Bette Davis

Ruth Elizabeth Davis, known from early childhood as "Betty", was born on April 5, 1908 in Lowell, Massachusetts, the daughter of Harlow Morrell Davis (1885–1938), a law student from Augusta, Maine, and subsequently a patent attorney, and Ruth Augusta (née Favór; 1885–1961), from Tyngsboro, Massachusetts.[5] Davis' younger sister was Barbara Harriet.[6]

In 1915, Davis' parents separated, and Davis attended, for three years, a spartan boarding school called Crestalban in Lanesborough, Massachusetts in the Berkshires.[7] In the fall of 1921, Ruth Davis moved to New York City, using her children's tuition money to enroll in the Clarence White School of Photography, with an apartment on 144th Street at Broadway, then she worked as a portrait photographer. Davis later changed the spelling of her first name to Bette after Bette Fischer, a character in Honoré de Balzac's La Cousine Bette.[8] During their time in New York, Davis became a Girl Scout later rising to the position of patrol leader,[9][10] whose patrol won a competitive dress parade for Mrs. Herbert Hoover at Madison Square Garden.[11]

Davis attended Cushing Academy, a boarding school in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, where she met her future husband, Harmon O. Nelson, known as Ham. In 1926, a then 18-year-old Davis saw a production of Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck with Blanche Yurka and Peg Entwistle. Davis later recalled for Al Cohn of Newsday, "The reason I wanted to go into theater was because of an actress named Peg Entwistle."[12] She auditioned for admission to Eva Le Gallienne's Manhattan Civic Repertory, but was rejected by Le Gallienne, who described her attitude as "insincere" and "frivolous".[13]

Davis auditioned for George Cukor's stock theater company in Rochester, New York; although he was not very impressed, he gave Davis her first paid acting assignment – a one-week stint playing the part of a chorus girl in the play Broadway. Ed Sikov sources Davis' first professional role to a 1929 production by the Provincetown Players of Virgil Geddes play The Earth Between; however, the production was postponed by a year.[14] In 1929, Davis was chosen by Blanche Yurka to play Hedwig, the character she had seen Entwistle play in The Wild Duck.[15] After performing in Philadelphia, Washington, and Boston, she made her Broadway debut in 1929 in Broken Dishes and followed it with Solid South.[16]

Davis in her film debut, Bad Sister (1931)

In 1930, 22-year-old Davis moved to Hollywood to screen test for Universal Studios. Davis and her mother traveled by train to Hollywood. She later recounted her surprise that nobody from the studio was there to meet her. In fact, a studio employee had waited for her, but left because he saw nobody who "looked like an actress". She failed her first screen test, but was used in several screen tests for other actors. In a 1971 interview with Dick Cavett, she related the experience with the observation, "I was the most Yankee-est, most modest virgin who ever walked the earth. They laid me on a couch, and I tested fifteen men ... They all had to lie on top of me and give me a passionate kiss. Oh, I thought I would die. Just thought I would die."[17] A second test was arranged for Davis, for the 1931 film A House Divided. Hastily dressed in an ill-fitting costume with a low neckline, she was rebuffed by the film director William Wyler, who loudly commented to the assembled crew, "What do you think of these dames who show their chests and think they can get jobs?".[18]

Carl Laemmle, the head of Universal Studios, considered terminating Davis' employment, but cinematographer Karl Freund told him she had "lovely eyes" and would be suitable for Bad Sister (1931), in which she subsequently made her film debut.[19] Her nervousness was compounded when she overheard the chief of production, Carl Laemmle Jr., comment to another executive that she had "about as much sex appeal as Slim Summerville", one of the film's co-stars.[20] The film was not a success, and her next role in Seed (1931) was too brief to attract attention.

Universal Studios renewed her contract for three months, and she appeared in a small role in Waterloo Bridge (1931), before being lent to Columbia Pictures for The Menace, and to Capital Films for Hell's House (all 1932). After one year, and six unsuccessful films, Laemmle elected not to renew her contract.[21]

Davis was preparing to return to New York when actor George Arliss chose Davis for the lead female role in the Warner Bros. picture The Man Who Played God (1932), and for the rest of her life, Davis credited him with helping her achieve her "break" in Hollywood. The Saturday Evening Post wrote, "She is not only beautiful, but she bubbles with charm", and compared her to Constance Bennett and Olive Borden.[22] Warner Bros. signed her to a five-year contract, and she remained with the studio for the next 18 years.

