They are everyone's concern and like vampires they suck our life's blood. Oops, some error occurred while uploading your photo(s). “She loved pranks,” Sermak recalled. For nearly half a century, they hated each other, and we loved them for it." Originally published in 1962, The Lonely Life is legendary silver screen actress Bette Davis's lively and riveting account of her life, loves, and marriages--now in ebook for the first time, and updated with an afterword she wrote just before her death. ©2020 FOX News Network, LLC. Her father was Harlow Morrell Davis, a lawyer. The money is the gravy. Whilst a student at Cushing Academy, she saw a production of "The Wild Duck", which inspired her to seriously pursue acting. To her, it presented much more of a challenge. Sermak has released her own book called “Miss D and Me,” which explores the friendship she developed with the legendary actress, who made over 100 films and was nominated for 10 Oscars throughout her lifetime. Although there have been dozens of biographies about Bette Davis, none has the fierce intimacy and true heart of MISS D AND ME. Ruth Elizabeth Davis was born April 5, 1908, in Lowell, Massachusetts, to Ruth Augusta (Favor) and Harlow Morrell Davis, a patent attorney. As the outlet explains, "Warner Bros. had planned an elaborate publicity campaign announcing Davis' new phase of stardom" — yet this never came to fruition. There is of course a need for both in this business, but you have to know *when* to put a stop to the nonsense that goes with the job. To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given a chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. Originally discovered in New York as part of a chorus on stage, Crawford signed with MGM in 1924. She'd just had the world serenade her.”. Thanks for your help! She became a star after her appearance in The Man Who Played God (1932), known as the actress that could play a variety of very strong and complex roles. As Roger Moore wrote in his book, Last Man Standing: Tales from Tinseltown, it's believed that Crawford ever-so-ruthlessly said, "Dear Bette, what a lovely frock.". We have 2 volunteers within fifty miles of your requested photo location. You want to get on that stage and work. Davis claimed she "barely touched her," but Crawford got her revenge: by allegedly wearing a hidden weightlifter's belt for a scene where Davis had to drag her — and "deliberately [ruining] several takes.". Everything around them — the studio system, their own egos — conspired to keep them apart. She was very proud of her Yankee roots, and her four husbands were also Yankees, that being one of the things that attracted her to them. If you have questions, please contact [email protected]. That's become a phrase that means you've had it. In 1985, her daughter Barbara Davis ("B.D.") The book was updated with new material in the 1980s, bringing the story up to the end of Davis's life--all the heartbreak, all the drama, and all the love she experienced at every stage of her extraordinary life. I don't take the movies seriously, and anyone who does is in for a headache. GREAT NEWS! She earned her seventh Oscar nomination in 1945, at the age of 36, for. "She loved everything about Franchot: his looks, his name, his elegance," mused Burt Reynolds in his memoir, But Enough About Me. To Bette, dancers led a glamorous life, but then she discovered the stage, and gave up dancing for acting. As the movie went into production, "the couple's 25-year friendship with the actress ended." Please try again later. Although Bette Davis was the new kid on the Hollywood block where Joan Crawford was already a shining star, it's the former who landed her Academy Award first. So, what was the cause of such long-lasting resentment?