent and William Wyler, and she was married four times, three of which ended in divorce. She admitted her career always came first.

She made many successful films in the 1940s, but each picture was weaker than the last and by the time her Warner Brothers contract had ended in 1949, she had been reduced to appearing in such films as the unintentionally hilarious A Filha de Satanás (1949). She made a huge comeback in 1950 when she replaced an ill Claudette Colbert in, and received an Oscar nomination for, Eva (1950). She worked in films through the 1950s, but her career eventually came to a standstill, and in 1961 she placed a now famous Job Wanted ad in the trade papers.

She received an Oscar nomination for her role as a demented former child star in Que Teria Acontecido a Baby Jane? (1962). This brought about a new round of super-stardom for generations of fans who were not familiar with her work. Two years later, she starred in Com a Maldade na Alma (1964). Bette was married four times.

In 1977 she received the AFI's Lifetime Achievement Award and in 1979 she won a Best Actress Emmy for Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter (1979). In 1977-78 she moved from Connecticut to Los Angeles and filmed a pilot for the series Hotel (1983), which she called Brothel. She refused to do the TV series and suffered a stroke during this time.

Her last marriage, to actor Gary Merrill, lasted ten years, longer than any of the previous three. In 1985, her daughter Barbara Davis ("B.D.") Hyman published a scandalous book about Bette called "My Mother's Keeper." Bette worked in the later 1980s in films and TV, even though a stroke had impaired her appearance and mobility. She wrote a book, "This 'N That", during her recovery from the stroke. Her last book was "Bette Davis, The Lonely Life", issued in paperback in 1990. It included an update from 1962 to 1989. She wrote the last chapter in San Sebastian, Spain.

Sadly, Bette Davis died on October 6, 1989, of metastasized breast cancer, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. Many of her fans refused to believe she was gone.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Meredy <meredy@meredy.com> and Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu> and Denny Jackson

Her large, distinctive eyes

Portrayal of strong female characters

While she was the star pupil at John Murray Anderson's Dramatic School in New York, another of her classmates was sent home because she was "too shy". It was predicted that this girl would never make it as an actress. The girl was Lucille Ball.

In 1952, she was asked to perform in a musical, "Two's Company". After several grueling months at rehearsals, her health deteriorated due to osteomyelitis of the jaw and she had to leave the show only several weeks after it opened. She was to repeat this process in 1974 when she rehearsed for the musical version of O Coração não Morre (1945), called "Miss Moffat", but bowed out early in the run of the show for dubious medical reasons.

She suffered a stroke and had a mastectomy (1983).

Interred at Forest Lawn (Hollywood Hills), Los Angeles, California, USA, just outside and to the left of the main entrance to the Court of Remembrance.

Director Steven Spielberg won the Christie's auction of her 1938 Best Actress Oscar for Jezebel, a Insubmissa (1938) for $578,000. He then gave it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. [July 2001]

She was elected as first female president of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in October 1941. She resigned less then 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.

Her second husband Arthur Farnsworth died after a fall on Hollywood Boulevard in which he took a blow to the head. He had shortly before banged his head on a train between LA and New England, followed by another fall down the stairway at their New Hampshire home. This is the only marriage of hers that ended in death, not divorce.

In A Mulher Marcada (1937), Davis is forced to testify in court after being worked over by some Mafia hoods. Disgusted with the tiny bandage supplied by the makeup department, she left the set, had her own doctor bandage her face more realistically, and refused to shoot the scene any other way.

Nominated for an Academy Award five years in a row, in 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942 and 1943. She shares the record for most consecutive nominations with Greer Garson.

While touring the talk show circuit to promote Que Teria Acontecido a Baby Jane? (1962), she told one interviewer that when she and Joan Crawford were first suggested for the leads, Warner studio head Jack L. Warner replied: "I wouldn't give a plugged nickel for either of those two old broads." Recalling the story, Davis laughed at her own expense. The following day, she reportedly received a telegram from Crawford: "In future, please do not refer to me as an old broad!".

Was named #2 on The Greatest Screen Legends actress list by the American Film Institute.

After her first picture, Davis was sitting outside the office of Universal Pictures executive Carl Laemmle Jr. when she overhead him say about her, "She's got as much sex appeal as Slim Summerville. Who wants to get her at the end of the picture?".