Davis's first marriage was to Harmon Oscar Nelson on August 18, 1932 in Yuma, Arizona.[23] Their marriage was scrutinized by the press; his $100 a week earnings ($1,885 in 2020 dollars) compared unfavorably with Davis' reported $1,000 a week income ($18,850). Davis addressed the issue in an interview, pointing out that many Hollywood wives earned more than their husbands, but the situation proved difficult for Nelson, who refused to allow Davis to purchase a house until he could afford to pay for it himself.[24] Davis had several abortions during the marriage.[25]

Davis in Of Human Bondage (1934)

After more than 20 film roles, the role of the vicious and slatternly Mildred Rogers in the RKO Radio production of Of Human Bondage (1934), a film adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's novel, earned Davis her first major critical acclaim. Many actresses feared playing unsympathetic characters, and several had refused the role, but Davis viewed it as an opportunity to show the range of her acting skills. Her co-star, Leslie Howard, was initially dismissive of her, but as filming progressed, his attitude changed, and he subsequently spoke highly of her abilities. The director John Cromwell allowed her relative freedom: "I let Bette have her head. I trusted her instincts." She insisted that she be portrayed realistically in her death scene, and said: "The last stages of consumption, poverty, and neglect are not pretty, and I intended to be convincing-looking."[26]

The film was a success, and Davis' characterization won praise from critics, with Life writing that she gave "probably the best performance ever recorded on the screen by a U.S. actress".[27] Davis anticipated that her reception would encourage Warner Bros. to cast her in more important roles, and was disappointed when Jack L. Warner refused to lend her to Columbia Studios to appear in It Happened One Night, and instead cast her in the melodrama Housewife.[28] When Davis was not nominated for an Academy Award for Of Human Bondage, The Hollywood Citizen News questioned the omission, and Norma Shearer, herself a nominee, joined a campaign to have Davis nominated. This prompted an announcement from the Academy president, Howard Estabrook, who said that under the circumstances, "any voter ... may write on the ballot his or her personal choice for the winners", thus allowing, for the only time in the Academy's history, the consideration of a candidate not officially nominated for an award.[29] The uproar led, however, to a change in academy voting procedures the following year, wherein nominations were determined by votes from all eligible members of a particular branch rather than by a smaller committee,[30] with results independently tabulated by the accounting firm Price Waterhouse.[31]

Davis appeared in Dangerous (1935) as a troubled actress, and received very good reviews. E. Arnot Robertson wrote in Picture Post:

I think Bette Davis would probably have been burned as a witch if she had lived two or three hundred years ago. She gives the curious feeling of being charged with power which can find no ordinary outlet.[32]

The New York Times hailed her as "becoming one of the most interesting of our screen actresses".[33] She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the role, but commented that it was belated recognition for Of Human Bondage, calling the award a "consolation prize".[34] For the rest of her life, Davis maintained that she gave the statue its familiar name of "Oscar" because its posterior resembled that of her husband, whose middle name was Oscar,[35][36] although, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences officially makes reference to another story.[37]

In her next film, The Petrified Forest (1936), Davis co-starred with Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart.

Convinced that her career was being damaged by a succession of mediocre films, Davis accepted an offer in 1936 to appear in two films in Britain. Knowing that she was breaching her contract with Warner Bros., she fled to Canada to avoid legal papers being served on her. Eventually, Davis brought her case to court in Britain, hoping to get out of her contract.[38] She later recalled the opening statement of the barrister, Patrick Hastings, who represented Warner Bros. that urged the court to "come to the conclusion that this is rather a naughty young lady, and that what she wants is more money". He mocked Davis' description of her contract as "slavery" by stating, incorrectly, that she was being paid $1,350 per week. He remarked, "If anybody wants to put me into perpetual servitude on the basis of that remuneration, I shall prepare to consider it." The British press offered little support to Davis, and portrayed her as overpaid and ungrateful.[39]

Davis explained her viewpoint to a journalist: "I knew that, if I continued to appear in any more mediocre pictures, I would have no career left worth fighting for."[40] Her counsel presented the complaints – that she could be suspended without pay for refusing a part, with the period of suspension added to her contract, that she could be called upon to play any part within her abilities, regardless of her personal beliefs, that she could be required to support a political party against her beliefs, and that her image and likeness could be displayed in any manner deemed applicable by the studio. Jack Warner testified, and was asked: "Whatever part you choose to call upon her to play, if she thinks she can play it, whether it is distasteful and cheap, she has to play it?". Warner replied: "Yes, she must play it."[41] Davis lost the case,[42] and returned to Hollywood, in debt and without income, to resume her career. Olivia de Havilland mounted a similar case in 1943, and won.

