title: Daft Punk

text: In September 1993, Daft Punk attended a rave at EuroDisney, where they met Stuart Macmillan of Slam, co-founder of the Scottish label Soma Quality Recordings. The demo tape given to Macmillan at the rave formed the basis for Daft Punk's debut single, "The New Wave", a limited release in 1994. The single also contained the final mix of "The New Wave" called "Alive", which was to be featured on Daft Punk's first album.


title: Daft Punk

text: Daft Punk returned to the studio in May 1995 to record "Da Funk". It became their first commercially successful single. After the success of "Da Funk", Daft Punk looked to find a manager. The duo settled on Pedro Winter, who regularly promoted them and other artists at his Hype nightclubs. They signed with Virgin Records in September 1996 and made a deal to license its tracks to the major label through its production company, Daft Trax. Bangalter said that while they received numerous offers from record labels, they wanted to wait and ensure that they did not lose creative control. He considered the deal with Virgin more akin to a partnership.


title: Daft Punk

text: In the mid-to-late nineties, Daft Punk performed live without costumes at various venues. In 1996, they made their first performance in the United States, at an Even Furthur event in Wisconsin. In addition to live original performances, they performed in clubs using vinyl records from their collection. They were known for incorporating numerous styles of music into their DJ sets at that time.


title: Daft Punk

text: Daft Punk released their debut album, "Homework", in 1997. In February that year, the UK dance magazine "Muzik" published a Daft Punk cover feature and described "Homework" as "one of the most hyped debut albums in a long long time". According to "The Village Voice", the album revived house music and departed from the Eurodance formula. Critic Alex Rayner wrote that it combined established club styles and the "burgeoning eclecticism" of big beat. In 1997, Daft Punk embarked on an international concert tour, Daftendirektour, using their home equipment for the live stage. On 25 May, they headlined the Tribal Gathering festival at Luton Hoo, England, with Orbital and Kraftwerk.


title: Daft Punk

text: The most successful single from "Homework" was "Around the World". "Da Funk" was also included on "The Saint" film soundtrack. Daft Punk produced a series of music videos for "Homework" directed by Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, Roman Coppola and Seb Janiak. The videos were collected in 1999 as "".


title: Daft Punk

text: Bangalter and Homem-Christo both created record labels after the release of their debut album, releasing solo projects from themselves and their friends on Roulé and Crydamoure respectively. Homem-Christo released music as a member of Le Knight Club with Eric Chedeville, and Bangalter released music as a member of Together with DJ Falcon and founded the group Stardust with Alan Braxe and Benjamin Diamond. In 1998, Stardust released their only song, the chart hit "Music Sounds Better With You".


title: Daft Punk

text: Daft Punk's second album, "Discovery", was released in 2001. The duo said it was an attempt to reconnect with the playful, open-minded attitude associated with the discovery phase of childhood. The album reached No. 2 in the UK, and its lead single, "One More Time", was a hit. The song is heavily autotuned and compressed. The singles "Digital Love" and "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" were also successful in the UK and on the US Dance Chart, and "Face to Face" hit number one on the US club play charts.


title: Daft Punk

text: "Discovery" created a new generation of Daft Punk fans. It also saw Daft Punk debut their distinctive robot costumes; they had previously worn Halloween masks or bags for promotional appearances. "Discovery" was later named one of the best albums of the decade by publications including "Pitchfork" and "Resident Advisor". In 2020, "Rolling Stone" included it at number 236 in its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". In 2021, "Pitchfork" cited "Discovery" as the centrepiece of Daft Punk's career, "an album that transcended the robots' club roots and rippled through the decades that followed".


title: Daft Punk

text: Daft Punk partnered with the Japanese manga artist Leiji Matsumoto to create "", a feature-length animation set to "Discovery". The first four episodes were shown on Toonami in 2001, and the finished film was released on DVD in 2003. That December, Daft Punk released "Daft Club", a compilation of "Discovery" remixes. In 2001, Daft Punk released a 45-minute excerpt from a Daftendirektour performance as "Alive 1997".


title: Daft Punk

text: In March 2005, Daft Punk released their third album, "Human After All", the result of six weeks of writing and recording. Reviews were mixed, with criticism for its repetitiveness and darker mood. "Robot Rock", "Technologic", "Human After All" and "The Prime Time of Your Life" were released as singles. A Daft Punk anthology CD/DVD, "Musique Vol. 1 1993–2005", was released on 4 April 2006. Daft Punk also released a remix album, "".


title: Daft Punk

text: On 21 May 2006, Daft Punk premiered a film, "Daft Punk's Electroma", at the Cannes Film Festival sidebar Director's Fortnight. The film does not include Daft Punk's music. Midnight screenings of the film were held in Paris theaters starting from March 2007.


title: Daft Punk

text: For 48 dates across 2006 and 2007, Daft Punk performed the Alive 2006/2007 world tour, performing a "megamix" of their music from a large LED-fronted pyramid. The tour was acclaimed and is credited for bringing dance music to a wider audience, especially in North America. "The Guardian" journalist Gabriel Szatan likened it to how the Beatles' 1964 performance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" had brought British rock and roll to the American mainstream.


title: Daft Punk

text: Daft Punk's performance in Paris was released as their second live album, "Alive 2007", on 19 November 2007. The live version of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" was released as a single, with a video directed by Olivier Gondry comprising audience footage of their performance in Brooklyn. In 2009, Daft Punk won Grammy Awards for "Alive 2007" and its single "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger".


title: Daft Punk

text: Daft Punk made a surprise appearance at the 50th Grammy Awards on 10 February 2008, and appeared with rapper Kanye West to perform a reworked version of "Stronger" on stage at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. It was the first televised Daft Punk live performance.


title: Daft Punk

text: In 2008, Daft Punk returned to Paris to work on new material. Winter also stepped down as their manager to focus attention on his Ed Banger Records label and his work as Busy P. He stated in a later interview that Daft Punk were working with an unspecified management company in Los Angeles. The duo held its Daft Arts production office at the Jim Henson Studios complex in Hollywood. In 2008, Daft Punk placed 38th in a worldwide official poll of "DJ Mag" after debuting at position 71 in the year before. Daft Punk provided new mixes for the video game "DJ Hero," and appeared in the game as playable characters.


title: Daft Punk

text: At the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, it was announced that Daft Punk had composed 24 tracks for the film "". Daft Punk's score was arranged and orchestrated by Joseph Trapanese. The band collaborated with him for two years on the score, from pre-production to completion. The score features an 85-piece orchestra, recorded at AIR Lyndhurst Studios in London. Joseph Kosinski, director of the film, referred to the score as a mixture of orchestral and electronic elements. Daft Punk also make a cameo as disc jockey programs wearing their trademark robot helmets within the film's virtual world. The was released on 6 December 2010. A music video for "Derezzed" premiered on the MTV Networks on the same day the album was released. The video, which features Olivia Wilde as the character Quorra in specially shot footage, along with images of Daft Punk in Flynn's Arcade, was later made available for purchase from the iTunes Store and included in the DVD and Blu-ray releases of the film. Walt Disney Records released a remix album, "", on 5 April 2011.


title: Daft Punk

text: In 2010, Daft Punk were admitted into the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, an order of merit of France. Bangalter and Homem-Christo were individually awarded the rank of "Chevalier" (knight). On October of that year, Daft Punk made a surprise guest appearance during the encore of Phoenix's show at Madison Square Garden in New York City. They played a medley of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" and "Around the World" before the song segued into Phoenix's song "1901". The duo also included elements of their tracks "Rock'n Roll", "Human After All", and "Together", one of Bangalter's releases as a member of Together.


title: Daft Punk

text: In 2011, Soma Records released a previously unpublished Daft Punk track, "Drive", recorded while they were signed to Soma in the 1990s. The track was included in a twentieth anniversary multi-artist compilation of the Soma label. In October 2012, Daft Punk provided a 15-minute mix of songs by blues musician Junior Kimbrough for Hedi Slimane's Yves Saint Laurent fashion show. Daft Punk recorded their fourth studio album, "Random Access Memories", with musicians including The Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas, Todd Edwards, DJ Falcon, Animal Collective member Panda Bear, Chilly Gonzales, Paul Williams, Pharrell Williams, Chic frontman Nile Rodgers, and Giorgio Moroder. They left Virgin for Sony Music Entertainment through the Columbia Records label.


title: Daft Punk

text: "Random Access Memories" was released on 20 May 2013. The lead single, "Get Lucky", became Daft Punk's first UK number-one single and the most-streamed new song in the history of Spotify. At the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, Daft Punk debuted a trailer for their single "Lose Yourself to Dance" and presented the award for "Best Female Video" alongside Rodgers and Pharrell. In December, they revealed a music video for the song "Instant Crush", directed by Warren Fu and featuring Julian Casablancas.


title: Daft Punk

text: At the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, "Random Access Memories" won the Grammy for Best Dance/Electronica Album, Album of the Year and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, while "Get Lucky" received the Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Record of the Year. Daft Punk performed at the ceremony with Stevie Wonder, Rodgers, and Pharrell, as well as "Random Access Memories" rhythm section players Nathan East, Omar Hakim, Paul Jackson, Jr. and Chris Caswell.


title: Daft Punk

text: Daft Punk co-produced Kanye West's sixth studio album, "Yeezus" (2013), creating the tracks "On Sight", "Black Skinhead", "I Am a God" and "Send It Up" with West. They provided additional vocals for Pharrell's 2014 single "Gust of Wind". On 10 March 2014, an unreleased Daft Punk song, "Computerized", leaked online. It features Jay-Z and contains "The Son of Flynn" from the "Tron: Legacy" soundtrack; it was once intended to be a single promoting "Tron: Legacy". In April 2015, Daft Punk appeared in a short tribute to Rodgers as part of a documentary on his life, "Nile Rodgers: From Disco to Daft Punk". In June, a documentary, "Daft Punk Unchained", was released.


title: Daft Punk

text: Daft Punk appeared on the 2016 singles "Starboy" and "I Feel It Coming" by Canadian R&B singer the Weeknd; "Starboy" topped the "Billboard" Hot 100, becoming Daft Punk's only US number-one song, and "I Feel It Coming" reached number four. In 2017, Soma Records released a previously unreleased remix of the Daft Punk track "Drive", as part of a compilation featuring various artists.


