She was born Ruth Elizabeth Davis on April 5, 1908, in Lowell, Massachusetts. After her parents divorced she and her sister were sent to boarding school. When she was eighteen she saw Peg Entwistle in a play and decided to become an actress. Bette briefly worked as a chorus girl and starred on Broadway in the play Broken Dishes. She made her film debut in the 1931 drama The Bad Sister. In 1932 she was signed by Warner Brothers and married musician Harmon Nelson. During their marriage she had two abortions because she thought a baby would hurt her career. Her big break came when she was cast opposite Leslie Howard in the 1934 drama Of Human Bondage. The movie was a hit and made her a star. Bette won an Academy Award in 1935 for her performance in Dangerous. She won her second Oscar in 1938 for the Southern drama Jezebel. With hit movies like Now, Voyager, The Great Lie, and Mr. Skeffington she became one of the most successful actresses in Hollywood.
Her nickname was "The First Lady Of Film". After divorcing Harmon she was romanced by Howard Hughes and began an affair with married director William Wyler. He was the great love of her and their affair continued on and off for decades. Bette married innkeeper Arthur Farnsworth on December 31, 1940. Tragically just three years later he died after an accidental fall. During World War 2 she sold war bonds and volunteered at the Hollywood Canteen. She also became the first female president of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Bette married artist William Grant Sherry in 1945 and they had a daughter named Barbara. At the age of forty-two she was cast as Margo Channing in the drama All About Eve. The movie became the biggest hit of her career. During filming she fell in love with her co-star, Gary Merrill. She divorced her husband and married Gary in July of 1950.
The couple adopted two children, Margo and Michael. Unfortunately Margo was mentally retarded and had to be institutionalized. Gary and Bette had a tumultuous marriage and they divorced after ten years together. In 1963 she worked with her longtime rival Joan Crawford in the horror film What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? Her performance got rave reviews and she earned her eleventh Oscar nomination. Sadly in the early 1980s she was diagnosed with breast cancer and suffered a stroke. Despite her illnesses she continued to work in movies and on television. She also wrote several autobiographies and became a popular talk show guest. Bette was devastated when her daughter wrote an unflattering tell-all book and she never spoke to her again. On October 6, 1989 she died from complications of breast cancer at the age of eighty-one. She is buried with her mother and sister at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California. The epitaph on her grave says "She did it the hard way".
