I've always had the will to win. I felt it baking cookies. They had to be the best cookies anyone ever baked. But there was a price to pay. If a man is dedicated to his work, he's more of a man. If a woman feels that way, she's less of a woman.
- Bette Davis

Bette Davis was known as 'The First Lady of the American Screen' who had a tremendous effect on creating better working conditions and roles for women in the area of film. According to the Guardian, 'She was not conventionally beautiful, but had a strong jaw, firm cheek bones, a radiant smile when she chose to employ it and those large, expressive eyes that in the 1980s were to be celebrated in Kim Carnes' song 'She's Got Bette Davis Eyes''. Over the years, Davis clocked up appearances in over 100 films, became the first woman to be honoured with the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1977 and was also the first woman to be president of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences despite her earning a reputation for being difficult to work with.

A Star Is Born

Born Ruth Elizabeth Davis on 5 April, 1908, in Lowell, Massachusetts to Harlow Morrell Davis and Ruthie Favor Davis, she was later to adopt the stage name Bette Davis. Her father walked out on the family when she was nearly 10 and despite having little money her mother sent her away with her sister to the Cushing Academy boarding school. On graduating Davis tried for a place at Eva Le Gallienne's, but was refused on the grounds of her being too frivolous and insincere. Undeterred, Davis enrolled at John Murray Anderson's Dramatic School and was accepted. In 1923 she landed a bit part in The Earth Between, before making her first Broadway acting debut in Broken Dishes in 1929. Davis also appeared in Solid South and in 1930 she journeyed to Hollywood where she took part in a screen test for Universal Studios who hired her for six films, including her first film Bad Sister in 1931.

Warner Brothers Calls

Davis was dropped by Universal Studios in the 1930s and turned her focus to Broadway, but a phone call from Warner Brothers offering her a seven year contract with them lured her back into film making. She signed a contract with them in 1932 and set about making The Man Who Played God, which was released that same year. She was then loaned out to RKO to play Mildred in Of Human Bondage, released in 1934, the film led her to receive an Oscar for Best Actress.

In 1935 two screen sirens, Davis and Crawford, came together to work on the film Dangerous and both fell in love with the same man Franchot Tone. The problem for Davis was that Crawford had beaten her to the man of her dreams and thus was not happy. Davis said: I fell in love with Franchot, professionally and privately. Everything about him reflected his elegance, from his name to his manners. She added She took him from me. She did it coldly, deliberately and with complete ruthlessness. I have never forgiven her for that and never will.

Crawford was not the only thing in Hollywood Davis had a problem with. She was also growing increasingly unhappy with the film roles she was given and travelled to England, where she hoped she would continue her successful career. However, Jack Warner sued Davis and she was forced to return to America where she would fulfil the contract.

When Davis returned to Hollywood she was given a new contract and was provided with roles that were of a marked improvement. The only thing she wasn't given was the part of Scarlett O'Hara in the film Gone With the Wind, which she felt would have suited her perfectly because of her personality. The role instead was given to Vivien Leigh.

In 1939 Davis obtained her second Oscar for her role in Jezebel. She was named as the highest earning woman in America in 1942 and was nominated five years in a row for other Oscars. Sadly the Oscars she won didn't keep her warm at night and the statues figure reminded her of that of her first husband, childhood sweetheart and musician, Harmon Oscar (Ham) Nelson. When I saw the award's rear end, it reminded me of my husband's. Both flat. Davis said.

War Time Woman

There are few accomplishments in my life that I am sincerely proud of. The Hollywood Canteen is one of them.

Davis was no dainty dame and was quite happy to drive around in a station wagon and do her shopping in jeans. During the Second World War she even joined forces with John Garfield to create the Hollywood Canteen for soldiers passing through Los Angeles. Reflective of the New York's Stage Door Canteen, Davis transformed a once-abandoned nightclub into an inspiring entertainment facility. In the canteen Duke Ellington would play a piano donated by Cary Grant and other famous stars such as Crosby, Sinatra, Dietrich, Lamarr, Gable and Crawford put in appearances. It didn't matter whether you were black or white, rich or poor everyone was welcome in the canteen and if a struggle was threatening to break out Davis said, we played the 'Star-Spangled Banner'. The club was shut down in 1945 but Davis' work didn't go unnoticed. In 1980 she was awarded the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal, the Defence Department's highest civilian award, for running the Hollywood Canteen.

Bette's Bargaining Bombs

Davis wasn't averse to taking on roles that the fellow actors and actresses around her would not touch through fear that these roles would tarnish their career. In those days it was quite common that film viewers would look at the stars and label them as being like the characters they played in real life. As Davis said herself: The more successful an actor, the less he or she gets to act. People come to expect a personality, and that's the kind of parts you get offered, ones to suit audience expectations of your star's persona. For this reason she satisfied herself by playing bad people such as the heroines of The Letter (1940) and The Little Foxes (1941), Stanley Timberlake in In This Our Life (1942) and Rosa Milone in Beyond the Forest (1942). However, by undertaking these roles in the 1940s interest in her waned.

Film Lifts

It wasn't until 1950 that Davis was once again successful. Her famous come back was in All About Eve (1950), where she played Margo Channing an aging Broadway star. The director William Wyler said: She's the perfect actress for the part, and whatever you expect from her, she'll give you more. She's the hardest worker you'll ever find, and you couldn't find a finer actress. Indeed Wyler was proved right in casting her as the part led to her eighth Academy Award nomination.

Davis career was given another lease of life when she obtained the role of Baby Jane Hudson in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane in 1962. On taking on this role Davis appeared alongside her rival and arch enemy Joan Crawford and the two led a lengthy bitter war throughout the making of the film. For example, Davis had a Coca-Cola machine installed on the set in order to upset the widow of Pepsi CEO Crawford. Crawford got her revenge by filling her pockets full of stones when she was dragged across the floor by Davis.

In later life Davis became known as a horror maven and made many television appearances. Then in 1987 Davis had a role in The Whales of August, this was the last film she ever appeared in.

Private life

I'd marry again, if I found a man who had 15 million dollars, who would sign over half to me and guarantee that he'd be dead within a year.

Life off screen was no bed of roses either for Davis was married four times and linked to many lovers including Howard Hughes, Johnny Mercer and William Wyler. She had a child called B.D. (Barbara Davis Sherry) with her third husband William Grant Sherry and adopted two children, Margot and Michael, with her fourth husband Gary Merill.

In 1985 Davis had a mastectomy as a result of being struck by breast cancer and nine days later suffered a stroke. To add to her agony and pain, her daughter B.D. released a book called My Mother's Keeper that depicted her mother as being 'a mean-spirited, wildly neurotic, profane and pugnacious boozer, who took out her anger at the world by abusing those close to her'. Despite all this she was determined to work until her death on 6 October, 1989, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. On her epitaph is written the words 'She did it the hard way' for an epitaph, which to her son meant 'It isn't that she was complaining but that she had persevered'.

Davis Remembered

In memory of his adopted mother Michael Merrill and Kathryn Sermak, set up the Davis Foundation, which financially supports budding actors and actresses of the future. In 1998 Meryl Streep received the first Bette Davis Lifetime Achievement Award at Boston University. The United States Postal Service has also celebrated her life by releasing a stamp of her 100 years since her birth.

In my view, she's one of the all-time great movie stars and actresses. I thought she was a great beauty, too. I just loved her looks. She is still quite a character, very determined and strong, and she refuses to concede an inch. I suppose that is what has kept her alive.
- Lauren Bacall

Bette Davis taught Hollywood to follow an actress instead of the actress following the camera, and she's probably the best movie actress there's ever been.
- Elaine Stritch