title: Daft Punk

text: In February 2017, Daft Punk launched a pop-up shop in Hollywood, California, featuring memorabilia, artwork, and a display of the various costumes the duo has worn over the years. The duo also performed with the Weeknd at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards on 12 February 2017.


title: Daft Punk

text: Throughout the years following the "Starboy" collaborations, Bangalter and Homem-Christo worked solo as producers appearing on several projects. On 21 June 2017, the Australian band Parcels released the song "Overnight", produced and co-written by Daft Punk. The song was written after Daft Punk saw Parcels perform at a live show and invited the band members to the duo's studio. The song would be the duo's final released production.


title: Daft Punk

text: In February 2019, it was announced that Daft Punk would launch an electronic art exhibition at the Philharmonie de Paris featuring various costumes, guitars, and other fixtures based on the theme of the duo's song "Technologic"; the exhibition ran from April 9 up until August 11 of that year.


title: Daft Punk

text: On 22 February 2021, Daft Punk released a video on their YouTube channel titled "Epilogue". The video features a scene from their 2006 film "Electroma", in which one robot explodes and the other walks away; a title card created with Warren Fu reads "1993–2021" while an excerpt of Daft Punk's song "Touch" plays. Later that day, Daft Punk's longtime publicist Kathryn Frazier confirmed that the duo had split, but did not give a reason for their disbandment. The news led to a surge in Daft Punk sales, with digital album purchases rising by 2,650 percent. Their friend and collaborator Todd Edwards clarified that Bangalter and Homem-Christo remain active separately.


title: Daft Punk

text: On 22 February 2022, one year after their disbandment, Daft Punk announced the digital release of a 25th anniversary edition of "Homework", featuring a newly collected remix album of "Homework" and uploads of behind the scenes "archives" from the "D.A.F.T." DVD"." The remix album was later released on physical formats. The same day as the anniversary announcement, the band held a one-time Twitch stream of their performance at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles from their 1997 Daftendirektour. The video featured previously unreleased footage of the duo without costumes. Vinyl reissues of the band's albums continued regularly throughout 2022.


title: Daft Punk

text: Daft Punk's musical style has mainly been described as house, French house, electronic, dance, and disco. Sean Cooper of AllMusic describes their musical style as a blend of acid house, techno, pop, indie rock, hip hop, progressive house, funk, and electro. They incorporated extensive sampling; "Guardian" chief critic Alex Petridis described their approach to music and art as "magpie"-like.


title: Daft Punk

text: In the early 1990s, Daft Punk drew inspiration from rock and acid house in the UK. Homem-Christo referred to "Screamadelica" by Primal Scream as the record that "put everything together" in terms of genre. In 2009, Bangalter named Andy Warhol as one of Daft Punk's early influences. On the "Homework" track "Teachers", Daft Punk list musicians who influenced them, including funk musician George Clinton, rapper and producer Dr Dre, and Chicago house and Detroit techno artists including Paul Johnson, Romanthony and Todd Edwards. Homem-Christo said: "Their music had a big effect on us. The sound of their productions—the compression, the sound of the kick drum and Romanthony's voice, the emotion and soul—is part of how we sound today."


title: Daft Punk

text: "Discovery" saw Daft Punk integrating influences from 70s disco and 80s crooners, and featured collaborations with Romanthony and Edwards. A major inspiration was the Aphex Twin single "Windowlicker", which was "neither a purely club track nor a very chilled-out, down-tempo relaxation track", according to Bangalter. The duo used vintage equipment to recreate sounds from older artists, such as the use of a Wurlitzer piano to evoke Supertramp on "Digital Love".


title: Daft Punk

text: For the "" soundtrack, Daft Punk drew inspiration from Wendy Carlos, the composer of the original "Tron" film, as well as Max Steiner, Bernard Herrmann, John Carpenter, Vangelis, Philip Glass and Maurice Jarre. For "Random Access Memories," Daft Punk sought a "west coast vibe", referencing acts such as Fleetwood Mac, the Doobie Brothers and the Eagles, and the French electronic musician Jean Michel Jarre.


title: Daft Punk

text: During promotional appearances in the 1990s, Daft Punk wore black bags on their heads or Halloween masks. In one early magazine appearance, Homem-Christo said: "We don't want to be photographed. [...] We don't especially want to be in magazines. We have a responsibility." Although they allowed a camera crew to film them for a French arts program at the time, Daft Punk did not wish to speak on screen "because it is dangerous". According to Orla Lee-Fisher, head of marketing at Virgin Records UK, in the early days of their career Daft Punk would consent to photographs without masks while they were DJing; otherwise, they would use disguises. In 1997, Bangalter said they had a "general rule about not appearing in videos".


title: Daft Punk

text: In 2001, for "Discovery", Daft Punk began wearing robot-like helmets and gloves for promotional appearances and performances. The helmets were produced by Paul Hahn of Daft Arts and the French directors Alex and Martin. With engineering by Tony Gardner and Alterian, Inc., they are capable of various LED effects. Wigs were originally attached to both helmets, but Daft Punk removed them moments before unveiling them. According to Bangalter, "The mask gets very hot, but after wearing it as long as I have, I am used to it." Later helmets were fitted with ventilators to prevent overheating.


title: Daft Punk

text: Daft Punk introduced the costumes during a special presentation of "Discovery" videos during Cartoon Network's Toonami block. Bangalter said of their transformation: "We did not choose to become robots. There was an accident in our studio. We were working on our sampler, and at exactly 9:09 am on September 9, 1999, it exploded. When we regained consciousness, we discovered that we had become robots."


title: Daft Punk

text: Daft Punk made few media appearances. Bangalter said they wanted the focus to be on their music, and that masks allowed them to control their image while retaining their anonymity and protecting their personal lives. They used the robot outfits to merge the characteristics of humans and machines. Bangalter said that the costumes were initially the result of shyness: "But then it became exciting from the audience's point of view. It's the idea of being an average guy with some kind of superpower." He described it as an advanced version of glam, "where it's definitely not you".


title: Daft Punk

text: With the release of "Human After All", Daft Punk wore simplified helmets and black leather jackets and trousers. The attire was designed by Hedi Slimane. Bangalter said: "We never like to do the same thing twice. It's more fun and entertaining for us to do something different, whether it's wearing masks or developing a persona that merges fiction and reality. We're happy to give back to the masses." On the set of "Electroma", Daft Punk were interviewed with their backs turned, and in 2006 they wore cloth bags over their heads during a televised interview. They said the use of cloth bags had been a spontaneous decision, reflecting their willingness to experiment with their image in the media.


title: Daft Punk

text: The mystery surrounding Daft Punk's identity and their elaborate disguises have added to their popularity. Their costumes have been compared to the makeup of Kiss and the leather jacket worn by Iggy Pop. Daft Punk wore the robot costumes in their performances at the 2008, 2014 and 2017 Grammy Awards. During the 2014 ceremony, they also accepted their awards on stage in the outfits, with Pharrell and Paul Williams speaking on the duo's behalf. In both their appearance at the 2017 Grammy Awards and in the Weeknd's "I Feel It Coming" music video, the duo wore long black capes and chrome-plated gloves along with their helmets.


title: Daft Punk

text: Bangalter said that the 1974 film "Phantom of the Paradise", in which the title character prominently wears a mask, was "the foundation for a lot of what we're about artistically". The duo would later collaborate with Paul Williams, who scored and starred in the film. Daft Punk were also fans of the 1970s band Space, known for wearing space suits with helmets that hid their appearance.


title: Daft Punk

text: Daft Punk's popularity has been partially attributed to their appearances in mainstream media. The duo appeared with Juliette Lewis in an advertisement for Gap, featuring the single "Digital Love", and were contractually obliged to appear only in Gap clothing. In the summer of 2001, Daft Punk appeared in an advertisement on Cartoon Network's Toonami timeslot, promoting the official Toonami website and the duo's animated music videos for their album "Discovery". The music videos later appeared as scenes in the feature-length film "", in which Daft Punk make a cameo appearance as their robot alter-egos. The duo later appeared in a television advertisement wearing their "Discovery"-era headgear to promote Sony Ericsson's Premini mobile phone. In 2010, Daft Punk appeared in Adidas advertisements promoting a "Star Wars"-themed clothing line.


title: Daft Punk

text: Daft Punk have also produced music for other artists. They produced the Teriyaki Boyz's debut single "HeartBreaker" on the album "Beef or Chicken?". The song contains a sample of "Human After All". Daft Punk later produced N.E.R.D.'s song "Hypnotize U". Daft Punk made a cameo in "Tron: Legacy" as nightclub DJs.


title: Daft Punk

text: In 2011, Coca-Cola distributed limited edition bottles designed by Daft Punk, called Daft Coke. They were only sold in France. A newer version of these themed bottles now exist as collectors items, some parts of the bottles such as the cap and Coke logo being plated in gold. Daft Punk, along with Courtney Love were photographed for the "Music Project" of fashion house Yves Saint Laurent. The duo appear in their new sequined suits custom made by Hedi Slimane, holding and playing their new instruments with bodies made of lucite. In 2013, Bandai Tamashii released a S.H. Figuarts (SHF) action figure for Daft Punk coinciding with the release of "Random Access Memories" in Japan. Following a series a teaser trailers, Daft Punk made a rare public appearance at the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix in May on behalf of the Lotus F1 Team, who supported the duo by racing in specially-branded cars emblazoned with the band's logo.


title: Daft Punk

text: Footage of Daft Punk's 2006 performance at the Coachella Festival was featured in the documentary film "Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert", released on YouTube in April 2020. Daft Punk were scheduled to appear on the August 6, 2013 episode of "The Colbert Report" to promote "Random Access Memories". They were unable to do so because of contractual obligations regarding their later appearance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. According to Stephen Colbert, Daft Punk were unaware of any exclusivity agreement and were halted by MTV executives the morning prior to the taping. In 2015, Daft Punk appeared alongside several other musicians to announce their co-ownership of the music service Tidal at its relaunch.


