Biography
The American actress Bett Davis, despite the scandalous character, is considered one of the greatest movie actresses of Hollywood, the brightest representative of the 1950s cinema. For 60 years, he starred in 122 melodramas and comedies, thrillers and musicals, television series. Her creative path is a tortist and a bumpy, a personal life is tragic, but the presence of congenital acting doubt is not amenable to doubt.Childhood and youth
April 5, 1908 in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the family of lawyer Harlow Morrla Davis and Ruth Augustus Favor Born the future star Hollywood Ruth Elizabeth Davis. A year later, the younger daughter appeared on the world - Barbara Harriet.
In order not to confuse Mother with her daughter, Elizabeth called Betty. The diminutive form of the second name, as well as the impressions of the novel "Kuzina Betta" Onor De Balzak in his youth convinced an American to officially change the name to Bett.
After a divorce with Harlow in 1915, Ruth Augustus transported children to Berkshire, where Elizabeth went to the boarding school Crestalban. In 1921, the female part of the family Davis again changed the house, moving to New York. In America, sisters joined the scout movement. Bett was so successful that "perceived" to the patrol leader.
He studied at the boarding school Academy Kushing in Ashbourningham, Massachusetts. Here Bett met the future husband Harmon Nelson.
Films
In 1926, Davis saw the production of Henrik Ibsen "Wild Duck" with Blanche Jurch and Peg entouisle in the lead roles. The evening spent in the theater became key in the girl's biography - she caught fire the idea of becoming an actress. The girl was recorded on audition to the Civic Repertory Theater School, but its director, actress Eva Le Galjnn, called Bette "insincere" and "frivolous."
American, without desperate, tried to get to the theater troupe George Kickor. The director was not impressed by the acting talent of Betty, but he gave her a small role that sowing a girl in the choir in Broadway production. In 1929, Davis took a central place in the play "The Earth Between" Virgil Geddes. The premiere of the performance was frozen for a year, but the Star hour of Bett still struck: Blanche Yurka invited the girl to fulfill the role of Hatwig in the fateful formulation of the "wild duck".
In 1930, 22-year-old Davis went to conquer Hollywood in 1930. The girl failed listening to Universal Studios, but it was used as "props" for samples of other actors: 15 men, one by one, had to kiss her passionately.
A year later, Bett returned to the studio, but chose an unsuccessful outfit for this: a deep neckline brought director William Whiler from himself, and he kicked out the girl from the pavilion. Director of Universal Studios Karl Lemmla was ready to locate for Davis the company's doors forever, but directed by Charles Freund noted that she was suitable for the painting "Rich Sister" (1931). This film project has become debut for an American.
For two years, the 1931th and 1932th, the actress starred in 6 films Universal Studios and Columbia Pictures: "Bridge Waterloo", "Seed", "Road home", "threat" and "hellish house". None of them did Bett famous, so she, disappointed in his own talent, decided to leave Hollywood.
The actor George Arlissa was held in time, who recommended Davis on the main role in the film "The man who played God" (1932). The film brought the girl long-awaited success. Warner Bros. He signed a 5-year contract with her. Their joint creativity lasted 18 years.
Wide recognition of Critika Davis received in 1934, playing in the film screening of the Roman William Somerset Moem "the burden of human passions". So far, many more experienced actresses refused to the role of Mildred Rogers, Bette saw the opportunity to demonstrate the entire spectrum of acting skills.
After filming in this film, the newspaper The New York Times called Davis "one of their most interesting modern film actresses," and in 1935 she was assigned to the Oscar premium for the best female role. Bett reacted to the award was removed by calling it a "comforting prize."
Davis believed that her career suffers because of the mediocre emplus of "empty-column beauty", therefore, violating the terms of the contract with Warner Bros., starred in two independent British paintings and filed a petition for the suspension of relations with film company. Those, however, answered the lawsuit. Davis explained with journalists:
"I knew that if I would continue to appear in the mediocre paintings, I would not have a career for which it is worth fighting."
The actress lost the court and returned to Hollywood - with debts in front of Warner Bros. And without a contract. The lack of a document, however, did not deprive Davis: for the role in the film "Jezevel" (1938), the girl was a second time "Oscar". Success provoked a rumor in the press, according to which Bett had to fulfill the role of Scarlett O'Hara in the film "Gone by the Wind". The director preferred a famous actress fresh and inexperienced Vivien Lee.
