Betta St. John
Born in Hawthorne, California (Los Angeles area) on November 26, 1929, the former Betty Jean Striegler was part of the Meglin Kiddies troupe as a child and entered pictures in her adolescent years. Betta made her film debut at age 10 with an unbilled role of a little girl who sings Marlene Dietrich's song "Little Joe" in the classic western Destry Rides Again (1939) starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. She went on to also appear in an Our Gang short and had unbilled orphan roles in both Jane Eyre (1943) and Lydia (1941). She was also a one-time model. The musical team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein took sharp notice of this young, attractive singing/dancing teen talent and gave her a small role in Broadway's "Carousel" in 1945. Four years later, when they were ready to cast the exotic role of "Liat" for their upcoming musical "South Pacific" starring Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza, they had to look no further than darkly beautiful Betta St. John. The Broadway show was a blockbuster hit come opening night. While performing in the show's London tour at the Theatre Royale Drury Lane Theatre early in 1952, she met and worked with British opera singer and cast member Peter Grant (he played Lt. Cable). They married on November 27th of that year and remained so until his death in 1992. The musical splash Betta made on Broadway suddenly reopened the door for some decorative film work. She made her adult debut in the second femme lead (behind Deborah Kerr) in Dream Wife (1953). In this she plays Tarji, a princess, who is courted by bachelor tycoon Cary Grant. This led to other "B"-level co-star/featured parts in a number of exotic eastern and western adventures throughout the 1950's including Miriam in the biblical epic The Robe (1953); Lady Iolanthe opposite Ricardo Montalban in The Saracen Blade (1954); Princess Johanna in The Student Prince (1954); outlaw Billy the Kid's (played by Scott Brady) love interest in The Law vs. Billy the Kid (1954); a British belle in the mystery drama Alias John Preston (1955) which had a small featured role for husband Peter Grant; an alternative to "Jane" in Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957) starring Gordon Scott; and a Canadian islander (she is top-billed) in the British-made High Tide at Noon (1957). After numerous guest appearances on TV here and in England, Betta co-starred with Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee in the British-made horror Corridors of Blood (1958) and Lee again in the horror The City of the Dead (1960), and made one more movie excursion into the jungle with Gordon Scott's Tarzan in Tarzan the Magnificent (1960) before abandoning the limelight altogether.
Bettany Hughes
Bettany Hughes was born in 1968 in Oxford, England. She is known for Ancient Discoveries (2003), Ultimate Treasure Countdown (2020) and Warrior Women with Lupita Nyong'o (2019). She is married to Adrian Evans. They have two children.
Bette Beatrice
Bette Beatrice is an actress, known for Columbus Circle (2012), Fun with Dick and Jane (2005) and Glam (1997).
Bette Cassatt
Bette Cassatt was born on February 6, 1977 in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. She is an actress, known for V/H/S/2 (2013), A Sweet and Vicious Beauty (2012) and Confinement (2005).
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth Davis was born April 5, 1908, in Lowell, Massachusetts, to Ruth Augusta (Favor) and Harlow Morrell Davis, a patent attorney. Her parents divorced when she was 10. She and her sister were raised by their mother. Her early interest was dance. To Bette, dancers led a glamorous life, but then she discovered the stage, and gave up dancing for acting. To her, it presented much more of a challenge. After graduation from Cushing Academy, she was refused admittance to Eva Le Gallienne's Manhattan Civic Repertory. She enrolled in John Murray Anderson's Dramatic School and was the star pupil. She was in the off-Broadway play "The Earth Between" (1923), and her Broadway debut in 1929 was in "Broken Dishes". She also appeared in "Solid South". Late in 1930, she was hired by Universal, where she made her first film, called Bad Sister (1931). When she arrived in Hollywood, the studio representative who went to meet her train left without her because he could find no one who looked like a movie star. An official at Universal complained she had "as much sex appeal as Slim Summerville" and her performance in "Bad Sister" didn't impress. In 1932, she signed a seven-year deal with Warner Brothers Pictures. Her first film with them was The Man Who Played God (1932). She became a star after this appearance, known as the actress that could play a variety of very strong and complex roles. More fairly successful movies followed, but it was the role of Mildred Rogers in RKO's Of Human Bondage (1934) that would give Bette major acclaim from the film critics. She had a significant number of write-in votes for the Best Actress Oscar, but didn't win. Warner Bros. felt their seven-year deal with Bette was more than justified. They had a genuine star on their hands. With this success under her belt, she began pushing for stronger and more meaningful roles. In 1935, she received her first Oscar for her role in Dangerous (1935) as Joyce Heath. In 1936, she was suspended without pay for turning down a role that she deemed unworthy of her talent. She went to England, where she had planned to make movies, but was stopped by Warner Bros. because she was