title: Daft Punk

text: "Eden", a 2014 French drama film, has as its protagonist a techno fan-turned-DJ-turned recovering addict. It features Daft Punk (portrayed by actors) during different stages of their careers. An hour-long documentary, "Daft Punk Unchained," was televised on 24 June 2015 in France and on 9 February 2016 in the UK.


title: Daft Punk

text: Helmets very closely resembling those worn by Daft Punk appear in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, which can be worn by the player.


title: Daft Punk

text: Daft Punk are regarded as one of the most influential dance acts in history. In 2015, "Rolling Stone" ranked them the 12th greatest musical duo of all time. The chief "Guardian" music critic Alexis Petridis named Daft Punk the most influential pop artists of the 21st century. Their collaborator Pharrell Williams said they were responsible for the rise of contemporary EDM, though Bangalter was noncommittal about this, saying only that other acts were using "gimmicks that at the time [Daft Punk used them] were not really gimmicks".


title: Daft Punk

text: In "Losing My Edge", the first single by LCD Soundsystem, singer James Murphy jokingly bragged about being the first to "play Daft Punk to the rock kids". LCD Soundsystem also recorded the song "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House", which reached No. 29 in the UK and was nominated for Best Dance Recording at the 2006 Grammy Awards. The Soulwax remix of the song also contains samples of many Daft Punk tracks as well as tracks by Thomas Bangalter.


title: Daft Punk

text: Daft Punk tracks have been sampled or covered by other artists. "Technologic" was sampled by Swizz Beatz for the Busta Rhymes song "Touch It". In a later remix of "Touch It" the line "touch it, bring it, pay it, watch it, turn it, leave it, start, format it" from "Technologic" was sung by R&B and rap artist Missy Elliott. Kanye West's 2007 song "Stronger" from the album "Graduation" borrows the melody and features a vocal sample of Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". Daft Punk's robotic costumes make an appearance in the music video for "Stronger". The track "Daftendirekt" from Daft Punk's album "Homework" was sampled for the Janet Jackson song "So Much Betta" from her 2008 album "Discipline".


title: Daft Punk

text: The track "Aerodynamic" was sampled for Wiley's 2008 single "Summertime". "Veridis Quo" from "Discovery" was sampled for the Jazmine Sullivan song "Dream Big" from her 2008 album "Fearless". Daft Punk's "Around the World" was sampled for JoJo's 2009 song "You Take Me (Around the World)". The song "Cowboy George" by the Fall contains a clip of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". A cappella group Pentatonix performed a medley of Daft Punk songs, released as a YouTube video. As of November 2021, the video had been viewed over 355 million times. The medley won for Best Arrangement, Instrumental or a Cappella of the 57th Grammy Awards.


title: Daft Punk

text: A Daft Punk medley was played at the 2017 Bastille Day parade by a French military band, in front of French President Emmanuel Macron and his many guests, who included a bemused US President Donald Trump. "Baicalellia daftpunka", a species of flatworm, was named after Daft Punk in 2018 because part of the organism resembles a helmet.


title: Daft Punk

text: In October 2011, Daft Punk placed 28th in a "top-100 DJs of 2011" list by "DJ Magazine" after placing in the 44th position the year before. On 19 January 2012, Daft Punk ranked No. 2 on Mixmag's Greatest Dance Acts of All Time, with The Prodigy at No. 1 by just a few points.


title: Noah Schnapp

text: Noah Cameron Schnapp (born October 3, 2004) is an American actor. He gained recognition for playing Will Byers in the Netflix science fiction horror series "Stranger Things". His film roles include Roger Donovan in Steven Spielberg's historical drama "Bridge of Spies" (2015) and the voice of Charlie Brown in the animated "The Peanuts Movie" (2015).


title: Noah Schnapp

text: Schnapp was born in New York City, New York, to Mitchell and Karine Schnapp (née Perez), and was raised outside of the city in the town of Scarsdale. Schnapp is Jewish and had his Bar Mitzvah in Israel. He has a twin sister. He holds Canadian citizenship. His father is of Russian Jewish descent, while his mother is of Moroccan Jewish ancestry.


title: Noah Schnapp

text: Schnapp's desire to act started when he was about five years old after watching the Broadway production of "Annie". He performed acting roles in school and community plays. When he was 8, his acting teacher suggested he attempt a professional career. Schnapp's parents enrolled him in an acting program at Westchester's Star Kidz with coach Alyson Isbrandtsen who soon referred him to MKS&D Talent Management for career opportunities.


title: Noah Schnapp

text: Schnapp attends the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in entrepreneurship and innovation. He is scheduled to graduate in 2026.


title: Noah Schnapp

text: Schnapp's acting debut was in the Academy Award-winning 2015 film "Bridge of Spies", directed by Steven Spielberg. He played Roger, the son of character James B. Donovan. Concurrently, Schnapp voiced the lead character, Charlie Brown, in the animated movie "The Peanuts Movie". He also voiced the character for the video game "".


title: Noah Schnapp

text: His breakthrough came in July 2016, when he began starring as Will Byers in the Netflix science fiction horror television series "Stranger Things". He was promoted to series regular for the second season of the series, which premiered on October 27, 2017. Schnapp also starred in independent films like "Abe" (2019) and "Waiting for Anya" (2020). He appeared in the 2020 Halloween comedy film "Hubie Halloween". In April 2022, Schnapp joined the cast of "The Tutor".


title: Noah Schnapp

text: In 2019, he launched a YouTube channel under his own name. Active for a year and a half, he primarily created vlogs and lifestyle videos. As of June 2022, the channel has 4.2million subscribers and has gained 110million views.


title: Noah Schnapp

text: In November 2021, Schnapp launched To Be Honest (TBH), a sustainability-focused snacking company. In November 2022, Schnapp announced a crowdfunding campaign for this venture on the Republic platform that aimed to raise a maximum amount of $1.235million at a $15million valuation cap.


title: Bette Davis

text: Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical films, suspense horror, and occasional comedies, although her greater successes were in romantic dramas. A recipient of two Academy Awards, she was the first thespian to accrue ten nominations.


title: Bette Davis

text: Bette Davis appeared on Broadway in New York, then the 22-year-old Davis moved to Hollywood in 1930. After some unsuccessful films, she had her critical breakthrough playing a vulgar waitress in "Of Human Bondage" (1934) although, contentiously, she was not among the three nominees for the Academy Award for Best Actress that year. The next year, her performance as a down-and-out actress in "Dangerous" (1935) did land Davis her first Best Actress nomination, and she won. In 1937, she tried to free herself from her contract with Warner Brothers Studio; although she lost the legal case, it marked the start of more than a decade as one of the most celebrated leading ladies of U.S. cinema. The same year, she starred in "Marked Woman", a film regarded as one of the most important in her early career. Davis's portrayal of a strong-willed 1850s southern belle in "Jezebel" (1938) won her a second Academy Award for Best Actress and was the first of five consecutive years in which she received a Best Actress nomination; the others were for "Dark Victory" (1939), "The Letter" (1940), "The Little Foxes" (1941) and "Now, Voyager" (1942).


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis was known for her forceful and intense style of acting and gained a reputation as a perfectionist in her craft. She could be combative and confrontational with studio executives and film directors, as well as with her co-stars, expecting the same high standard of performance and commitment from them as she expected from herself. Her forthright manner, idiosyncratic speech, and ubiquitous cigarette contributed to a public persona that has been often imitated.


title: Bette Davis

text: She played a Broadway star in "All About Eve" (1950), which earned her another Oscar nomination and won her the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress. Her last Oscar nomination was for "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962), which also starred her famous rival Joan Crawford. In the latter stage of her career, her most successful films were "Death on the Nile" (1978) and "The Whales of August" (1987). Her career went through several periods of eclipse, but despite a long period of ill health she continued acting in film and on television until shortly before her death from breast cancer in 1989. She admitted that her success had often been at the expense of her personal relationships. She was married four times, divorcing three and widowed once, when her second husband died unexpectedly. She raised her children largely as a single parent. Her daughter, B. D. Hyman, wrote a controversial memoir about her childhood, 1985's "My Mother's Keeper".


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis was the co-founder of the Hollywood Canteen, a club venue for food, dancing and entertainment for servicemen during World War II, and was the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She was also the first woman to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. In 1999, Davis was placed second behind Katharine Hepburn on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest female stars of the classical Hollywood cinema era.


title: Bette Davis

text: Ruth Elizabeth Davis, known from early childhood as "Betty", was born on April 5, 1908, in Lowell, Massachusetts, the daughter of Harlow Morrell Davis (1885–1938), a law student from Augusta, Maine, and subsequently a patent attorney, and Ruth Augusta (née Favór; 1885–1961), from Tyngsborough, Massachusetts. Davis's younger sister was Barbara Harriet.


title: Bette Davis

text: In 1915, Davis's parents separated, Davis and her sister Barbara attended, for three years, a spartan boarding school called Crestalban in Lanesborough, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires. In the fall of 1921, her mother, Ruth Davis moved to New York City, using her children's tuition money to enroll in the Clarence White School of Photography, with an apartment on 144th Street at Broadway. She then worked as a portrait photographer.


title: Bette Davis

text: The young Bette Davis later changed the spelling of her first name to Bette after "Bette Fischer", a character in Honoré de Balzac's "La Cousine Bette". During their time in New York, Davis became a Girl Scout where she became a patrol leader. Her patrol won a competitive dress parade for Lou Hoover at Madison Square Garden.


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis attended Cushing Academy, a boarding school in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, where she met her future husband, Harmon O. Nelson, known as Ham. In 1926, a then 18-year-old Davis saw a production of Henrik Ibsen's "The Wild Duck" with Blanche Yurka and Peg Entwistle. Davis later recalled, "The reason I wanted to go into theater was because of an actress named Peg Entwistle." Bette Davis interviewed with Eva Le Gallienne to be a student at her 14th Street theatre. Eva Le Gallienne felt Davis was not serious enough to attend her school, who described her attitude as "insincere" and "frivolous".


