Bette Davis was one of the best actresses from the 1930s to 1960s. She is known as a legend in the movie industry for being one of the first glamorous movie stars of the century. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were always portrayed by the media as being "rivals" because they were the two lead woman of acting in early films and both are Academy Award winning actresses. But the reason I prefer Bette over Joan is because of the parts/roles Bette portrayed during her long-spanning career. Different from most actresses today, Bette did not care to get ugly and downgrade her looks for her gutsy roles. During the latter of the 1930s, she played roles of beautiful young women who have some type of internal suffering that would eventually be there downfall. My favorite movie that starred a young Bette Davis is Jezebel (1938) which earned her her first Best Actress Academy Award, winning against Vivien Leigh who played Scarlett O'Hara in the famous movie Gone With The Wind. The movie Jezebel is one of those movies that is relevant still today, even though it was a Civil War period-piece made in 1938, it is about the range of emotions and actions one takes when their heart is broken. It is a classic Romance movie which also starred a young Henry Fonda. She plays a beautiful Southern belle who enjoys the attention and spotlight, but when her one true love can't handle her dramatic ways anymore, he leaves her. Her life falls apart and hides in her mansion for a year until he comes back to town, only to be married to a woman from the North. She then plans on getting even with him and maybe to get him back, but her plan goes haywire and ends up leaving many of her friends murdered.
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| (Bette Davis & Henry Fonda) |
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| (Anne Baxter & Bette Davis) |
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| (Joan Crawford & Bette Davis) |
As the 1960s approached, Bette did not give in to Hollywood's demand for young starlets and continued being offered the right roles for her age and acting ability. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane was a new horror/thriller movie based on a book about two sisters who were both actresses but grew old together in their house. Bette Davis starred as "Baby" Jane Hudson, the alcoholic sister who was a child star and made money for the family when she was young. The other sister, Blanche Hudson, was played by Joan Crawford. Although people still viewed them as rivals, it made the movie better because the sister's were not very "normal". Blanche Hudson became a very famous actress in their prime, while Jane Hudson struggled to get any fame or recognition as she grew older and couldn't be "Baby Jane" the child performer anymore. She grew envious of Blanche's success even though she was taken care of financially and helped a lot by Blanche. Then, as they are in the car driving to their home from a party, Blanche goes to open the gate and Jane, who is driving, decides to run over her sister leaving her paralyzed unable to move her legs. The story continues from here and shows the mental downfall Jane Hudson goes through due to constantly being the caregiver to her sister in a wheel chair. She began drinking a lot and starts spiraling out of control and Bette Davis portrays this very well. I highly recommend Whatever Happened to Baby Jane because it is a classic movie that left a mark in pop culture of the 20th century.
Towards the later years of Bette's life, she began playing roles in thriller/mystery movies mainly. With the success of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, Bette found her niche at this time and continued to play these kind of roles in these type of movies. So many actresses that started in the 1930s to 1940s were not around in their later years. I think Bette Davis deserves credit for being able to always stay relevant in the movie industry. She is an icon in movies and will always be one of the most influential and successful women in the industry. I admire her ability to play roles that were different at the time, and her level of talent and realism her acting has. Bette Davis passed away due to breast cancer on October 6, 1989 at the age of eighty-one. She left behind three children, as well as a legacy of milestones, and many of her fans.