Davis in Jezebel (1938)

Davis began work on Marked Woman (1937), portraying a prostitute in a contemporary gangster drama inspired by the case of Lucky Luciano. For her performance in the film, she was awarded the Volpi Cup at the 1937 Venice Film Festival.[43] Her next picture was Jezebel (1938), and during production, Davis entered a relationship with director William Wyler. She later described him as the "love of my life", and said that making the film with him was "the time in my life of my most perfect happiness".[44] The film was a success, and Davis' performance as a spoiled Southern belle earned her a second Academy Award.

This led to speculation in the press that she would be chosen to play Scarlett O'Hara, a similar character, in Gone with the Wind. Davis expressed her desire to play Scarlett, and while David O. Selznick was conducting a search for the actress to play the role, a radio poll named her as the audience favorite. Warner offered her services to Selznick as part of a deal that also included Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, but Selznick did not consider Davis as suitable, and rejected the offer,[45] while Davis did not want Flynn cast as Rhett Butler. Newcomer Vivien Leigh was cast as Scarlett O'Hara, de Havilland landed a role as Melanie, and both of them were nominated for the Oscars, with Leigh winning.

Jezebel marked the beginning of the most successful phase of Davis' career, and over the next few years, she was listed in the annual Quigley Poll of the Top Ten Money-Making Stars, which was compiled from the votes of movie exhibitors throughout the U.S. for the stars who had generated the most revenue in their theaters over the previous year.[46]

In contrast to Davis' success, her husband Ham Nelson had failed to establish a career for himself, and their relationship faltered. In 1938, Nelson obtained evidence that Davis was engaged in a sexual relationship with Howard Hughes, and subsequently filed for divorce, citing Davis' "cruel and inhuman manner".[47]

Davis with Errol Flynn in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)

Davis was emotional during the making of her next film, Dark Victory (1939), and considered abandoning it until the producer Hal B. Wallis convinced her to channel her despair into her acting. The film was among the high-grossing films of the year, and the role of Judith Traherne brought her an Academy Award nomination. In later years, Davis cited this performance as her personal favorite.[48]

She appeared in three other box-office hits in 1939: The Old Maid with Miriam Hopkins, Juarez with Paul Muni, and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex with Errol Flynn. The last was her first color film, and her only color film made during the height of her career. To play the elderly Elizabeth I of England, Davis shaved her hairline and eyebrows.

During filming, she was visited on the set by the actor Charles Laughton. She commented that she had a "nerve" playing a woman in her 60s, to which Laughton replied: "Never not dare to hang yourself. That's the only way you grow in your profession. You must continually attempt things that you think are beyond you, or you get into a complete rut." Recalling the episode many years later, Davis remarked that Laughton's advice had influenced her throughout her career.[49]

Davis in 1940

By this time, Davis was Warner Bros.' most profitable star, and she was given the most important of their female leading roles. Her image was considered with more care; although she continued to play character roles, she was often filmed in close-ups that emphasized her distinctive eyes. All This, and Heaven Too (1940) was the most financially successful film of Davis' career to that point.

The Letter (1940) was considered "one of the best pictures of the year" by The Hollywood Reporter, and Davis won admiration for her portrayal of an adulterous killer, a role originated by Katharine Cornell.[50] During this time, she was in a relationship with her former co-star George Brent, who proposed marriage. Davis refused, as she had met Arthur Farnsworth, a New England innkeeper, and Vermont dentist's son. Davis and Farnsworth were married at Home Ranch, in Rimrock, Arizona, in December 1940, her second marriage.[51]

Davis often played unlikable characters such as Regina Giddens in The Little Foxes (1941).

In January 1941, Davis became the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but antagonized the committee members with her brash manner and radical proposals. Davis rejected the idea of her being just "a figurehead only". Faced with the disapproval and resistance of the committee, Davis resigned, and was succeeded by her predecessor Walter Wanger.[52]

Davis starred in three movies in 1941, the first being The Great Lie, with George Brent. It was a refreshingly different role for Davis as she played a kind, sympathetic character.

William Wyler directed Davis for the third time in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes (1941), but they clashed over the character of Regina Giddens, a role originally played on Broadway by Tallulah Bankhead (Davis had portrayed in film a role initiated by Bankhead on the stage once before– in Dark Victory). Wyler encouraged Davis to emulate Bankhead's interpretation of the role, but Davis wanted to make the role her own. She received another Academy Award nomination for her performance, and never worked with Wyler again.[53]

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Davis spent the early months of 1942 selling war bonds. After Jack Warner criticized her tendency to cajole crowds into buying, she reminded him that her audiences responded most strongly to her "bitch" performances. She sold $2 million worth of bonds in two days, as well as a picture of herself in Jezebel for $250,000. She also performed for black regiments as the only white member of an acting troupe formed by Hattie McDaniel, which included Lena Horne and Ethel Waters.[54]