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis auditioned for George Cukor's stock theater company in Rochester, New York; although he was not very impressed, he gave Davis her first paid acting assignment – a one-week stint playing the part of a chorus girl in the play "Broadway". Ed Sikov sources Davis's first professional role to a 1929 production by the Provincetown Players of Virgil Geddes' play "The Earth Between"; however, the production was postponed by a year. In 1929, Davis was chosen by Blanche Yurka to play Hedwig, the character she had seen Entwistle play in "The Wild Duck". After performing in Philadelphia, Washington, and Boston, she made her Broadway debut in 1929 in "Broken Dishes" and followed it with "Solid South".


title: Bette Davis

text: After appearing on Broadway in New York, the 22-year-old Davis moved to Hollywood in 1930 to screen test for Universal Studios. She had been inspired to pursue a career as a film actress after seeing Mary Pickford in "Little Lord Fauntleroy". Davis and her mother travelled by train to Hollywood. She later recounted her surprise that nobody from the studio was there to meet her. In fact, a studio employee had waited for her, but left because he saw nobody who "looked like an actress". She failed her first screen test, but was used in several screen tests for other actors. In a 1971 interview with Dick Cavett, she related the experience with the observation, "I was the most Yankee-est, most modest virgin who ever walked the earth. They laid me on a couch, and I tested fifteen men ... They all had to lie on top of me and give me a passionate kiss. Oh, I thought I would die. Just thought I would die." A second test was arranged for Davis, for the 1931 film "A House Divided". Hastily dressed in an ill-fitting costume with a low neckline, she was rebuffed by the film director William Wyler, who loudly commented to the assembled crew, "What do you think of these dames who show their chests and think they can get jobs?".


title: Bette Davis

text: Carl Laemmle, the head of Universal Studios, considered terminating Davis's employment, but cinematographer Karl Freund told him she had "lovely eyes" and would be suitable for "Bad Sister" (1931), in which she subsequently made her film debut. Her nervousness was compounded when she overheard the chief of production, Carl Laemmle Jr., comment to another executive that she had "about as much sex appeal as Slim Summerville", one of the film's co-stars. The film was not a success, and her next role in "Seed" (1931) was too brief to attract attention.


title: Bette Davis

text: Universal Studios renewed her contract for three months, and she appeared in a small role in "Waterloo Bridge" (1931), before being lent to Columbia Pictures for "The Menace", and to Capital Films for "Hell's House" (all 1932). After one year, and six unsuccessful films, Laemmle elected not to renew her contract.


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis was preparing to return to New York when actor George Arliss chose Davis for the lead female role in the Warner Bros. picture "The Man Who Played God" (1932), and for the rest of her life, Davis credited him with helping her achieve her "break" in Hollywood. "The Saturday Evening Post" wrote, "She is not only beautiful, but she bubbles with charm", and compared her to Constance Bennett and Olive Borden. Warner Bros. signed her to a five-year contract, and she remained with the studio for the next 18 years.


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis's first marriage was to Harmon Oscar Nelson on August 18, 1932, in Yuma, Arizona. Their marriage was scrutinized by the press; his $100 a week earnings ($1,885 in 2020 dollars) compared unfavourably with Davis's reported $1,000 a week income ($18,850). Davis addressed the issue in an interview, pointing out that many Hollywood wives earned more than their husbands, but the situation proved difficult for Nelson, who refused to allow Davis to purchase a house until he could afford to pay for it himself. Davis had several abortions during the marriage.


title: Bette Davis

text: After more than 20 film roles, she had her critical breakthrough playing the role of the vicious and slatternly Mildred Rogers in the RKO Radio production of "Of Human Bondage" (1934), a film adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's novel, earned Davis her first major critical acclaim although, contentiously, she was not among the three nominees for the Academy Award for Best Actress that year. Many actresses feared playing unsympathetic characters, and several had refused the role, but Davis viewed it as an opportunity to show the range of her acting skills. Her co-star, Leslie Howard, was initially dismissive of her, but as filming progressed, his attitude changed, and he subsequently spoke highly of her abilities. The director John Cromwell allowed her relative freedom: "I let Bette have her head. I trusted her instincts." She insisted that she be portrayed realistically in her death scene, and said: "The last stages of consumption, poverty, and neglect are not pretty, and I intended to be convincing-looking."


title: Bette Davis

text: The film was a success, and Davis's characterization earned praise from critics, with "Life" writing that she gave "probably the best performance ever recorded on the screen by a U.S. actress". Davis anticipated that her reception would encourage Warner Bros. to cast her in more important roles, and was disappointed when Jack L. Warner refused to lend her to Columbia Studios to appear in "It Happened One Night", and instead cast her in the melodrama "Housewife". When Davis was not nominated for an Academy Award for "Of Human Bondage", "The Hollywood Citizen News" questioned the omission, and Norma Shearer, herself a nominee, joined a campaign to have Davis nominated. This prompted an announcement from the Academy president, Howard Estabrook, who said that under the circumstances, "any voter ... may write on the ballot his or her personal choice for the winners", thus allowing, for the only time in the Academy's history, the consideration of a candidate not officially nominated for an award. The uproar led, however, to a change in academy voting procedures the following year, wherein nominations were determined by votes from all eligible members of a particular branch rather than by a smaller committee, with results independently tabulated by the accounting firm Price Waterhouse.


title: Bette Davis

text: The next year, her performance as a down-and-out troubled actress in "Dangerous" (1935) received very good reviews and landed Davis her first Best Actress nomination, and she won.


title: Bette Davis

text: E. Arnot Robertson wrote in "Picture Post": "The New York Times" hailed her as "becoming one of the most interesting of our screen actresses". She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the role, but commented that it was belated recognition for "Of Human Bondage", calling the award a "consolation prize". For the rest of her life, Davis maintained that she gave the statue its familiar name of "Oscar" because its posterior resembled that of her husband, whose middle name was Oscar, although, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences officially makes reference to another story.


title: Bette Davis

text: Her next film, "The Petrified Forest" (1936), Davis co-starred with Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart.


title: Bette Davis

text: In 1937, she tried to free herself from her contract with Warner Brothers Studio; although she lost the legal case, it marked the start of more than a decade as one of the most celebrated leading ladies of U.S. cinema.


title: Bette Davis

text: Convinced that her career was being damaged by a succession of mediocre films, Davis accepted an offer in 1936 to appear in two films in Britain. Knowing that she was breaching her contract with Warner Bros., she fled to Canada to avoid legal papers being served on her. Eventually, Davis brought her case to court in Britain, hoping to get out of her contract. She later recalled the opening statement of the barrister representing Warner Bros., Patrick Hastings, in which he urged the court to "come to the conclusion that this is rather a naughty young lady, and that what she wants is more money". He mocked Davis's description of her contract as "slavery" by stating, incorrectly, that she was being paid $1,350 per week. He remarked, "If anybody wants to put me into perpetual servitude on the basis of that remuneration, I shall prepare to consider it." The British press offered little support to Davis, and portrayed her as overpaid and ungrateful.


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis explained her viewpoint to a journalist: "I knew that, if I continued to appear in any more mediocre pictures, I would have no career left worth fighting for." Her counsel presented the complaints – that she could be suspended without pay for refusing a part, with the period of suspension added to her contract, that she could be called upon to play any part within her abilities, regardless of her personal beliefs, that she could be required to support a political party against her beliefs, and that her image and likeness could be displayed in any manner deemed applicable by the studio. Jack Warner testified, and was asked: "Whatever part you choose to call upon her to play, if she thinks she can play it, whether it is distasteful and cheap, she has to play it?". Warner replied: "Yes, she must play it." Davis lost the case, and returned to Hollywood, in debt and without income, to resume her career. Olivia de Havilland mounted a similar case in 1943, and won.


title: Bette Davis

text: The same year, she starred with Humphrey Bogart in "Marked Woman", (1937) a contemporary gangster drama inspired by the case of Lucky Luciano, a film regarded as one of the most important in her early career. She was awarded the Volpi Cup at the 1937 Venice Film Festival for her performance.


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis's portrayal of a strong-willed 1850s southern belle in "Jezebel" (1938) won her a second Academy Award for Best Actress, and was the first of five consecutive years in which she received the Best Actress nomination. During production, Davis entered a relationship with director William Wyler. She later described him as the "love of my life", and said that making the film with him was "the time in my life of my most perfect happiness". The film was a success, and Davis's performance as a spoiled Southern belle earned her a second Academy Award.


title: Bette Davis

text: This led to speculation in the press that she would be chosen to play Scarlett O'Hara, a similar character, in "Gone with the Wind". Davis expressed her desire to play Scarlett, and while David O. Selznick was conducting a search for the actress to play the role, a radio poll named her as the audience favorite. Warner offered her services to Selznick as part of a deal that also included Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, but Selznick did not consider Davis as suitable, and rejected the offer, while Davis did not want Flynn cast as Rhett Butler. Newcomer Vivien Leigh was cast as Scarlett O'Hara, de Havilland landed a role as Melanie, and both of them were nominated for the Oscars, with Leigh winning.


title: Bette Davis

text: "Jezebel" marked the beginning of the most successful phase of Davis's career, and over the next few years, she was listed in the annual Quigley Poll of the Top Ten Money-Making Stars, which was compiled from the votes of movie exhibitors throughout the U.S. for the stars who had generated the most revenue in their theaters over the previous year.


title: Bette Davis

text: In contrast to Davis's success, her husband Ham Nelson had failed to establish a career for himself, and their relationship faltered. In 1938, Nelson obtained evidence that Davis was engaged in a sexual relationship with Howard Hughes, and subsequently filed for divorce, citing Davis's "cruel and inhuman manner".


