Davis, Bette

Actress and movie star Bette Davis (April 5, 1908 - October 6, 1989) was born Ruth Elizabeth Davis in Lowell, Massachusetts. Inspired by silent film star Mary Pickford, she pursued a career in acting and attended the John Murray Anderson School of Theater as well as studying dance under Martha Graham. Her first movie was "The Bad Sister" in 1931. Though it was not a particularly impressive performance, she signed a seven-year contract with Warner Brothers and became a star after her next movie, "The Man Who Played God." She was the first woman to be elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 1983, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a mastectomy. She suffered four strokes within two weeks of that surgery. She was married four times and had three children, one of whom wrote a book, "My Mother's Keeper," which detailed her relationship with Bette, describing Davis as an controlling drunk of a mother. In 1989, she found out that her cancer returned. She died of that cancer in a hospital in France.

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