At John Garfield's suggestion of opening a servicemen's club in Hollywood, Davis – with the aid of Warner, Cary Grant, and Jule Styne – transformed an old nightclub into the Hollywood Canteen, which opened on October 3, 1942. Hollywood's most important stars volunteered to entertain servicemen. Davis ensured that every night, a few important "names" would be there for the visiting soldiers to meet.[55]

She appeared as herself in the film Hollywood Canteen (1944), which used the canteen as the setting for a fictional story. Davis later commented: "There are few accomplishments in my life that I am sincerely proud of. The Hollywood Canteen is one of them." In 1980, she was awarded the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal, the United States Department of Defense's highest civilian award, for her work with the Hollywood Canteen.[56]

Davis with Paul Henreid in Now, Voyager (1942), one of her most iconic roles

Davis showed little interest in the film Now, Voyager (1942), until Hal Wallis advised her that female audiences needed romantic dramas to distract them from the reality of their lives. It became one of the better known of her "women's pictures". In one of the film's most imitated scenes, Paul Henreid lights two cigarettes as he stares into Davis' eyes, and passes one to her. Film reviewers complimented Davis on her performance, the National Board of Review commenting that she gave the film "a dignity not fully warranted by the script".[57]

During the early 1940s, several of Davis' film choices were influenced by the war, such as Watch on the Rhine (1943), by Lillian Hellman, and Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), a lighthearted all-star musical cavalcade, with each of the featured stars donating their fees to the Hollywood Canteen. Davis performed a novelty song, "They're Either Too Young or Too Old", which became a hit record after the film's release.

Old Acquaintance (1943) reunited her with Miriam Hopkins in a story of two old friends who deal with the tensions created when one of them becomes a successful novelist. Davis felt that Hopkins tried to upstage her throughout the film. Director Vincent Sherman recalled the intense competition and animosity between the two actresses, and Davis often joked that she held back nothing in a scene in which she was required to shake Hopkins in a fit of anger.[58]

In August 1943, Davis' husband Arthur Farnsworth collapsed while walking along a Hollywood street, and died two days later. An autopsy revealed that his fall had been caused by a skull fracture he had suffered two weeks earlier. Davis testified before an inquest that she knew of no event that might have caused the injury. A finding of accidental death was reached. Highly distraught, Davis attempted to withdraw from her next film Mr. Skeffington (1944), but Jack Warner, who had halted production following Farnsworth's death, convinced her to continue.

Although she had gained a reputation for being forthright and demanding, her behavior during filming of Mr. Skeffington was erratic and out of character. She alienated Vincent Sherman by refusing to film certain scenes and insisting that some sets be rebuilt. She improvised dialogue, causing confusion among other actors, and infuriated the writer Julius Epstein, who was called upon to rewrite scenes at her whim. Davis later explained her actions with the observation "When I was most unhappy, I lashed out rather than whined." Some reviewers criticized Davis for the excess of her performance; James Agee wrote that she "demonstrates the horrors of egocentricity on a marathonic scale".[59]

In The Corn Is Green (1945): Despite the studio's suggestion that she play the role as a young woman, Davis (age 37) insisted on aging her appearance to fit the part.

In 1945, Davis married artist William Grant Sherry, her third husband, who also worked as a masseur. She had been drawn to him because he claimed he had never heard of her and was, therefore, not intimidated by her.[60] The same year, Davis refused the title role in Mildred Pierce (1945),[61] a role for which Joan Crawford won an Academy Award, and instead made The Corn Is Green (1945), based on a play by Emlyn Williams.

In The Corn Is Green Davis played Miss Moffat, an English teacher who saves a young Welsh miner (John Dall) from a life in the coal pits, by offering him education. The part had been played in the theatre by Ethel Barrymore (who was 61 at the play's premiere), but Warner Bros. felt that the film version should depict the character as a younger woman. Davis disagreed, and insisted on playing the part as written, and wore a gray wig and padding under her clothes, to create a dowdy appearance.[62] The film was well received by critics, and made a profit of $2.2 million.[63] The critic E. Arnot Robertson observed:

Only Bette Davis...could have combated so successfully the obvious intention of the adaptors of the play to make frustrated sex the mainspring of the chief character's interest in the young miner.[64]

She concluded that "the subtle interpretation she insisted on giving" kept the focus on the teacher's "sheer joy in imparting knowledge".[64]

Her next film, A Stolen Life (1946), was the only film that Davis made with her own production company, BD Productions.[65] Davis played dual roles, as twins. The film received poor reviews, and was described by Bosley Crowther as "a distressingly empty piece";[66] but, with a profit of $2.5 million, it was one of her biggest box office successes.[67] In 1947, the U.S. Treasury named Davis as the highest-paid woman in the country,[68] with her share of the film's profit accounting for most of her earnings. Her next film was Deception (1946), the first of her films to lose money.[69]