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis was emotional during the making of her next film, "Dark Victory" (1939), and considered abandoning it until the producer Hal B. Wallis convinced her to channel her despair into her acting. The film was among the high-grossing films of the year, and the role of Judith Traherne brought her an Academy Award nomination. In later years, Davis cited this performance as her personal favorite. "Dark Victory" featured Ronald Reagan and Humphrey Bogart in supporting roles.


title: Bette Davis

text: She appeared in three other box-office hits in 1939: "The Old Maid" with Miriam Hopkins, "Juarez" with Paul Muni, and "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex" with Errol Flynn. The last was her first color film, and her only color film made during the height of her career. To play the elderly Elizabeth I of England, Davis shaved her hairline and eyebrows.


title: Bette Davis

text: During filming, she was visited on the set by the actor Charles Laughton. She commented that she had a "nerve" playing a woman in her 60s, to which Laughton replied: "Never not dare to hang yourself. That's the only way you grow in your profession. You must continually attempt things that you think are beyond you, or you get into a complete rut." Recalling the episode many years later, Davis remarked that Laughton's advice had influenced her throughout her career.


title: Bette Davis

text: By this time, Davis was Warner Bros.' most profitable star, and she was given the most important of their female leading roles. Her image was considered with more care; although she continued to play character roles, she was often filmed in close-ups that emphasized her distinctive eyes. "All This, and Heaven Too" (1940) was the most financially successful film of Davis's career to that point.


title: Bette Davis

text: "The Letter" (1940) was considered "one of the best pictures of the year" by "The Hollywood Reporter", and Davis won admiration for her portrayal of an adulterous killer, a role originated onstage by Katharine Cornell. During this time, she was in a relationship with her former co-star George Brent, who proposed marriage. Davis refused, as she had met Arthur Farnsworth, a New England innkeeper, and Vermont dentist's son. Davis and Farnsworth were married at Home Ranch, in Rimrock, Arizona, in December 1940, her second marriage.


title: Bette Davis

text: In January 1941, Davis became the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but antagonized the committee members with her brash manner and radical proposals. Davis rejected the idea of her being just "a figurehead only". Faced with the disapproval and resistance of the committee, Davis resigned, and was succeeded by her predecessor Walter Wanger.


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis starred in three movies in 1941, the first being "The Great Lie", with George Brent. It was a refreshingly different role for Davis as she played a kind, sympathetic character.


title: Bette Davis

text: William Wyler directed Davis for the third time in Lillian Hellman's "The Little Foxes" (1941), but they clashed over the character of Regina Giddens, a role originally played on Broadway by Tallulah Bankhead (Davis had portrayed in film a role initiated by Bankhead on the stage once beforein "Dark Victory"). Wyler encouraged Davis to emulate Bankhead's interpretation of the role, but Davis wanted to make the role her own. She received another Academy Award nomination for her performance, and never worked with Wyler again.


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis was known for her forceful and intense style of acting and gained a reputation as a perfectionist in her craft. She could be combative and confrontational with studio executives and film directors, as well as with her co-stars, expecting the same high standard of performance and commitment from them as she expected from herself. Her forthright manner, idiosyncratic speech, and ubiquitous cigarette contributed to a public persona that has been often imitated.


title: Bette Davis

text: Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Davis spent the early months of 1942 selling war bonds. After Jack Warner criticized her tendency to cajole crowds into buying, she reminded him that her audiences responded most strongly to her "bitch" performances. She sold $2 million worth of bonds in two days, as well as a picture of herself in "Jezebel" for $250,000. She also performed for black regiments as the only white member of an acting troupe formed by Hattie McDaniel, which included Lena Horne and Ethel Waters.


title: Bette Davis

text: At John Garfield's suggestion of opening a servicemen's club in Hollywood, Davis – with the aid of Warner, Cary Grant, and Jule Styne – transformed an old nightclub into the Hollywood Canteen, which opened on October 3, 1942. Hollywood's most important stars volunteered to entertain servicemen. Davis ensured that every night, a few important "names" would be there for the visiting soldiers to meet.


title: Bette Davis

text: She appeared as herself in the film "Hollywood Canteen" (1944), which used the canteen as the setting for a fictional story. Davis later commented: "There are few accomplishments in my life that I am sincerely proud of. The Hollywood Canteen is one of them." In 1980, she was awarded the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal, the United States Department of Defense's highest civilian award, for her work with the Hollywood Canteen.


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis showed little interest in the film "Now, Voyager" (1942), until Hal Wallis advised her that female audiences needed romantic dramas to distract them from the reality of their lives. It became one of the better known of her "women's pictures". In one of the film's most imitated scenes, Paul Henreid lights two cigarettes as he stares into Davis's eyes, and passes one to her. Film reviewers complimented Davis on her performance, the National Board of Review commenting that she gave the film "a dignity not fully warranted by the script".


title: Bette Davis

text: During the early 1940s, several of Davis's film choices were influenced by the war, such as "Watch on the Rhine" (1943), by Lillian Hellman, and "Thank Your Lucky Stars" (1943), a lighthearted all-star musical cavalcade, with each of the featured stars donating their fees to the Hollywood Canteen. Davis performed a novelty song, "They're Either Too Young or Too Old", which became a hit record after the film's release.


title: Bette Davis

text: "Old Acquaintance" (1943) reunited her with Miriam Hopkins in a story of two old friends who deal with the tensions created when one of them becomes a successful novelist. Davis felt that Hopkins tried to upstage her throughout the film. Director Vincent Sherman recalled the intense competition and animosity between the two actresses, and Davis often joked that she held back nothing in a scene in which she was required to shake Hopkins in a fit of anger.


title: Bette Davis

text: In August 1943, Davis's husband Arthur Farnsworth collapsed while walking along a Hollywood street, and died two days later. An autopsy revealed that his fall had been caused by a skull fracture he had sustained two weeks earlier. Davis testified before an inquest that she knew of no event that might have caused the injury. A finding of accidental death was reached. Highly distraught, Davis attempted to withdraw from her next film "Mr. Skeffington" (1944), but Jack Warner, who had halted production following Farnsworth's death, persuaded her to continue.


title: Bette Davis

text: Although she had gained a reputation for being forthright and demanding, her behavior during filming of "Mr. Skeffington" was erratic and out of character. She alienated Vincent Sherman by refusing to film certain scenes and insisting that some sets be rebuilt. She improvised dialogue, causing confusion among other actors, and infuriated the writer Julius Epstein, who was called upon to rewrite scenes at her whim. Davis later explained her actions with the observation "When I was most unhappy, I lashed out rather than whined." Some reviewers criticized Davis for the excess of her performance; James Agee wrote that she "demonstrates the horrors of egocentricity on a marathonic scale".


title: Bette Davis

text: In 1945, Davis married artist William Grant Sherry, her third husband, who also worked as a masseur. She had been drawn to him because he claimed he had never heard of her and was, therefore, not intimidated by her. The same year, Davis refused the title role in "Mildred Pierce" (1945), a role for which Joan Crawford won an Academy Award, and instead made "The Corn Is Green" (1945), based on a play by Emlyn Williams.


title: Bette Davis

text: In "The Corn Is Green" Davis played Miss Moffat, an English teacher who saves a young Welsh miner (John Dall) from a life in the coal pits, by offering him education. The part had been played in the theatre by Ethel Barrymore (who was 61 at the play's premiere), but Warner Bros. felt that the film version should depict the character as a younger woman. Davis disagreed, and insisted on playing the part as written, and wore a gray wig and padding under her clothes, to create a dowdy appearance. The film was well received by critics, and made a profit of $2.2 million. The critic E. Arnot Robertson observed: She concluded that "the subtle interpretation she insisted on giving" kept the focus on the teacher's "sheer joy in imparting knowledge".


title: Bette Davis

text: Her next film, "A Stolen Life" (1946), was the only film that Davis made with her own production company, BD Productions. Davis played dual roles, as twins. The film received poor reviews, and was described by Bosley Crowther as "a distressingly empty piece"; but, with a profit of $2.5 million, it was one of her biggest box office successes. In 1947, the U.S. Treasury named Davis as the highest-paid woman in the country, with her share of the film's profit accounting for most of her earnings. Her next film was "Deception" (1946), the first of her films to lose money.


title: Bette Davis

text: "Possessed" (1947) had been tailor-made for Davis, and was to have been her next project after "Deception". However, she was pregnant and went on maternity leave. Joan Crawford played her role in "Possessed", and was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress. In 1947, at the age of 39, Davis gave birth to daughter Barbara Davis Sherry (known as B.D.), and later wrote in her memoir that she became absorbed in motherhood and considered ending her career. As she continued making films, however, her relationship with her daughter B.D. began to deteriorate, and her popularity with audiences steadily declined.


title: Bette Davis

text: Among the film roles offered to Davis following her return to film-making was Rose Sayer in "The African Queen" (1951). When informed that the film was to be shot in Africa, Davis refused the part, telling Jack Warner "If you can't shoot the picture in a boat on the back lot, then I'm not interested." Katharine Hepburn played the role, and was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress.


title: Bette Davis

text: In 1948, Davis was cast in the melodrama "Winter Meeting". Although she initially was enthusiastic, she soon learned that Warner had arranged for "softer" lighting to be used to disguise her age. She recalled that she had seen the same lighting technique "on the sets of Ruth Chatterton and Kay Francis, and I knew what they meant". To add to her disappointment, she was not confident in the abilities of her leading man – James Davis in his first major screen role. She disagreed with changes made to the script because of censorship restrictions, and found that many of the aspects of the role that initially appealed to her had been cut. The film was described by Bosley Crowther as "interminable", and he noted that "of all the miserable dilemmas in which Miss Davis has been involved ... this one is probably the worst". It failed at the box office, and the studio lost nearly $1 million.


title: Bette Davis

text: While making "June Bride" (1948), Davis clashed with co-star Robert Montgomery, later describing him as "a male Miriam Hopkins... an excellent actor, but addicted to scene-stealing". The film marked her first comedy in several years, and earned her some positive reviews, but it was not particularly popular with audiences, and returned only a small profit.


title: Bette Davis

text: Despite the lackluster box-office receipts from her more recent films, in 1949, she negotiated a four-film contract with Warner Bros. that paid $10,285 per week and made her the highest-paid woman in the United States. However, Jack Warner had refused to allow her script approval, and cast her in "Beyond the Forest" (1949). Davis reportedly loathed the script, and begged Warner to recast the role, but he refused. After the film was completed, her request to be released from her contract was honored.


title: Bette Davis

text: The reviews of the film were scathing. Dorothy Manners, writing for the "Los Angeles Examiner", described the film as "an unfortunate finale to her brilliant career". Hedda Hopper wrote: "If Bette had deliberately set out to wreck her career, she could not have picked a more appropriate vehicle." The film contained the line "What a dump!", which became closely associated with Davis after it was referenced in Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", and impersonators began to use it in their acts. Arthur Blake was a famous female impersonator of the post World-War II era who was particularly known for his performances as Bette Davis; notably impersonating her in the 1952 film "Diplomatic Courier".


