by Nathaniel R
It's time for your morning dose of highly unneccessary Oscar-mad trivia.
Did you know that Bette Davis, Oscar's third favorite actress of all time (after Hepburn & Streep), had exactly 123 screen credits to her name?! Her debut film The Bad Sister (1931) was released a week before her 23rd birthday and her 123rd and final project, Wicked Stepmother (1989), was released eight months before her death of breast cancer at 81. That's 58 years of big-eyed, inimitably voiced, ferocious performances.
Two Bette-inspired questions for the day...
1. Do you have a favorite under-discussed Bette performance? Beyond her two most definitive and altogether genius turns (All About Eve and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?) I'd list Dark Victory as my personal favorite and even though she was Oscar-nominated for it, I rarely here people talk it up when they talk up Bette.
2. Only thirteen women have won two Best Actress Oscars. They are, in order of it happening: Luise Rainer, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Vivien Leigh, Ingrid Bergman, Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn (who eventually won 4), Glenda Jackson, Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Jodie Foster, Hilary Swank, and Meryl Streep. Which living actress do you suspect will make this group number 14?