Joan Crawford and Davis had feuded for years, some of it instigated by publicists and studio heads. During the making of Que Teria Acontecido a Baby Jane? (1962), Bette had a Coca-Cola machine installed on the set due to Crawford's affiliation with Pepsi (she was the widow of Pepsi's CEO). Joan got her revenge by putting weights in her pockets when Davis had to drag her across the floor during certain scenes. Crawford died in 1977, and ten years later, Davis spoke more freely about her. In a 1987 interview with Bryant Gumbel, she said that Crawford acted professionally on the movie set, since she showed up on time and knew her lines, and that the rift happened only after she campaigned against Davis, making sure she didn't win her third Oscar. That same year, she told Barbara Walters that she was hurt and angry by Crawford's actions. However, she also added that she won't tarnish Crawford's accomplishments: "She came a long way from a little girl from where she came from. This, I will never take away from her".

Each of her four husbands were Gentiles, while her friend Joan Blondell's husband Mike Todd was Jewish. Blondell called Davis' brace of husbands the "Four Skins".

In 1975, she came to Cardiff for a theatre tour and went to the Welsh Valleys in search of relatives - and found them. She had been learning Welsh in order to come to Wales; however, she only used the words "Nos Da" (meaning "good night") while in the country and had forgotten all the other phrases she had learned.

Murdoch University (Western Australia) Communications Senior Lecturer Tara Brabazon, in her article "The Spectre of the Spinster: Bette Davis and the Epistemology of the Shelf," quotes the court testimony of Davis' first husband Harmon Nelson to show what a debacle her private life was. During divorce proceedings, Nelson was successful in sustaining his charge of mental cruelty by testifying that Davis had told him that her career was more important than her marriage. Brabazon writes that Davis, claiming she was beaten by all four of her husbands, believed that she should have remained single.

In 1952, she accepted the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role on behalf of Kim Hunter, who wasn't present at the awards ceremony.

She was awarded 2 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Motion Picture at 6225 Hollywood Boulevard; and for Television at 6335 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

For many years, she was a popular target for impressionists but she was perplexed by the often used phrase "Pee-tah! Pee-tah! Pee-tah!". She said she had no idea who Pee-tah was and had never even met anyone by that name.

Her performance as Margo Channing in Eva (1950) is ranked #5 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).

Described the last three decades of her life as a "my macabre period". She hated being alone at night and found growing older "terrifying".

When she died, her false eyelashes were auctioned off, fetching a price of $600. Previously, she had said that her biggest secret was brown mascara.

She was of English descent, and also had remote Scottish and Welsh roots. Most of her ancestors had lived almost exclusively in New England since moving to the United States in the 1600s.

In Italian films, she was dubbed in most cases by Lydia Simoneschi or Andreina Pagnani. Occasionally, she was also dubbed by Tina Lattanzi, Giovanna Scotto, Rina Morelli or Wanda Tettoni.

Salary for 1941, $252,333.

During her great film career, she reportedly did not get along with her co-stars Miriam Hopkins, Susan Hayward, Celeste Holm, Faye Dunaway, and most infamously Joan Crawford.

Played dual roles of twin sisters in two movies: Uma Vida Roubada (1946) and A morte bate 3 vezes (1964).

Pictured on a 42¢ USA commemorative postage stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series, issued 18 September 2008.

Her father was Harlow Morrell Davis, a lawyer. Her mother was Ruth Favor. She had a sister, Barbara Davis.

Bette Davis had been nominated for Best Actress in her film Que Teria Acontecido a Baby Jane? (1962), which also starring Joan Crawford. If Bette had won, it would have set a record number of wins for an actress. According to the book "Bette & Joan - The Divine Feud" by Shaun Considine, the two had a life long mutual hatred, and a jealous Joan Crawford actively campaigned against Bette Davis for winning Best Actress, and even told Anne Bancroft that if Anne won and was unable to accept the Award, Joan would be happy to accept it on her behalf. According to the book - and this may or may not be 100% true, but it makes a good anecdote - on Oscar night, Bette Davis was standing in the wings of the theatre waiting to hear the name of the winner. When it was announced that Anne Bancroft had won Best Actress for O Milagre de Anne Sullivan (1962), Bette Davis felt an icy hand on her shoulder as Joan Crawford said "Excuse me, I have an Oscar to accept.".

Campaigned for the role of Martha in Quem Tem Medo de Virginia Woolf? (1966) but Elizabeth Taylor, who went on to win a Best Actress Oscar for her performance, was cast instead.

For William Randolph Hearst's 75th birthday, the famous 'Circus Party' at San Simeon, she came dressed as a bearded lady (1937).

Was originally sought for the role of Shirley Drake in the drama film Os Caminhos da Ambição (1959), which went to Carolyn Jones.

Returned to work three months after giving birth to her daughter Barbara Merrill in order to begin filming Noiva da Primavera (1948).