still under contract to them. They did not want her to work anywhere. Although she sued to get out of her contract, she lost. Still, they began to take her more seriously after that. Returning after losing her lawsuit, her roles improved dramatically. In 1938, Bette received a second Academy Award win for her work in Jezebel (1938) opposite the soon-to-be-legendary Henry Fonda. The only role she didn't get that she wanted was Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). Warners wouldn't loan her to David O. Selznick unless he hired Errol Flynn to play Rhett Butler, which both Selznick and Davis thought was a terrible choice. It was rumored she had numerous affairs, among them George Brent and William Wyler, and she was married four times, three of which ended in divorce. She admitted her career always came first. She made many successful films in the 1940s, but each picture was weaker than the last and by the time her Warner Brothers contract had ended in 1949, she had been reduced to appearing in such films as the unintentionally hilarious Beyond the Forest (1949). She made a huge comeback in 1950 when she replaced an ill Claudette Colbert in, and received an Oscar nomination for, All About Eve (1950). She worked in films through the 1950s, but her career eventually came to a standstill, and in 1961 she placed a now famous Job Wanted ad in the trade papers. She received an Oscar nomination for her role as a demented former child star in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). This brought about a new round of super-stardom for generations of fans who were not familiar with her work. Two years later, she starred in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). Bette was married four times. In 1977 she received the AFI's Lifetime Achievement Award and in 1979 she won a Best Actress Emmy for Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter (1979). In 1977-78 she moved from Connecticut to Los Angeles and filmed a pilot for the series Hotel (1983), which she called Brothel. She refused to do the TV series and suffered a stroke during this time. Her last marriage, to actor Gary Merrill, lasted ten years, longer than any of the previous three. In 1985, her daughter Barbara Davis ("B.D.") Hyman published a scandalous book about Bette called "My Mother's Keeper." Bette worked in the later 1980s in films and TV, even though a stroke had impaired her appearance and mobility. She wrote a book, "This 'N That", during her recovery from the stroke. Her last book was "Bette Davis, The Lonely Life", issued in paperback in 1990. It included an update from 1962 to 1989. She wrote the last chapter in San Sebastian, Spain. Sadly, Bette Davis died on October 6, 1989, of metastasized breast cancer, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. Many of her fans refused to believe she was gone.
Bette Gordon
Bette Gordon was born on June 22, 1950. She is a director and actress, known for Handsome Harry (2009), Variety (1983) and Empty Suitcases (1980).
Bette Midler
Multi Grammy Award-winning singer/comedienne/author Bette Midler has also proven herself to be a very capable actress in a string of both dramatic and comedic roles. Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on December 1, 1945. She is the daughter of Ruth (Schindel), a seamstress, and Fred Midler, a painter. Her parents, originally from New Jersey, were both from Jewish families (from Russia, Poland, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire). Midler studied drama at the University of Hawaii and got her musical career started by performing in gay bathhouses with piano accompaniment from Barry Manilow. Her first album was "The Divine Miss M" released in November 1972, followed by the self-titled "Bette Midler" released in November 1973, both of which took off up the music charts, and Bette's popularity swiftly escalated from there. After minor roles in several film/TV productions, she surprised all with her knockout performance of a hard-living rock-and-roll singer (loosely based on the life of Janis Joplin) in The Rose (1979), for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. In 1986, director Paul Mazursky cast Midler opposite Nick Nolte and Richard Dreyfuss in the hilarious Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), and so began a string of very funny comedic film roles. She played an obnoxious wife who was the victim of a kidnap plot by her scoundrel husband, played by Danny DeVito, in Ruthless People (1986), was pursued by CIA and KGB spies in Outrageous Fortune (1987), played mismatched twins with Lily Tomlin in Big Business (1988) and shone in the tear-jerker Beaches (1988). Bette matched feisty James Caan in the WWII drama For the Boys (1991), made a dynamic trio with Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton in The First Wives Club (1996), was back on screen with DeVito for the tepid comedy Drowning Mona (2000) and turned up in the glossy remake of The Stepford Wives (2004). Apart from her four Grammy awards, Bette Midler has also won four Golden Globes, one Tony Award, and three Emmy Awards, plus she has sold in excess of 15 million albums worldwide. Most recently, she toured with her sassy "Kiss My Brass" show, and is promoting her album "Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook".
Bette Pollard
Bette Pollard is known for Doc Martin (2004).
Bette Smith
Bette Smith is known for Alien Overlords (2018).
Bette Smith
Bette Smith is an actress, known for Parallax (2020), Afterglow (2009) and Chopping Block (2005).