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis filmed "The Story of a Divorce" (released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1951 as "Payment on Demand"). She played a Broadway star in "All About Eve" (1950), which earned her another Oscar nomination and won her the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress. Davis read the script, described it as the best she had ever read, and accepted the role. Within days, she joined the cast in San Francisco to begin filming. During production, she established what became a lifelong friendship with her co-star Anne Baxter and a romantic relationship with her leading man Gary Merrill, which led to marriage. The film's director Joseph L. Mankiewicz later remarked: "Bette was letter perfect. She was syllable-perfect. The director's dream: the prepared actress."


title: Bette Davis

text: Critics responded positively to Davis's performance, and several of her lines became well-known, particularly "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night". She was again nominated for an Academy Award, and critics such as Gene Ringgold described her Margo as her "all-time best performance". Pauline Kael wrote that much of Mankiewicz's vision of "the theater" was "nonsense", but commended Davis, writing "[the film is] saved by one performance that is the real thing: Bette Davis is at her most instinctive and assured. Her actress – vain, scared, a woman who goes too far in her reactions and emotions – makes the whole thing come alive."


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis won a Best Actress award from the Cannes Film Festival, and the New York Film Critics Circle Award. She also received the San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award as Best Actress, having been named by them as the Worst Actress of 1949 for "Beyond the Forest". During this time, she was invited to leave her hand prints in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre.


title: Bette Davis

text: On July 3, 1950, Davis's divorce from William Sherry was finalized, and on July 28, she married Gary Merrill, her fourth and final husband. With Sherry's consent, Merrill adopted B.D., Davis's daughter with Sherry. In January 1951, Davis and Merrill adopted a five-day-old baby girl they named Margot Mosher Merrill (born January 6, 1951 - died May 5, 2022), after the character Margo Channing. Davis and Merrill lived with their three children – in 1952, they adopted a baby boy, Michael (born February 5, 1952) – on an estate on the coast of Cape Elizabeth, Maine. (Davis and Merill also stayed at Homewood Inn in Yarmouth, Maine, for six months.) After semi-retirement in the mid-1950s, Davis again starred in several movies during her time in Maine, including "The Virgin Queen" (1955), in which she played Queen Elizabeth I.


title: Bette Davis

text: The family traveled to England, where Davis and Merrill starred in the murder-mystery film "Another Man's Poison" (1951). When it received lukewarm reviews and failed at the box office, Hollywood columnists wrote that Davis's comeback had petered out, and an Academy Award nomination for "The Star" (1952) did not halt her decline at the box office.


title: Bette Davis

text: In 1952, Davis appeared in the Broadway revue "Two's Company", directed by Jules Dassin. She was uncomfortable working outside of her area of expertise; she never had been a musical performer, and her limited theater experience had been more than 20 years earlier. She was also severely ill, and was operated on for osteomyelitis of the jaw. Margot was diagnosed as severely brain-damaged due to an injury sustained during or shortly after her birth, and was placed in an institution around the age of 3. Davis and Merrill began arguing frequently, and B.D. later recalled episodes of alcohol abuse and domestic violence.


title: Bette Davis

text: Few of Davis's films of the 1950s were successful, and many of her performances were condemned by critics. "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote of mannerisms "that you'd expect to find in a nightclub impersonation of [Davis]", while the London critic Richard Winninger wrote


title: Bette Davis

text: Her films of this period included "Storm Center" (1956) and "The Catered Affair" (1956). As her career declined, her marriage continued to deteriorate until she filed for divorce in 1960. The following year, her mother died. During the same time, she tried television, appearing in three episodes of the popular NBC Western "Wagon Train" as three different characters in 1959 and 1961; her first appearance on TV had been February 25, 1956, on "General Electric Theatre".


title: Bette Davis

text: In 1960, Davis, a registered Democrat, appeared at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, where she met future President John F. Kennedy, whom she greatly admired. Outside of acting and politics, Davis was an active and practicing Episcopalian.


title: Bette Davis

text: In 1961, Davis opened in the Broadway production "The Night of the Iguana" to mostly mediocre reviews, and left the production after four months due to "chronic illness". She then joined Glenn Ford and Hope Lange for the Frank Capra film "Pocketful of Miracles" (1961), a remake of Capra's 1933 film, "Lady for a Day", based on a story by Damon Runyon. Exhibitors protested her star billing as they considered it would negatively impact the box office performance and, despite the appearance of Ford, the film failed at the box office.


title: Bette Davis

text: Her last Oscar nomination was for the Grand Guignol horror film "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962), which also starred Joan Crawford. Joan Crawford showed interest in the script and considered Davis for the part of Jane. Davis believed it could appeal to the same audience that had recently made Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" (1960) a success. She negotiated a deal that would pay her 10 percent of the worldwide gross profits in addition to her salary. The film became one of the year's big successes.


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis and Crawford played two aging sisters, former actresses forced by circumstance to share a decaying Hollywood mansion. The director, Robert Aldrich, explained that Davis and Crawford were each aware of how important the film was to their respective careers, and commented: "It's proper to say that they really detested each other, but they behaved absolutely perfectly.".


title: Bette Davis

text: After filming was completed, their public comments against each other allowed the tension to develop into a lifelong feud. When Davis was nominated for an Academy Award, Crawford contacted the other Best Actress nominees (who were unable to attend the ceremonies) and offered to accept the award on their behalf, should they win. When Anne Bancroft was announced as winner, Crawford accepted the award on Bancroft's behalf. Despite their dislike for each other, Davis and Crawford spoke highly of each other's talent in acting. Crawford said Davis was a "fascinating actress" but they were never able to become friends as they only worked on the one film together. Davis also said Crawford was a good, professional actress, but cared a lot about the way she looked, and her vanity. Their feud was eventually turned into the 2017 limited series "Feud" by Ryan Murphy.


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis also received her only BAFTA nomination for this performance. Daughter Barbara (credited as B.D. Merrill) played a small role in the film, and when she and Davis visited the Cannes Film Festival to promote it, Barbara met Jeremy Hyman, an executive for Seven Arts Productions. After a short courtship, she married Hyman at the age of 16, with Davis's permission.


title: Bette Davis

text: In October 1962, it was announced that four episodes of the CBS-TV series "Perry Mason" would feature special guest stars who would cover for Raymond Burr during his convalescence from surgery. A "Perry Mason" fan, Davis was the first of the guest stars. "The Case of Constant Doyle" began filming on December 12, 1962, and aired January 31, 1963.


title: Bette Davis

text: In 1962, Davis appeared as Celia Miller on the TV western "The Virginian" in the episode titled "The Accomplice."


title: Bette Davis

text: In September 1962, Davis placed an advertisement in "Variety" under the heading of "Situations wanted – women artists", which read: "Mother of three – 10, 11, & 15 – divorcee. American. Thirty years experience as an actress in Motion Pictures. Mobile still, and more affable than rumor would have it. Wants steady employment in Hollywood. (Has had Broadway.)" Davis said that she intended it as a joke, and she sustained her comeback over the course of several years.


title: Bette Davis

text: "Dead Ringer" (1964) was a crime drama in which she played twin sisters. The film was an American adaptation of the Mexican film "La Otra", starring Dolores del Río. "Where Love Has Gone" (1964) was a romantic drama based on a Harold Robbins novel. Davis played the mother of Susan Hayward, but filming was hampered by heated arguments between Davis and Hayward.


title: Bette Davis

text: "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte" (1964) was Robert Aldrich's follow-up to "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?". Aldrich planned to reunite Davis and Crawford, but the latter withdrew allegedly due to illness soon after filming began. She was replaced by Olivia de Havilland. The film was a considerable success, and brought renewed attention to its veteran cast, which included Joseph Cotten, Mary Astor, Agnes Moorehead, and Cecil Kellaway.


title: Bette Davis

text: The following year, Davis was cast as the lead in an Aaron Spelling sitcom, "The Decorator". A pilot episode was filmed, but was not shown, and the project was terminated. By the end of the decade, Davis had appeared in the British films "The Nanny" (1965), "The Anniversary" (1968), and "Connecting Rooms" (1970), none of which were reviewed well, and her career again stalled.


title: Bette Davis

text: In the early 1970s, Davis was invited to appear in New York City in a stage presentation titled "Great Ladies of the American Cinema". Over five successive nights, a different female star discussed her career, and answered questions from the audience; Myrna Loy, Rosalind Russell, Lana Turner, Sylvia Sidney, and Joan Crawford were the other participants. Davis was well-received, and was invited to tour Australia with the similarly themed "Bette Davis in Person and on Film"; its success allowed her to take the production to the United Kingdom.


title: Bette Davis

text: In 1972, Davis played the lead role in two television films that were each intended as pilots for upcoming series for ABC and NBC, "Madame Sin", with Robert Wagner, and "The Judge and Jake Wyler", with Doug McClure and Joan Van Ark, but in each case, the network decided against producing a series.


title: Bette Davis

text: She appeared in the stage production "Miss Moffat", a musical adaptation of her film "The Corn Is Green", but after the show was panned by the Philadelphia critics during its pre-Broadway run, she cited a back injury, and abandoned the show, which closed immediately.


title: Bette Davis

text: She played supporting roles in Luigi Comencini's "Lo Scopone scientifico" (1972) with Joseph Cotten and Italian actors Alberto Sordi and Silvana Mangano, "Burnt Offerings" (1976), a Dan Curtis film, and "The Disappearance of Aimee" (1976), but she clashed with Karen Black and Faye Dunaway, the stars of the two latter respective productions, because she felt that neither extended her an appropriate degree of respect and that their behavior on the film sets was unprofessional.


title: Bette Davis

text: In 1977, Davis became the first woman to receive the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award. The televised event included comments from several of Davis's colleagues, including William Wyler, who joked that given the chance, Davis would still like to re-film a scene from "The Letter" to which Davis nodded. Jane Fonda, Henry Fonda, Natalie Wood, and Olivia de Havilland were among the performers who paid tribute, with de Havilland commenting that Davis "got the roles I always wanted".


title: Bette Davis

text: Following the telecast, she found herself in demand again, often having to choose between several offers. She accepted roles in the television miniseries "The Dark Secret of Harvest Home" (1978) and the theatrical film "Death on the Nile" (1978), an Agatha Christie murder mystery. The bulk of her remaining work was for television. She won an Emmy Award for "" (1979) with Gena Rowlands, and was nominated for her performances in "White Mama" (1980) and "Little Gloria... Happy at Last" (1982). She also played supporting roles in the Disney films "Return from Witch Mountain" (1978) and "The Watcher in the Woods" (1980).