Possessed (1947) had been tailor-made for Davis,[70] and was to have been her next project after Deception. However, she was pregnant and went on maternity leave. Joan Crawford played her role in Possessed, and was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress. In 1947, at the age of 39, Davis gave birth to daughter Barbara Davis Sherry (known as B.D.), and later wrote in her memoir that she became absorbed in motherhood and considered ending her career. As she continued making films, however, her relationship with her daughter B.D. began to deteriorate, and her popularity with audiences steadily declined.[71]

Among the film roles offered to Davis following her return to film-making was Rose Sayer in The African Queen (1951). When informed that the film was to be shot in Africa, Davis refused the part, telling Jack Warner "If you can't shoot the picture in a boat on the back lot, then I'm not interested." Katharine Hepburn played the role, and was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress.[72]

Davis was offered a role in a film version of the Virginia Kellogg prison drama Women Without Men. Originally intended to pair Davis with Joan Crawford, Davis made it clear that she would not appear in any "dyke movie". It was filmed as Caged (1950), and the lead roles were played by Eleanor Parker (who was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress) and Agnes Moorehead.[73]

Beyond the Forest (1949) was the last film Davis made for Warner Bros. after 17 years with the studio.

In 1948, Davis was cast in the melodrama Winter Meeting. Although she initially was enthusiastic, she soon learned that Warner had arranged for "softer" lighting to be used to disguise her age. She recalled that she had seen the same lighting technique "on the sets of Ruth Chatterton and Kay Francis, and I knew what they meant".[74] To add to her disappointment, she was not confident in the abilities of her leading man – James Davis in his first major screen role. She disagreed with changes made to the script because of censorship restrictions, and found that many of the aspects of the role that initially appealed to her had been cut. The film was described by Bosley Crowther as "interminable", and he noted that "of all the miserable dilemmas in which Miss Davis has been involved ... this one is probably the worst". It failed at the box office, and the studio lost nearly $1 million.[75]

While making June Bride (1948), Davis clashed with co-star Robert Montgomery, later describing him as "a male Miriam Hopkins... an excellent actor, but addicted to scene-stealing".[76] The film marked her first comedy in several years, and earned her some positive reviews, but it was not particularly popular with audiences, and returned only a small profit.

Despite the lackluster box-office receipts from her more recent films, in 1949, she negotiated a four-film contract with Warner Bros. that paid $10,285 per week and made her the highest-paid woman in the United States.[77] However, Jack Warner had refused to allow her script approval, and cast her in Beyond the Forest (1949). Davis reportedly loathed the script, and begged Warner to recast the role, but he refused. After the film was completed, her request to be released from her contract was honored.

The reviews of the film were scathing. Dorothy Manners, writing for the Los Angeles Examiner, described the film as "an unfortunate finale to her brilliant career".[78] Hedda Hopper wrote: "If Bette had deliberately set out to wreck her career, she could not have picked a more appropriate vehicle."[79] The film contained the line "What a dump!", which became closely associated with Davis after it was referenced in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and impersonators began to use it in their acts.

Davis posing as Margo Channing in a promotional image for All About Eve (1950): She is pictured with Gary Merrill, to whom she was married from 1950 to 1960 (her fourth, and final, husband).

Davis filmed The Story of a Divorce (released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1951 as Payment on Demand). Shortly before filming was completed, producer Darryl F. Zanuck offered her the role of the aging theatrical actress Margo Channing in All About Eve (1950). Davis read the script, described it as the best she ever read, and accepted the role. Within days, she joined the cast in San Francisco to begin filming. During production, she established what became a lifelong friendship with her co-star Anne Baxter and a romantic relationship with her leading man Gary Merrill, which led to marriage. The film's director Joseph L. Mankiewicz later remarked: "Bette was letter perfect. She was syllable-perfect. The director's dream: the prepared actress."[80]

Critics responded positively to Davis' performance, and several of her lines became well-known, particularly "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night". She was again nominated for an Academy Award, and critics such as Gene Ringgold described her Margo as her "all-time best performance".[81] Pauline Kael wrote that much of Mankiewicz' vision of "the theater" was "nonsense", but commended Davis, writing "[the film is] saved by one performance that is the real thing: Bette Davis is at her most instinctive and assured. Her actress – vain, scared, a woman who goes too far in her reactions and emotions – makes the whole thing come alive."[82]

Davis won a Best Actress award from the Cannes Film Festival, and the New York Film Critics Circle Award. She also received the San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award as Best Actress, having been named by them as the Worst Actress of 1949 for Beyond the Forest. During this time, she was invited to leave her hand prints in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre.[83]

