Is portrayed by Elissa Leeds in My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn (1985) (TV).
It is said that one of her real true loves was director William Wyler but he was married and refused to leave his wife.
Measurements: 34C-21-34 (as a "too busty" starlet), 36C-25-35 (in 1940), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)
Mother of Barbara Merrill (aka B.D. Hyman) and grandmother of J. Ashley Hyman. Marion Sherry was B.D.'s nanny until William Grant Sherry left Davis for her.
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.
Nominated for an Academy Award 5 years in a row, in 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942 and 1943. She shares the record for most consecutive nominations with Greer Garson.
On her sarcophagus is written "She did it the hard way".
Onscreen, Bette Davis played spinsters named Charlotte in 3 different movies: "The Old Maid" (1939), "Now, Voyager" (1942), and "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte" (1964).
Pictured on a 42¢ USA commemorative postage stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series, issued 18 September 2008.
Played dual roles of twin sisters in two movies: A Stolen Life (1946) and Dead Ringer (1964).
Played twin Sisters Kate and Patricia Bosworth in "A Stolen Life (1946) and Margaret DeLorca and Edith Phillips in "Dead Ringer (1964)" In both she played a good and bad twin and, in both movies, one of the sisters met a tragic death.
Ranked #15 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]
Returned to work three months after giving birth to her daughter Barbara Merrill in order to begin filming June Bride (1948).
Salary for 1941, $252,333.
Salary for 1948, $365,000.
She came to Cardiff in 1975 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.
She claimed to have given the Academy Award the nickname "Oscar" after her first husband, Harmon Nelson, whose middle name was Oscar, although she later withdrew that claim. Most sources say it was named by Academy librarian and eventual executive director Margaret Herrick, who thought the statuette resembled her Uncle Oscar.
She considered her debut screen test for Universal Pictures to be so bad that she ran screaming from the projection room.
She said that among the jokes told about her, her favorite came from impressionist Charles Pierce who, dressed as her, demanded of the audience, "Someone give me a cigarette". When the request was granted the performer threw it on the floor and shouted "LIT!".
She suffered a stroke and had a mastectomy in 1983.