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis's name became well known to a younger audience when Kim Carnes's song "Bette Davis Eyes" (written by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon) became a worldwide hit and the best-selling record of 1981 in the U.S., where it stayed at number one on the music charts for more than two months. Davis's grandson was impressed that she was the subject of a hit song and Davis considered it a compliment, writing to both Carnes and the songwriters, and accepting the gift of gold and platinum records from Carnes, and hanging them on her wall.


title: Bette Davis

text: She continued acting for television, appearing in "Family Reunion" (1981) with her grandson J. Ashley Hyman, "A Piano for Mrs. Cimino" (1982), and "Right of Way" (1983) with James Stewart. In 1983, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award.


title: Bette Davis

text: Her career went through several periods of eclipse, but despite a long period of ill health she continued acting in film and on television until shortly before her death from breast cancer in 1989. She admitted that her success had often been at the expense of her personal relationships. She was married four times, divorcing three and widowed once. She raised her children largely as a single parent.


title: Bette Davis

text: In 1983, after filming the pilot episode for the television series "Hotel", Davis was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. Within two weeks of her surgery, she had four strokes which caused paralysis in the left side of her face and in her left arm, and left her with slurred speech. She commenced a lengthy period of physical therapy, and aided by her personal assistant Kathryn Sermak gained partial recovery from the paralysis. Even late in life, Davis smoked 100 cigarettes per day.


title: Bette Davis

text: During this time, her relationship with her daughter B.D. Hyman deteriorated when Hyman became a born-again Christian and attempted to persuade Davis to follow suit. With her health stable, she traveled to England to film the Agatha Christie mystery "Murder with Mirrors" (1985). Upon her return, she learned that Hyman had published "My Mother's Keeper", in which she chronicled a difficult mother-daughter relationship and depicted scenes of Davis's overbearing and drunken behavior.


title: Bette Davis

text: Several of Davis's friends commented that Hyman's depiction of events was not accurate; one said "So much of the book is out of context". Mike Wallace re-broadcast a "60 Minutes" interview he had filmed with Hyman a few years earlier in which she commended Davis on her skills as a mother, and said that she had adopted many of Davis's principles in raising her own children.


title: Bette Davis

text: Critics of Hyman noted that Davis financially supported the Hyman family for several years and had recently saved them from losing their house. Despite the acrimony of their divorce years earlier, Gary Merrill also defended Davis. Interviewed by CNN, Merrill said that Hyman was motivated by "cruelty and greed". Davis's adopted son Michael Merrill ended contact with Hyman, and refused to speak to her again, as did Davis, who disinherited her.


title: Bette Davis

text: In her second memoir "This 'n That" (1987), Davis wrote: "I am still recovering from the fact that a child of mine would write about me behind my back, to say nothing about the kind of book it is. I will never recover as completely from B.D.'s book as I have from the stroke. Both were shattering experiences." Her memoir concluded with a letter to her daughter, in which she addressed her several times as Hyman, and described her actions as "a glaring lack of loyalty and thanks for the very privileged life I feel you have been given". She concluded with a reference to the title of Hyman's book, "If it refers to money, if my memory serves me right, I've been your keeper all these many years. I am continuing to do so, as my name has made your book about me a success."


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis appeared in the television film "As Summers Die" (1986), and in Lindsay Anderson's film "The Whales of August" (1987), in which she played the blind sister of Lillian Gish. Though in poor health at the time, Davis memorized her own and everyone else's lines as she always had. The film earned good reviews, with one critic writing: "Bette crawls across the screen like a testy old hornet on a windowpane, snarling, staggering, twitching – a symphony of misfired synapses." Davis became an honouree of the Kennedy Center Honors for her contribution to films in 1987.


title: Bette Davis

text: Her last performance was the title role in Larry Cohen's "Wicked Stepmother" (1989). By this time, her health was failing, and after disagreements with Cohen, she walked off the set. The script was rewritten to place more emphasis on Barbara Carrera's character, and the reworked version was released after Davis's death.


title: Bette Davis

text: After abandoning "Wicked Stepmother", and with no further film offers (though she was keen to play the centenarian in Craig Calman's "The Turn of the Century", and worked with him on adapting the stage play to a feature-length screenplay), Davis appeared on several talk shows, and was interviewed by Johnny Carson, Joan Rivers, Larry King, and David Letterman, discussing her career, but refusing to discuss her daughter. Her appearances were popular; Lindsay Anderson observed that the public enjoyed seeing her behaving "so bitchy": "I always disliked that because she was encouraged to behave badly. And I'd always hear her described by that awful word, feisty."


title: Bette Davis

text: During 1988 and 1989, Davis was honored for her career achievements, receiving the Legion of Honor from France, the Campione d'Italia from Italy, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center Lifetime Achievement Award. She appeared on British television in a special broadcast from the South Bank Centre, discussing film and her career, the other guest being the renowned Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky.


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis collapsed during the American Cinema Awards in 1989, and later discovered that her cancer had returned. She recovered sufficiently to travel to Spain, where she was honored at the Donostia-San Sebastián International Film Festival, but during her visit, her health rapidly deteriorated. Too weak to make the long journey back to the U.S., she traveled to France, where she died on October 6, 1989, at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Davis was 81 years old. A memorial tribute was held by invitation only at Burbank Studio's stage 18 where a work light was turned on signaling the end of production.


title: Bette Davis

text: She was entombed in Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, alongside her mother Ruthie and sister Bobby, with her name in larger letters. On her tombstone is written: "She did it the hard way", an epitaph that she mentioned in her memoir "Mother Goddam" as having been suggested to her by Joseph L. Mankiewicz shortly after they had filmed "All About Eve".


title: Bette Davis

text: In 1964, Jack Warner spoke of the "magic quality that transformed this sometimes bland and not beautiful little girl into a great artist", and in a 1988 interview, Davis remarked that, unlike many of her contemporaries, she had forged a career without the benefit of beauty. She admitted she was terrified during the making of her early films, and that she became tough by necessity. "Until you're known in my profession as a monster, you are not a star", she said, "[but] I've never fought for anything in a treacherous way. I've never fought for anything but the good of the film." During the making of "All About Eve" (1950), Joseph L. Mankiewicz told her of the perception in Hollywood that she was difficult, and she explained that when the audience saw her on screen, they did not consider that her appearance was the result of numerous people working behind the scenes. If she was presented as "a horse's ass ... forty feet wide, and thirty feet high", that is all the audience "would see or care about".


title: Bette Davis

text: While lauded for her achievements, Davis and her films were sometimes derided; Pauline Kael described "Now, Voyager" (1942) as a "shlock classic", and by the mid-1940s, her sometimes mannered and histrionic performances had become the subject of caricature. Edwin Schallert, for the "Los Angeles Times", praised Davis's performance in "Mr. Skeffington" (1944), while observing, "The mimics will have more fun than a box of monkeys imitating Miss Davis"; and Dorothy Manners, at the "Los Angeles Examiner", said of her performance in the poorly received "Beyond the Forest" (1949): "No night club caricaturist has ever turned in such a cruel imitation of the Davis mannerisms as Bette turns on herself in this one." "Time" magazine noted that Davis was compulsively watchable, even while criticizing her acting technique, summarizing her performance in "Dead Ringer" (1964) with the observation, "Her acting, as always, isn't really acting: It's shameless showing off. But just try to look away!"


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis attracted a following in the gay subculture, and was frequently imitated by female impersonators such as Tracey Lee, Craig Russell, Jim Bailey, and Charles Pierce. Attempting to explain her popularity with gay audiences, the journalist Jim Emerson wrote: "Was she just a camp figurehead because her brittle, melodramatic style of acting hadn't aged well? Or was it that she was 'Larger Than Life', a tough broad who had survived? Probably some of both."


title: Bette Davis

text: Her film choices were often unconventional: Davis sought roles as manipulators and killers in an era when actresses usually preferred to play sympathetic characters, and she excelled in them. She favored authenticity over glamour, and was willing to change her own appearance if it suited the character.


title: Bette Davis

text: As she entered old age, Davis was acknowledged for her achievements. John Springer, who had arranged her speaking tours of the early 1970s, wrote that despite the accomplishments of many of her contemporaries, Davis was "the star of the thirties and into the forties", achieving notability for the variety of her characterizations and her ability to assert herself, even when her material was mediocre. Individual performances continued to receive praise; in 1987, Bill Collins analyzed "The Letter" (1940), and described her performance as "a brilliant, subtle achievement", and wrote: "Bette Davis makes Leslie Crosbie one of the most extraordinary females in movies." In a 2000 review for "All About Eve" (1950), Roger Ebert noted: "Davis was a character, an icon with a grand style; so, even her excesses are realistic." In "House of Wax" (2005), in her attempt to blend in with the other wax figures in the local movie house, the lead female character has to sit through a scene from "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane ." In 2006, "Premiere" magazine ranked her portrayal of Margo Channing in the film as fifth on their list of 100 Greatest Performances of All Time, commenting: "There is something deliciously audacious about her gleeful willingness to play such unattractive emotions as jealousy, bitterness, and neediness." While reviewing "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962) in 2008, Ebert asserted that, "No one who has seen the film will ever forget her."


title: Bette Davis

text: A few months before her death in 1989, Davis was one of several actors featured on the cover of "Life" magazine. In a film retrospective that celebrated the films and stars of 1939, "Life" concluded that Davis was the most significant actress of her era, and highlighted "Dark Victory" (1939) as one of the more important films of the year. Her death made front-page news throughout the world as the "close of yet another chapter of the Golden Age of Hollywood". Angela Lansbury summarized the feeling of those of the Hollywood community who attended her memorial service, commenting, after a sample from Davis's films was screened, that they had witnessed "an extraordinary legacy of acting in the twentieth century by a real master of the craft" that should provide "encouragement and illustration to future generations of aspiring actors".


title: Bette Davis

text: In 1977, Davis became the first woman to be honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award. In 1999, the American Film Institute published its list of the "AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars", which was the result of a film-industry poll to determine the "50 Greatest American Screen Legends" in order to raise public awareness and appreciation of classic film. Of the 25 actresses listed, Davis was ranked at number two, behind Katharine Hepburn.


title: Bette Davis

text: The United States Postal Service honored Davis with a commemorative postage stamp in 2008, marking the 100th anniversary of her birth. The stamp features an image of her in the role of Margo Channing in "All About Eve". The First Day of Issue celebration took place September 18, 2008, at Boston University, which houses an extensive Davis archive. Featured speakers included her son Michael Merrill and Lauren Bacall. In 1997, the executors of her estate, Merrill and Kathryn Sermak, her former assistant, established The Bette Davis Foundation, which awards college scholarships to promising actors and actresses.


title: Bette Davis

text: In 2017, Sermak published the memoir "Miss D & Me: Life With the Invincible Bette Davis", a book Davis had requested Sermak write, detailing their years spent together.


