Davis's parents divorced when she was 7 and she was raised by her mother, who encouraged her interest in acting by taking her to New York in 1928. Rejected for Eva Le Gallienne's acting classes, Davis joined a stock company in Rochester, New York, where after a few months she was dismissed by director George Cukor. She made her New York acting debut in 1929 at the Provincetown Playhouse, in Virgil Geddes's The Earth Between. Her excellent reviews led to parts in other successes, including her first Broadway hit, Broken Dishes, at the age of 21.
Universal Pictures signed her to a contract and in 1930 Davis and her mother went to Hollywood. Her first film was BAD SISTER (1931), which also featured Humphrey Bogart. Appearances in five more lackluster films discouraged the young actress, until George Arliss, who was to remain her mentor, persuaded Warner Bros. to hire her to play opposite him in THE MAN WHO PLAYED GOD (1932). It proved to be her breakthrough film. Warner Bros. then signed her to a longterm contract, beginning her stormy relationship with a studio more accustomed to promoting its tough male stars.
Over the next three years, Davis made 14 more films for Warner Bros., most of them forgettable. But her career took a dramatic turn in 1934 when she was lent to RKO to play the slatternly Mildred opposite Leslie Howard in OF HUMAN BONDAGE. This unsympathetic role gave Davis an opportunity to cut loose and her riveting performance garnered much critical acclaim. Now Warner Bros. took notice of her, and she began to get better parts. The following year, she made DANGEROUS (1935), for which she won her first Oscar, and in 1936 she and Howard reteamed in THE PETRIFIED FOREST.
That same year, Davis's long-standing resentment against the strictures of the studio contract system came to a head when she defied Warner Bros. and went to London to make pictures with a British company. After Warner Bros. successfully sued her, she returned to Hollywood, where she was treated with newfound respect: Warner Bros. signed her to a new contract and offered her even better roles. Thus began the peak period of her career, a series of memorable roles that started with her fiery Southern belle in JEZEBEL (1938), for which she won her second Oscar. 1939 alone saw Davis appearing in four classic films: DARK VICTORY, JUAREZ, THE OLD MAID and THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH AND ESSEX.
As she perfected her acting techniques and developed her famous mannerisms, Davis achieved a new level of artistic maturity. Filmgoers, especially women, loved her portrayals of fiercely independent characters who also suffered nobly. The early 40s saw Davis's popularity continue to grow with such films as ALL THIS, AND HEAVEN TOO (1940), THE LETTER (1940), and THE LITTLE FOXES (1941), plus her roles as a timid spinster who blossoms into a vital woman of the world in NOW, VOYAGER (1942) and a vain society woman in MR. SKEFFINGTON (1944).
By the end of the decade, however, Davis's career had begun to sag under the weight of weaker pictures, but she bounced back in 1950 with a stunning performance as Margo Channing, a tempestuous Broadway star (based on Tallulah Bankhead), in Joseph Mankiewicz's ALL ABOUT EVE. The film's wittily savage view of theater people offered Davis -- here with her almost self-parodying grand gestures, and the now-famous line, "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night!" -- the role of a lifetime.
In the 50s, her career began to falter seriously, but she again came back in the popular black comedy, WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962), in which she and Joan Crawford squared off as a pair of nutty sisters, has-beens living in a decaying Hollywood mansion. Davis found a new outlet for her talents in horror films and continued to work steadily on the big screen as well as in theater and on TV.
A survivor of four unhappy marriages and estrangement from her daughter B.D., Davis found her greatest satisfaction in working and continued to do so until the end, with her last significant film appearance in THE WHALES OF AUGUST (1987) opposite Lillian Gish. Despite her extraordinary talent, audiences flocked to see the spitfire as much as the genius. Davis herself once said, "Why am I so good at playing bitches? I think it's because I'm not a bitch. Maybe that's why Miss Crawford always plays ladies." She died at the American Hospital in Neuilly, France on October 6, 1989 of metastasized breast cancer -- much-loved, admired for her scraps with studio bigwigs, her uncompromising view of self and her savage grasp of hard work. In 1977, she was the first woman to receive the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award.
Nominated for Actress 1934: OF HUMAN BONDAGE NOTE: THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL NOMINATION. Write-in candidate.
Actress 1935: DANGEROUS
Actress 1938: JEZEBEL
Nominated for Actress 1939: DARK VICTORY
Nominated for Actress 1940: THE LETTER
Nominated for Actress 1941: THE LITTLE FOXES
Nominated for Actress 1942: NOW, VOYAGER
Nominated for Actress 1944: MR. SKEFFINGTON
Nominated for Actress 1950: ALL ABOUT EVE
Nominated for Actress 1952: THE STAR
Nominated for Actress 1962: WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?
10 nominations, 1 write-in nomination, 2 Awards