Bette Davis
Stats
| Name: | Bette Davis | |
| Status | Deceased | |
| Age: | 81 (April 5, 1908 -October 6, 1989) | |
| IMDB: | IMDb | |
| TMDB: | TMDB | |
| Smoking Status: | Unknown | |
| Type of Celebrity: | Actor | |
| Rating: | ||
| Homepage | https://www.bettedavis.com/ | |
| TMDB Popularity | 26.704 | |
| Biography (TMDB): | Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres; from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies, though her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas. After appearing in Broadway plays, Davis moved to Hollywood in 1930, but her early films for Universal Studios were unsuccessful. She joined Warner Bros. in 1932 and established her career with several critically acclaimed performances. In 1937, she attempted to free herself from her contract and although she lost a well-publicized legal case, it marked the beginning of the most successful period of her career. Until the late 1940s, she was one of American cinema's most celebrated leading ladies, known for her forceful and intense style. Davis gained a reputation as a perfectionist who could be highly combative, and confrontations with studio executives, film directors and costars were often reported. Her forthright manner, clipped vocal style and ubiquitous cigarette contributed to a public persona which has often been imitated and satirized. Davis was the co-founder of the Hollywood Canteen, and was the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, was the first person to accrue 10 Academy Award nominations for acting, and was the first woman to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. Her career went through several periods of eclipse, and she admitted that her success had often been at the expense of her personal relationships. Married four times, she was once widowed and thrice divorced, and raised her children as a single parent. Her final years were marred by a long period of ill health, but she continued acting until shortly before her death from breast cancer, with more than 100 films, television and theater roles to her credit. In 1999, Davis was placed second, after Katharine Hepburn, on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest female stars of all time. |
Profile Picture
Movies
A Stolen Life
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smokingsides
0:23 - Talks while lighting; 3 french-inhales, 2 exhales. 0:29 - 'I'd give anything for a cigarette!' Then inserts cig between her lips, but her light-up, drags and exhales are spliced up. 0:51 - Wish we were closer for: Light-up, 3 french-inhales, 3-4 exhales. 1:03 - Has 1 or 2 exhales. 1:25 - Accepts light, exhale. 1:36 - Light-up, exhale. |
All About Eve
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smokingsides
Black and white, but Bette was a smoker's smoker, and shows it in this film classic. |
As Summers Die
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smokingsides
3 scenes, small full inhales, she is very old and very weak |
Beyond the Forest
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smokingsides
0:16 - Distant light-up. 0:38 - Match light-up, 1 exhale. 0:39 - In bed, 2 french-inhales, but in poor light. 0:45 - Match light-up, 1 exhale. 1:22 - Match light-up, french-inhale. |
Bordertown
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smokingsides
Maddening, as Lopez lights up 3 times and has a couple other long drags, but no visible exhales are shown, as director cuts away |
Bureau of Missing Persons
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smokingsides
The director cuts in just as a thick cloud of cigarette smoke drifts above Farrell's head as she holds. Davis lights with a match, takes multiple puffs, but, as usual, fails to inhale. |
Burnt Offerings
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smokingsides
2 scenes, smokes cloves in a holder |
Dangerous
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smokingsides
Smokes with her usual style in three or four scenes, once very seductively as she tries to entice a man. She's about as sexy in this one as she ever got. |
Dark Victory
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smokingsides
Her best smoking I have seen. Smokes closeup in the back of her limo right at the opening credits. Then a few other times during the movie. One is a talk exhale when the phone is ringing, one word, 'ring'. |
Dead Ringer
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smokingsides
she plays twins, and the poor twin smokes, quite often too |
Fashions of 1934
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smokingsides
A young (26 when it was released) and attractively dressed and made up Bette smokes in several scenes, mostly holding but once blowing out a thick white cloud of presumably uninhaled smoke. Lights up, dangles and drags once but we don't quite see the Bette Davis French inhale she later trademarked. Teasdale smokes with a long holder in several scenes but also doesn t inhale. |
Fog Over Frisco
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smokingsides
Two lightups and a later drag from Davis. Inhale/exhale and a lightup from Lindsay. |
Front Page Woman
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smokingsides
A few puffs during a restaurant scene |
Hollywood Canteen
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smokingsides
Seen smoking ...in a distant shot |
It's Love I'm After
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smokingsides
Two scenes. In the first, she taps her cigarette on the back of her hand, then lights it with an immediate second drag. She twice blows her uninhaled smoke (did Davis ever inhale?) into her fiance's face. A single drag in the very next scene. |
June Bride
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smokingsides
Three scenes. Creamy smoke hangs between her open lips and there is a double pump later. But, as usual, she doesn't inhale much. |
Marked Woman
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smokingsides
wonderful lighting at the start; great smoking gestures, but overall only 4 scenes; other actresses smoke, too |
Mr. Skeffington
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smokingsides
Smokes her head off with a holder through much of the latter half of the movie. |
Now, Voyager
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smokingsides
Bette Davis, in a gesture tinged with sexual innuendo, accepts one of the two cigarettes Paul Henreid has lit in his mouth, then they share smoke clouds. |
Old Acquaintance
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smokingsides
Davis smokes quite a bit throughout in her usual style. One scene of her also has Hopkins smoking from a holder, but Hopkins doesn't inhale. Second half of the movie has a lightup scene with Moran, which also includes an inhale and nice exhale. |
The Anniversary
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smokingsides
3 scenes, several good French-inhales in the usual Davis style |
The Cabin in the Cotton
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smokingsides
A milestone picture. She dangles her cigarette provocatively, gazing deep into the eyes and touching the hand of the guy who lights it for her. The beginning of two love-affairs - the fleeting one of Davis and her beau in the film but, more importantly, the long-term one of Davis and her cigarettes. |
The Great Lie
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smokingsides
Eleven scenes for Davis and five for Astor. Highlights are French inhales from Davis, and Astor lighting a new cigarette from the butt of her old one, though neither woman inhales much. Several instances of dialogue concerning their heavy smoking. |
The Star
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smokingsides
Six scenes with three lightings. She puffs, but does not inhale |
Three on a Match
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smokingsides
As the title suggests, the three ladies light their Chesterfields from a single match in a nicely-lit scene. Dvorak takes an immediate follow-up drag, Blondell performs two subsequent inhales/exhales, and Davis continues to eat before performing a brief French-inhale. Dvorak has the coolest scene in the picture, inhaling and then releasing a horizontal exhale from her mouth which switches to smoke trickling from her nostrils. She is also holding as she waltzes and as she kisses. The very last scene, two on a match, shows a lighting with French-inhale and a thick mouth-and-nose exhale from Davis, but the film ends before we see whether Blondell snaps back the thick smoke she produces. |
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
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smokingsides
Gillespie has one good scene where she holds the smoke in her mouth a while before exhaling. Crawford, Bennett and Lee are all awful to look at, however, so their smoking isn't worth looking out for. |
Wicked Stepmother
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smokingsides
in her last film, has 4 quite unappealing scenes. (Barbara Carrera, though pictured holding on the cassette box, has no smoking scenes). |
Winter Meeting
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smokingsides
Real smoking expertise: There were 8 scenes, including 4 match light-ups. Many fine french-inhales. Voluminous nose-exhales. She sometimes let the smoke drift from her mouth before exhaling. Enjoy! |
Index
Media Index:
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