On July 3, 1950, Davis' divorce from William Sherry was finalized, and on July 28, she married Gary Merrill, her fourth and final husband. With Sherry's consent, Merrill adopted B.D., Davis' daughter with Sherry. In January 1951, Davis and Merrill adopted a five-day-old baby girl they named Margot Mosher Merrill (born January 6, 1951),[84][85] after the character Margo Channing. Davis and Merrill lived with their three children – in 1952, they adopted a baby boy, Michael (born February 5, 1952)[86] – on an estate on the coast of Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Davis, after semi-retirement in the mid-1950s, again starred in several movies during her time in Maine, including The Virgin Queen (1955), in which she played Queen Elizabeth I.[87]

The family traveled to England, where Davis and Merrill starred in the murder-mystery film Another Man's Poison (1951). When it received lukewarm reviews and failed at the box office, Hollywood columnists wrote that Davis' comeback had petered out, and an Academy Award nomination for The Star (1952) did not halt her decline at the box office.[88]

In 1952, Davis appeared in a Broadway revue, Two's Company directed by Jules Dassin. She was uncomfortable working outside of her area of expertise; she never had been a musical performer, and her limited theater experience had been more than 20 years earlier. She was also severely ill, and was operated on for osteomyelitis of the jaw.[89] Margot was diagnosed as severely brain-damaged due to an injury sustained during or shortly after her birth, and was placed in an institution around the age of 3.[90] Davis and Merrill began arguing frequently, and B.D. later recalled episodes of alcohol abuse and domestic violence.[91]

Few of Davis' films of the 1950s were successful, and many of her performances were condemned by critics. The Hollywood Reporter wrote of mannerisms "that you'd expect to find in a nightclub impersonation of [Davis]", while the London critic, Richard Winninger, wrote

Miss Davis, with more say than most stars as to what films she makes, seems to have lapsed into egoism. The criterion for her choice of film would appear to be that nothing must compete with the full display of each facet of the Davis art. Only bad films are good enough for her.[92]

Her films of this period included The Virgin Queen (1955), Storm Center (1956), and The Catered Affair (1956). As her career declined, her marriage continued to deteriorate until she filed for divorce in 1960. The following year, her mother died. During the same time, she tried television, appearing in three episodes of the popular NBC Western Wagon Train as three different characters in 1959 and 1961; her first appearance on TV had been February 25, 1956 on General Electric Theatre.[93]

In 1960, Davis, a registered Democrat, appeared at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, where she met future President John F. Kennedy, whom she greatly admired.[94] Outside of acting and politics, Davis was an active and practicing Episcopalian.[95]

Davis received her final Academy Award nomination for her role as demented Baby Jane Hudson in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962).

In 1961, Davis opened in the Broadway production The Night of the Iguana to mostly mediocre reviews, and left the production after four months due to "chronic illness". She then joined Glenn Ford and Ann-Margret for the Frank Capra film Pocketful of Miracles (1961) (a remake of Capra's 1933 film, Lady for a Day), based on a story by Damon Runyon. Exhibitors protested her star billing as they considered it would negatively impact the box office performance and, despite the appearance of Ford, the film failed at the box office.[96]

She accepted her next role, in the Grand Guignol horror film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), after Joan Crawford showed interest in the script and considered Bette for the part of Jane. Bette believed it could appeal to the same audience that had recently made Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) a success. She negotiated a deal that would pay her 10 percent of the worldwide gross profits in addition to her salary. The film became one of the year's big successes.[97]

Davis and Crawford played two aging sisters, former actresses forced by circumstance to share a decaying Hollywood mansion. The director, Robert Aldrich, explained that Davis and Crawford were each aware of how important the film was to their respective careers, and commented: "It's proper to say that they really detested each other, but they behaved absolutely perfectly.".[98] There were stories that Davis and Crawford would purposely annoy each other on set. One such story describes Crawford putting heavy weights in her pockets to make it hard for Bette to drag her on the floor in one scene. But of course there is no proof of these claims.

After filming was completed, their public comments against each other allowed the tension to develop into a lifelong feud. When Davis was nominated for an Academy Award, Crawford contacted the other Best Actress nominees (who were unable to attend the ceremonies) and offered to accept the award on their behalf, should they win. When Anne Bancroft was announced as winner, Crawford accepted the award on Bancroft's behalf. Despite their dislike for one another, they spoke highly of each other's talent in acting. Joan said Bette was a “fascinating actress” but they were never able to become friends as they only worked on the one film together. Bette also said Joan was a good, professional actress, but cared a lot about the way she looked, and her vanity. Their feud was eventually turned into the 2017 limited series Feud by Ryan Murphy.