In subsequent years, Bett Davis Davis's named in tabloids. "To defeat the darkness" (1939) I brought the Actress Third Oscar, and the "Private Life of Elizabeth and Essex" (1939) became the first and only color film shot at the height of her career. To play Elizabeth I in old age, Davis had to shave her hair and eyebrows.
The role of Regina Hyddens in the Drama "Little Chanits" (1941) made Bett Davis the second actress after Fei Danaway, whose heroine-villain fell into the collection of the American Institute of Cinematography "100 of the Greater Village". This film is the last job in the filmography of Girls with William Willer.
During the war, Davis moved away from the cameras, demonstrating talent to soldiers in theaters. Many actors followed her annex: they met with the heroes of the front in the Kabaks and restaurants, telling monologues or just chatting. These events were based on the film "Hollywood shop for troops" (1944).
In the memoirs of 1962, Davis wrote:
"In my life there are several achievements that I am sincerely proud of. "Hollywood shop" is one of them. "In 1980, the actress encouraged the medal "For outstanding services in the field of civil service." After the birth of a daughter in 1947, Davis's popularity went to the decline: she refused roles that were brought to other actresses awards, criticized scenarios than portilate relationships with colleagues. In the 1950s, she was called the scandalous and selfish actress.
From the final collapse, an American saved the thriller "What happened to Baby Jane?" (1962), in which the actress starred with Joan Crawford - his sworn enemy. Women in half a century competed for rewards and men, hated each other. After the death of Crawford in 1977, Davis said:
"On the dead, it is customary to speak only well. Joan Crawford died? That's good".Personal life
For the first time, Bett Davis took married on August 18, 1932 in Yum, Arizona. The chief became Harmon Oscar Nelson. The marriage was actively discussed in the press: the actress was at the peak of popularity, and its earnings were $ 1 thousand a week, while the spouse brought less than $ 100 to the family budget for the same period of time.
Davis answered that many Hollywood wives earn more than their husbands, but for Nelson, the financial superiority of his wife seemed humiliating. It came to the point that he forbade her to buy a house, because he was unable to pay him himself.
As a result, the money was destroyed by family relationships. In marriage with Nelson, Davis has repeatedly resorted to abortions, because she did not want to raise the child in a "difficult" family. In 1938, Harmon learned that his wife would change him with actor Howard Hughes, and had a divorce.
During filming in the "Jezevel" tape, Bett met with director William Willer. The girl called him the "love of his life."
In 1940, Bette twisted Roman with George Brent, a colleague on the film "Great Lie". The actor offered her to get married, and she refused - Murhur Farnsworth met, the owner of the hotel in New England. The couple was married in December of the same year in Rimoka, Arizona. In August 1943, the spouse died.
In 1945, Davis married the artist William Grant Sherry. The man became interested in it that he had never heard about the actress before. After 2 years, at the age of 39, Bette gave birth to the firstborn - Barbara Davis Sherry. The actress fascinated motherhood, she seriously thought about the completion of a career. However, the number of proposals has steadily growing, the woman disappeared on the shooting, which was suffering from the relationship between mother and daughter.
Since 1950, the celebrity was married to Gary Merrill. The couple adopted the girl and the boy, Margo Mosher (January 6, 1951) and Michael (January 5, 1952). 10 years after the wedding, the marriage collapsed. The reason was alcoholism and domestic violence.
Death
In 1983, Davis diagnosed breast cancer and conducted a mastectomy. The actress suffered four stroke, as a result of which the left part of her body was paralyzed. The disease did not force Bette to abandon smoking and alcohol: until the end of the life she smoked up to 100 cigarettes a day.
At the American Cinema Awards ceremony in 1989, Davis lost consciousness. The moment of fall published all the tabloids. The actress refused to go to the hospital, and on October 6 of the same year, 81-year-old Bett Davis died from the recurrence of breast cancer. Buried on the Cemetery of Hollywood Hills next to the mother and sister.
Filmography
- 1931 - "Bad sister"
- 1934 - "The burden of human passions"
- 1935 - "Dangerous"
- 1938 - "Jezevel"
- 1939 - "Private life Elizabeth and Essex"
- 1942 - "In this our life"
- 1945 - "Corn Zelen"
- 1952 - "Star"
- 1956 - "Wedding gift, or everything like people"
- 1962 - "What happened to Baby Jane?"
- 1964 - "Cherry, quieter, cute charlotte"
- 1989 - "Evil stepmother"