Was close friends with Greer Garson, Ginger Rogers, George Brent, Henry Fonda, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ronald Reagan, Claude Rains, Olivia de Havilland and Gladys Cooper.

She was a lifelong liberal Democrat. She was a solid supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Adlai Stevenson, Lyndon B. Johnson and Jimmy Carter. She was also a chairwoman for the Hollywood Democratic Committee and was an honored guest speaker at both the 1940/1944 Democratic National Convention.

Her favorite song was "Stardust" by Hoagy Carmichael.

Filmed a television pilot for a show to be called "The Bette Davis Show" (1965), which was not picked up for series by any of the television networks, but which was broadcast as a television movie entitled The Decorator (1965).

In honor of her 100th birthday, she was honored as Turner Classic Movie's Star of the Month. [April 2008]

Was the eighth actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Actress Oscar for Mulher Perigosa (1935) at the 8th Academy Awards on March 5, 1936.

The United States Postal Service honored Davis with a commemorative postage stamp in 2008, marking the 100th anniversary of her birth. The First Day of Issue celebration took place September 18, 2008, at Boston University, which houses an extensive Bette Davis archive. Featured speakers included her son Michael Merrill and Lauren Bacall.

Was the highest ranking female on Quigley Publishing's Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll from 1939 to 1941.

Was replaced by Shelley Winters when she left the original Broadway production of "The Night of the Iguana".

Was a huge fan of Susan Hayward, however when they co-starred in Para Onde Foi o Amor (1964), they occasionally clashed over disagreements about the movie script.

Turned down the role of Rose Sayer in A Raínha Africana (1951) due to pregnancy.

Credited actor George Arliss with giving her her "break" by choosing her as his leading lady in O Regresso Duma Alma (1932).

Was one of the many people in the entertainment business who lived in The Osborne Apartments in Manhattan. Other famous residents have included Robert Osborne, Ira Levin and Leonard Bernstein.

Was signed to a contract at Universal Studios in 1930.

In an interview with Barbara Walters, she claimed her daughter's book, "My Mother's Keeper", was as devastating as her stroke.

Was the highest paid woman in the United States (1942).

LIFE magazine described her performance in Escravos do Desejo (1934) as "probably the best performance ever recorded on the screen by a U.S. actress".

Davis, whom most critics and cinema historians rank as the greatest American movie actress ever, sent a letter to Meryl Streep early in her career. Davis told Streep that she felt that she was her successor as The First Lady of the American Screen. She also admired Debra Winger and Sissy Spacek.

Played by Karen Teliha in Hollywood Mouth (2008). Since there is a Joan Crawford segment in the film, director Jordan Mohr thought it would be effective to have a Bette Davis character making comments about her rival.

As of 2016, she holds the record of youngest actress to receive seven Academy Award nominations. She earned her seventh Oscar nomination in 1945, at the age of 36, for A Vaidosa (1944).

Smoked 100 Vantage cigarettes a day, even after suffering four strokes (1983).

Accoding to Robert Wagner, who was his friend by the end of her life, Bette Davis always hanged up the phone before one had finished talking to her. She never said good bye or anything else, she just hanged the phone up. Period.

She and comedian Jonathan Winters were guests on "The Jack Paar Show" (1962) on television. Davis was recovering from a throat ailment which made her voice gravelly sounding. Winters began an imitation of her, with the bad voice. She said "You go to hell." When Winters responded with the look of a little boy who has just been reprimanded, Davis threw back her head and laughed.

B.D. Merrill became alienated from her stepfather, Gary Merrill, and began using her original surname, Sherry, when she was sixteen.

When she was that age, she got married with her mother's permission. Her husband, Mr. Hyman, was twenty-nine.

In 1985, B.D. Hyman's tell all memoir "My Mother's Keeper" was published. In it, she described being raised by the domineering, at times alcoholic Davis. The book was a bestseller and commenting about her mother, she blamed her for the failure of her marriage (although she has not been divorced). She said Davis made a performance about "where to put an ashtray". Because of the book, Davis cut Hyman and Hyman's two sons from her will.

Bette Davis refused to become a born again Christian when her daughter, B.D. attempted to convert her. B.D. Hyman is now a minister in Virginia and manages a conservative religious discussion site on YouTube.

She was very proud of her Yankee roots, and her four husbands were also Yankees, that being one of the things that attracted her to them.

Maternal granddaughter of William (1854-1911), born in the state of New Hampshire, and Harriet (née Thompson) Favor (1855-1930), born in the state of Massachusetts.

Maternal great great granddaughter of Cutting (1806-1881) and Hannah (née Gordon) Favor (1809-1882). Both were born and raised in the state of New Hampshire.