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis established several Oscar milestones. Among them, she became the first person to earn five consecutive Academy Award nominations for acting, all in the Best Actress category (1938–1942). Her record has only been matched by one other performer, Greer Garson, who also earned five consecutive nominations in the Best Actress category (1941–1945), including three years when both these actresses were nominated.


title: Bette Davis

text: In 1962, Bette Davis became the first person to secure 10 Academy Award nominations for acting (though one could argue her 10th nomination was in 1952, and her 11th in 1962, as her write-in nomination for "Of Human Bondage" remains a source of contention (she came in 3rd in the voting, ahead of official nominee Grace Moore). Since then only three people have surpassed this figure, Meryl Streep (with 21 nominations and three wins), Katharine Hepburn (12 nominations and 4 wins), and Jack Nicholson (12 nominations and 3 wins) with Laurence Olivier matching the number (10 nominations and 1 win).


title: Bette Davis

text: Steven Spielberg purchased Davis's Oscars for "Dangerous" (1935) and "Jezebel" (1938), when they were offered for auction for $207,500 and $578,000, respectively, and returned them to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.


title: Bette Davis

text: Davis's performance in "Of Human Bondage" (1934) was widely acclaimed and, when she was not nominated for an Academy Award, several influential people mounted a campaign to have her name included. The Academy relaxed its rules for that year (and the following year also) to allow for the consideration of any performer nominated in a write-in vote; therefore, any performance of the year was technically eligible for consideration. For a period of time in the 1930s, the Academy revealed the second- and third-place vote getters in each category: Davis placed third for best actress above the officially nominated Grace Moore.


title: Kingdom of Prussia

text: The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1871 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918. Although it took its name from the region called Prussia, it was based in the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Its capital was Berlin.


title: Kingdom of Prussia

text: The kings of Prussia were from the House of Hohenzollern. Brandenburg-Prussia, predecessor of the kingdom, became a military power under Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, known as "The Great Elector". As a kingdom, Prussia continued its rise to power, especially during the reign of Frederick II, more commonly known as Frederick the Great, who was the third son of Frederick William I. Frederick the Great was instrumental in starting the Seven Years' War (1756–63), holding his own against Austria, Russia, France and Sweden and establishing Prussia's role in the German states, as well as establishing the country as a European great power. After the might of Prussia was revealed, it was considered as a major power among the German states. Throughout the next hundred years Prussia went on to win many battles, and many wars. Because of its power, Prussia continuously tried to unify all the German states (excluding the German cantons in Switzerland) under its rule, and whether Austria would be included in such a unified German domain was an ongoing question. After the Napoleonic Wars led to the creation of the German Confederation, the issue of unifying the German states caused a number of revolutions throughout the German states, with all states wanting to have their own constitution. Attempts to create a federation remained unsuccessful and the German Confederation collapsed in 1866 when war ensued between its two most powerful member states, Prussia and Austria.


title: Kingdom of Prussia

text: Prussia was subsequently the driving force behind establishing in 1866 the North German Confederation, transformed in 1871 into the unified German Empire and considered the earliest continual legal predecessor of today's Federal Republic of Germany. The North German Confederation was seen as more of an alliance of military strength in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War but many of its laws were later used in the German Empire. The German Empire lasted from 1871 to 1918 with the successful unification of all the German states aside from Austria and Switzerland under Prussian hegemony, due to the defeat of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. The war united all the German states against a common enemy, and with the victory came an overwhelming wave of nationalism which changed the opinions of some of those who had been against unification.


title: Kingdom of Prussia

text: The formal abolition of Prussia, carried out on 25 February 1947 by the Allied Control Council, referred to a tradition of the kingdom as a bearer of militarism and reaction, and made way for the current setup of the German states. However, the Free State of Prussia ('), which followed the abolition of the Kingdom of Prussia in the aftermath of World War I, was a major democratic force in Weimar Germany until the nationalist coup of 1932 known as the Preußenschlag. The kingdom left a significant cultural legacy, today notably promoted by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation ('), which has become one of the largest cultural organisations in the world.


title: Kingdom of Prussia

text: Frederick, Margrave of Ansbach, sided with Sigismund of Hungary in his 1410–11 dispute with Jobst of Moravia for the titles King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor-elect. At the 1415 Council of Constance Sigismund rewarded Frederick with the Margraviate of Brandenburg and in 1417 he was made a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire.


title: Kingdom of Prussia

text: After the Polish wars, the newly established Baltic towns of the German states, including Prussia, suffered many economic setbacks. Many of the Prussian towns could not even afford to attend political meetings outside of Prussia. The towns were poverty-stricken, with even the largest town, Danzig, forced to borrow money from elsewhere to pay for trade. Poverty in these towns was partly caused by Prussia's neighbours, who had established and developed such a monopoly on trading that these new towns simply could not compete. These issues led to feuds, wars, trade competition and invasions. However, the fall of these towns gave rise to the nobility, separated the east and the west, and allowed the urban middle class of Brandenburg to prosper.


title: Kingdom of Prussia

text: It was clear in 1440 how different Brandenburg was from the other German territories, as it faced two dangers that the other German territories did not: partition from within and the threat of invasion by its neighbours. It prevented partition by enacting the Dispositio Achillea, which instilled the principle of primogeniture to both the Brandenburg and Franconian territories. The second issue was resolved through expansion. Brandenburg was surrounded on every side by neighbours whose boundaries were merely political. Any neighbour could attack and consume Brandenburg at any moment. The only way to defend herself was to absorb her neighbours before they absorbed her. Through negotiations and marriages Brandenburg slowly but surely expanded her borders, absorbing neighbours and eliminating the threat of attack.


title: Kingdom of Prussia

text: The Hohenzollerns were made rulers of the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1518. In 1529 the Hohenzollerns secured the reversion of the Duchy of Pomerania after a series of conflicts, and acquired its eastern part following the Peace of Westphalia.


title: Kingdom of Prussia

text: In 1618 the electors of Brandenburg also inherited the Duchy of Prussia, since 1511 ruled by a younger branch of the House of Hohenzollern. In 1525, Albrecht of Brandenburg, the last grand master of the Teutonic Order, secularized his territory and converted it into a duchy. It was ruled in a personal union with Brandenburg, known as "Brandenburg-Prussia". A full union was not possible, since Brandenburg was still legally part of the Holy Roman Empire and the Duchy of Prussia was a fief of Poland. The Teutonic Order had paid homage to Poland since 1466, and the Hohenzollerns continued to pay homage after secularizing Ducal Prussia.


title: Kingdom of Prussia

text: In the course of the Second Northern War, the treaties of Labiau and Wehlau-Bromberg granted the Hohenzollerns full sovereignty over the Prussian duchy by September 1657.


title: Kingdom of Prussia

text: In return for an alliance against France in the War of the Spanish Succession, the Great Elector's son, Frederick III, was allowed to elevate Prussia to a kingdom in the Crown Treaty of 16 November 1700. Frederick crowned himself "King in Prussia" as Frederick I on 18 January 1701. Legally, no kingdoms could exist in the Holy Roman Empire except for Bohemia. However, Frederick took the line that since Prussia had never been part of the empire and the Hohenzollerns were fully sovereign over it, he could elevate Prussia to a kingdom.


title: Kingdom of Prussia

text: The style "King "in" Prussia" was adopted to acknowledge the legal fiction that the Hohenzollerns were legally kings only in their former duchy. In Brandenburg and the portions of their domains that were within the Empire, they were still legally only electors under the overlordship of the emperor. However, by this time the emperor's authority was only nominal. The rulers of the empire's various territories acted largely as the rulers of sovereign states, and only acknowledged the emperor's suzerainty in a formal way. In addition, the Duchy was only the eastern bulk of the region of Prussia; the westernmost fragment constituted the part of Royal Prussia east of Vistula, held along with the title "King of Prussia" by the King of Poland. While the personal union between Brandenburg and Prussia legally continued until the end of the empire in 1806, from 1701 onward Brandenburg was "de facto" treated as an integral part of the kingdom. Since the Hohenzollerns were nominally still subjects of the emperor within the parts of their domains that were part of the empire, they continued to use the additional title of Elector of Brandenburg until the empire was dissolved. It was not until 1772 that the title "King "of" Prussia" was ceded along with Royal Prussia to the King in Prussia by the Polish monarch, following the First Partition of Poland.


title: Kingdom of Prussia

text: The Kingdom of Prussia was still recovering from the devastation of the Thirty Years' War and poor in natural resources. Its territory was disjointed, stretching from the lands of the Duchy of Prussia on the south-east coast of the Baltic Sea to the Hohenzollern heartland of Brandenburg, with the exclaves of Cleves, Mark and Ravensberg in the Rhineland. In 1708 about one third of the population of East-Prussia died during the Great Northern War plague outbreak. The bubonic plague reached Prenzlau in August 1710 but receded before it could reach the capital Berlin, which was only away.