Davis also received her only BAFTA nomination for this performance. Daughter Barbara (credited as B.D. Merrill) played a small role in the film, and when Davis and she visited the Cannes Film Festival to promote it, she met Jeremy Hyman, an executive for Seven Arts Productions. After a short courtship, she married Hyman at the age of 16, with Davis' permission.

Davis and William Hopper in the Perry Mason episode, "The Case of Constant Doyle" (January 31, 1963)

In October 1962, it was announced that four episodes of the CBS-TV series Perry Mason would feature special guest stars who would cover for Raymond Burr during his convalescence from surgery. A Perry Mason fan, Davis was the first of the guest stars. "The Case of Constant Doyle" began filming on December 12, 1962,[99] and aired January 31, 1963.[100]

In 1962, Davis appeared as Celia Miller on the TV western The Virginian in the episode titled "The Accomplice."

In September 1962, Davis placed an advertisement in Variety under the heading of "Situations wanted – women artists", which read: "Mother of three – 10, 11, & 15 – divorcee. American. Thirty years experience as an actress in Motion Pictures. Mobile still, and more affable than rumor would have it. Wants steady employment in Hollywood. (Has had Broadway.)"[101] Davis said that she intended it as a joke, and she sustained her comeback over the course of several years.

Dead Ringer (1964) was a crime drama in which she played twin sisters. The film was an American adaptation of the Mexican film La Otra, starring Dolores del Río.[102] Where Love Has Gone (1964) was a romantic drama based on a Harold Robbins novel. Davis played the mother of Susan Hayward, but filming was hampered by heated arguments between Davis and Hayward.[103]

Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) was Robert Aldrich's follow-up to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?. Aldrich planned to reunite Davis and Crawford, but the latter withdrew allegedly due to illness soon after filming began. She was replaced by Olivia de Havilland. The film was a considerable success, and brought renewed attention to its veteran cast, which included Joseph Cotten, Mary Astor, Agnes Moorehead, and Cecil Kellaway.

The following year, Davis was cast as the lead in an Aaron Spelling sitcom The Decorator.[104] A pilot episode was filmed, but was not shown, and the project was terminated. By the end of the decade, Davis had appeared in the British films The Nanny (1965), The Anniversary (1968), and Connecting Rooms (1970), none of which were reviewed well and her career again stalled.[88]

In the early 1970s, Davis was invited to appear in New York City in a stage presentation titled Great Ladies of the American Cinema. Over five successive nights, a different female star discussed her career, and answered questions from the audience; Myrna Loy, Rosalind Russell, Lana Turner, Sylvia Sidney, and Joan Crawford were the other participants. Davis was well-received, and was invited to tour Australia with the similarly themed Bette Davis in Person and on Film; its success allowed her to take the production to the United Kingdom.[105]

In 1972, Davis played the lead role in two television films that were each intended as pilots for upcoming series for ABC and NBC, Madame Sin, with Robert Wagner, and The Judge and Jake Wyler, with Joan Van Ark, but in each case, the network decided against producing a series.

She appeared in the stage production Miss Moffat, a musical adaptation of her film The Corn Is Green, but after the show was panned by the Philadelphia critics during its pre-Broadway run, she cited a back injury, and abandoned the show, which closed immediately.

She played supporting roles in Luigi Comencini's Lo Scopone scientifico (1972) with Italian actors Alberto Sordi, Silvana Mangano and Joseph Cotten, Burnt Offerings (1976), a Dan Curtis film, and The Disappearance of Aimee (1976), but she clashed with Karen Black and Faye Dunaway, the stars of the two latter respective productions, because she felt that neither extended her an appropriate degree of respect and that their behavior on the film sets was unprofessional.[106]

Davis (left) and Elizabeth Taylor in late 1981 during a show celebrating Taylor's life

In 1977, Davis became the first woman to receive the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award. The televised event included comments from several of Davis' colleagues, including William Wyler, who joked that given the chance, Davis would still like to re-film a scene from The Letter to which Davis nodded. Jane Fonda, Henry Fonda, Natalie Wood, and Olivia de Havilland were among the performers who paid tribute, with de Havilland commenting that Davis "got the roles I always wanted".[107]

Following the telecast, she found herself in demand again, often having to choose between several offers. She accepted roles in the television miniseries The Dark Secret of Harvest Home (1978) and the theatrical film Death on the Nile (1978), an Agatha Christie murder mystery. The bulk of her remaining work was for television. She won an Emmy Award for Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter (1979) with Gena Rowlands, and was nominated for her performances in White Mama (1980) and Little Gloria... Happy at Last (1982). She also played supporting roles in the Disney films Return from Witch Mountain (1978) and The Watcher in the Woods (1980).[108]