Paternal great granddaughter of Calvin (1827-1895), born in the state of New Hampshire, and Ann (née Matthews) Davis (1827-1889), born in the state of Maine.

Starred in seven Oscar Best Picture nominees: Jezebel, a Insubmissa (1938), Vitória Negra (1939), Tudo Isto e o Céu Também (1940), A Carta (1940), Raposa Matreira (1941), Horas de Tormenta (1943) and Eva (1950). The last of these was the only winner. She was nominated for Best Actress for her performances in all of these except All This, and Heaven Too and Watch on the Rhine.

Her personal papers are on deposit at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University.

Paternal great granddaughter of Alexander (1818-1885) and Elizabeth (née Seavey) Morrell (1817-1904). Both were born and raised in the state of Maine.

Was the fifth recipient of the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award.

When asked in the mid-1950s, what up and coming actor or actress proved to have the most potential, her answer was Earl Holliman and how she hoped that someday she would get to star with him in a film or television program (which never happened).

On December 4, 2018, she was honored with a Sketch of the Day caricature on the website of South Carolina based artist Greg Joens.

In November 2019, she was honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month.

Bette Davis turned down Mildred Pierce (1945).

In the dubbing of her films into Brazilian Portuguese, she was voiced most of the time by actresses / voice actors Ida Gomes, Ilka Pinheiro, Glória Ladany and Selma Lopes.

[when told by director Robert Aldrich that the studios wanted Joan Crawford as her co-star for Com a Maldade na Alma (1964)] I wouldn't piss on Joan Crawford if she were on fire.

Getting old is not for sissies.

Until you're known in my profession as a monster, you're not a star.

I went back to work because someone had to pay for the groceries.

[on rival Joan Crawford] She has slept with every male star at MGM except Lassie.

Gay Liberation? I ain't against it, it's just that there's nothing in it for me.

What a fool I was to come to Hollywood where they only understand platinum blondes and where legs are more important than talent.

There was more good acting at Hollywood parties than ever appeared on the screen.

The male ego, with few exceptions, is elephantine to start with.

I'd marry again if I found a man who had fifteen million dollars, would sign over half to me, and guarantee that he'd be dead within a year.

[referring to her parents' divorce when she was 7] Of course I replaced my father. I became my own father and everyone else's.

If you want a thing well done, get a couple of old broads to do it.

[about Katharine Hepburn's tie for the 1968 Oscar with Barbra Streisand] I wanted to be the first to win three Oscars, but Miss Hepburn has done it. Actually it hasn't been done. Miss Hepburn only won half an Oscar. If they'd given me half an Oscar I would have thrown it back in their faces. You see, I'm an Aries. I never lose.

[when told that "at one time" she had a reputation for being difficult] At one time?! I've been known as difficult for 50 years, practically! What do you mean "at one time"? Nooo, I've been like this for 50 years. And it's always always to make it the best film I can make it!

[when told not to speak ill of the dead] Just because someone is dead does not mean they have changed!

[commenting on the death of long-time nemesis Joan Crawford] You should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good . . . Joan Crawford is dead. Good.

If Hollywood didn't work out, I was prepared to be the best secretary in the world.

[Joan Crawford] and I have never been warm friends. We are not simpatico. I admire her, and yet I feel uncomfortable with her. To me, she is the personification of the Movie Star. I have always felt her greatest performance is Crawford being Crawford.

A Filha de Satanás (1949) was a terrible movie! It had the longest death scene ever seen on the screen.

[before taking her final flight in 1989] I want to die with my high heels on, still in action.

When I die, they'll probably auction off my false eyelashes.

[on John Wayne] I certainly would have given anything to have worked with John Wayne. He's the most attractive man who ever walked the earth, I think.

[on director Lindsay Anderson] I think he's a very talented man, but I think he's a difficult man to work with. He really prefers theatre and not film, and that's a little depressing, I must say.

[in 1977, on why she was still working] So I am up to my ears in taxes and debts, and that's why I come out of my house in Connecticut every few years and work. I can hole up for just so long, then I gotta get out and stir things up again. It's half for income and half for me.

I think acting should look as if we were working a *little* ... It's like the juggler who loses it twice and then gets it, you know, finally. Which is a very old-fashioned theory today. See, you mustn't have *any* idea that *anybody* knows the camera's on them at all. You see: it's just life. Well, we all have life, 24, 12 hours a day, and sometimes we want to forget life, you know. And I think it should be a *little* larger than life. A little bit theatrical.

[of the studio executives] Four compliments a year, we never would have asked for so much money. Truthfully! They never knew it! Actors are complete suckers for good parts, you know, and just saying, "You did a *good* job, Bette!" Never. Never. Never.... I think it would've made a whole different salary scale in California, yes, I do. They only respected you by how much money you made. You could be the same actress at six-fifty a week or thirty thousand a week, and you're a *much* better actress at thirty thousand a week.

On work: This became a credo of mine...attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.

On sexual politics: I am a woman meant for a man, but I never found a man who could compete.

On experience: Old age ain't no place for sissies.

[on working with Joan Crawford in Que Teria Acontecido a Baby Jane? (1962)] We were polite to each other - all the social amenities, 'Good morning, Joan' and 'Good Morning, Bette' crap - and thank God we weren't playing roles where we had to like each other. But people forget that our big scenes were alone - just the camera was on me or her. No actresses on earth are as different as we are, all the way down the line. Yet what we do works. It's so strange, this acting business. It comes from inside. She was always so damn proper. She sent thank you notes for thank you notes. I screamed when I found out she signed autographs: 'Bless you, Joan Crawford.'

[After hearing that Joan Crawford cried copiously over "Dark Victory"] Joan always cries a lot. Her tear ducts must be very close to her bladder.

[Of her longtime rival] We must hand it to her. Where she came from and all that--she accomplished *much*. She became a movie star, and I became the great actress. There is of course a need for both in this business, but you have to know *when* to put a stop to the nonsense that goes with the job. Stars are people *too*. They have to eat, sleep, and go to the bathroom too, without applause or a standing ovation. But I don't *think* Joan Crawford ever sleeps. She never *quits* being Joan Crawford. I find that tedious and quite insane.

I don't take the movies seriously, and anyone who does is in for a headache.

[on Joan Crawford]: I was not Miss Crawford's biggest fan, but, wisecracks to the contrary, I did and still do respect her talent. What she did not deserve was that detestable book written by her daughter. I've forgotten her name. Horrible. I looked at that book, but I did not need to read it. I wouldn't read trash like that, and I think it was a terrible, terrible thing for a daughter to do. An abomination! To do something like that to someone who saved you from the orphanage, foster homes, who knows what. If she didn't like the person who chose to be her mother, she was grown up and could choose her own life. I felt very sorry for Joan Crawford, but I knew she wouldn't appreciate my pity, because that's the last thing she would have wanted, anyone being sorry for her, especially me. I can understand how hurt Miss Crawford had to be. Well, no I can't. It's like trying to imagine how I would feel if my own beloved, wonderful daughter, B.D., were to write a bad book about me. Unimaginable. I am grateful for my children and for knowing they would never do to me anything like what Miss Crawford's daughter did to her. Of course, dear B.D., of whom I'm so proud, is my natural child, and there always are certain risks in adopting. Gary [Merrill] and I adopted two babies, because when we married I was too old to have our own. We were very pleased with our little boy, Michael, but our adopted daughter, who was a beautiful baby, was, brain-damaged. I never have had regrets, though, because I think we provided for her better than anything else that could have happened to her, and we gave her some happiness in her life. You can't return a baby like you can a carton of cracked eggs.

[on Greta Garbo] Oh, Garbo was divine. Soooo beautiful. I worshipped her. When I became a star, I used to have my chauffeur follow her in my car. I always wanted to meet her.

[on O Passado Não Perdoa (1960) Oh yes, I had a chance to go to Mexico, to play 'Burt Lancaster's mother. I turned it down. I'll be damned if I play Burt Lancaster's mother after thirty years in the business.

Warner Brothers sent me a letter saying they wanted to use a clip from A Estranha Passageira (1942) in the Verão 42 (1971). They implied that they wanted to use it as a laugh. My lawyer wrote back saying, if they wanted a clip to laugh at, why didn't they choose a scene from one of their current films.

[on Elizabeth Taylor's declining to have Davis as her co-star in Música numa Noite de Verão (1977)] She is such a fool. One would think that after all her years in the business she would want to work with a professional.

[on her second husband, Arthur Farnsworth] Farney was a real charmer, but an alcoholic who was tied to his mother's apron strings... and what a mother. Christ, what a cold bitch.

[When asked by Johnny Carson about who she was inspired by] No-one, but that I always envied Katherine Hepburn's looks.

[In 1987, when Barbara Walters asked her whether Margo's line from Eva (1950) applied to her "Funny business a woman's career: The things you drop on your way up the ladder so you can move faster, you forget you need them when you go back to being a woman"] I didn't have anything to forget. I remained a woman. I mean, anybody that marries four times in the midst of a great big career basically loves being a woman almost as much. So I never forgot I was a woman on my way up.