Davis' name became well known to a younger audience when Kim Carnes' song "Bette Davis Eyes" (written by Jackie DeShannon) became a worldwide hit and the best-selling record of 1981 in the U.S., where it stayed at number one on the music charts for more than two months. Davis' grandson was impressed that she was the subject of a hit song and Davis considered it a compliment, writing to both Carnes and the songwriters, and accepting the gift of gold and platinum records from Carnes, and hanging them on her wall.[109][110]

She continued acting for television, appearing in Family Reunion (1981) with her grandson J. Ashley Hyman, A Piano for Mrs. Cimino (1982), and Right of Way (1983) with James Stewart. In 1983, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award.[111]

Davis (aged 79) completed her final role in The Whales of August (1987), which brought her acclaim during a period in which she was beset with failing health and personal trauma.

In 1983, after filming the pilot episode for the television series Hotel, Davis was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. Within two weeks of her surgery, she suffered four strokes which caused paralysis in the left side of her face and in her left arm, and left her with slurred speech. She commenced a lengthy period of physical therapy, and aided by her personal assistant Kathryn Sermak gained partial recovery from the paralysis. Even late in life, Davis smoked 100 cigarettes per day.[112]

During this time, her relationship with her daughter B.D. Hyman deteriorated when Hyman became a born-again Christian and attempted to persuade Davis to follow suit. With her health stable, she traveled to England to film the Agatha Christie mystery Murder with Mirrors (1985). Upon her return, she learned that Hyman had published My Mother's Keeper, in which she chronicled a difficult mother-daughter relationship and depicted scenes of Davis' over-bearing and drunken behavior.[4]

Several of Davis' friends commented that Hyman's depiction of events was not accurate; one said "So much of the book is out of context". Mike Wallace re-broadcast a 60 Minutes interview he had filmed with Hyman a few years earlier in which she commended Davis on her skills as a mother, and said that she had adopted many of Davis' principles in raising her own children.

Critics of Hyman noted that Davis financially supported the Hyman family for several years and recently saved them from losing their house. Despite the acrimony of their divorce years earlier, Gary Merrill also defended Davis. Interviewed by CNN, Merrill said that Hyman was motivated by "cruelty and greed". Davis' adopted son Michael Merrill ended contact with Hyman, and refused to speak to her again, as did Davis, who disinherited her.[113]

Davis with President Ronald Reagan (her co-star in 1939's Dark Victory) in 1987, two years before her death

In her second memoir This 'n That (1987), Davis wrote: "I am still recovering from the fact that a child of mine would write about me behind my back, to say nothing about the kind of book it is. I will never recover as completely from B.D.'s book as I have from the stroke. Both were shattering experiences." Her memoir concluded with a letter to her daughter, in which she addressed her several times as Hyman, and described her actions as "a glaring lack of loyalty and thanks for the very privileged life I feel you have been given". She concluded with a reference to the title of Hyman's book, "If it refers to money, if my memory serves me right, I've been your keeper all these many years. I am continuing to do so, as my name has made your book about me a success."[114]

Davis appeared in the television film As Summers Die (1986), and in Lindsay Anderson's film The Whales of August (1987), in which she played the blind sister of Lillian Gish. Though in poor health at the time, Davis memorized her own and everyone else's lines as she always had.[115] The film earned good reviews, with one critic writing: "Bette crawls across the screen like a testy old hornet on a windowpane, snarling, staggering, twitching – a symphony of misfired synapses."[116] Davis became an honouree of the Kennedy Center Honors for her contribution to films in 1987.

Her last performance was the title role in Larry Cohen's Wicked Stepmother (1989). By this time, her health was failing, and after disagreements with Cohen, she walked off the set. The script was rewritten to place more emphasis on Barbara Carrera's character, and the reworked version was released after Davis' death.[112]

After abandoning Wicked Stepmother and with no further film offers (though she was keen to play the centenarian in Craig Calman's The Turn of the Century and worked with him on adapting the stage play to a feature-length screenplay), Davis appeared on several talk shows, and was interviewed by Johnny Carson, Joan Rivers, Larry King, and David Letterman, discussing her career, but refusing to discuss her daughter. Her appearances were popular; Lindsay Anderson observed that the public enjoyed seeing her behaving "so bitchy": "I always disliked that because she was encouraged to behave badly. And I'd always hear her described by that awful word, feisty."[117]

During 1988 and 1989, Davis was honored for her career achievements, receiving the Kennedy Center Honor, the Legion of Honor from France, the Campione d'Italia from Italy, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center Lifetime Achievement Award. She appeared on British television in a special broadcast from the South Bank Centre, discussing film and her career, the other guest being the renowned Russian director, Andrei Tarkovsky.