Bette Davis Movies

Bette Davis was voted as the 2nd greatest actress of all time according to the American Film Institute.

Bette Davis was voted as the 2nd greatest actress of all time according to the American Film Institute.

Want to know the best Bette Davis movies?  How about the worst Bette Davis movies?  Curious about Bette Davis’s box office grosses or which Bette Davis movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Bette Davis movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which one got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place…. because we have all of that information and much more.

Bette Davis (1908-1989), a two time Oscar® winning actress. She was voted as the second greatest actress of all-time according to the American Film Institute. Her movie career started in 1931 and ended only months before her death in 1989. According to IMDB, she had 122 television and movie credits over her career.

The American Film Institute lists the Top 25 Actors and Top 25 Actresses of all-time that appeared in a movie before 1950. My new movie page goal is to write a page on all 50 of the performers. So far I have done 17 of the 25 actors, but only 11 of the 25 actresses. So this Bette Davis page will be the 11th actress that I have written about on that list.

Her IMDb page shows 123 acting credits from 1931-1989. This page ranks 79 Bette Davis movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos, some early 1930 Davis movies and movies that were not released in North American theaters were not included in the rankings.

Hattie McDaniel and Bette Davis in 1941's The Great Lie

Hattie McDaniel and Bette Davis in 1941’s The Great Lie

Bette Davis Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

79 Bette Davis Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Blue Movie Title is a link that will take to that movie’s trailer
  • Sort Bette Davis movies by co-stars of her movies
  • Sort Bette Davis movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Bette Davis movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions) *** if domestic and worldwide box office are the same…then worldwide is unknown
  • Sort Bette Davis movies by how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Bette Davis movie received.
  • Sort Bette Davis movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
  • Use the search and sort buttons to make this page very interactive….for example type Bogart in the search box and all 6 Bogart/Davis movies will pop up or type in *** in the search box and all of Davis Oscar® nominated performances will pop up.
Bette Davis in 1938's Jezebel

Bette Davis in 1938’s Jezebel

Possibly Interesting Facts About Bette Davis

1. Bette Davis made her movie debut in 1931’s The Bad Sister. The movie also starred another newcomer, Humphrey Bogart. Davis and Bogart would appear in 6 movies together from 1931 to 1939.

2. Bette Davis was nominated 11 times for a Best Actress Oscar®. She won twice…..1935’s Dangerous and 1938’s Jezebel. Only one of her films won the Best Picture Oscar®….1950’s All About Eve.

3. Bette Davis holds the record with Greer Garson for most years in a row to receive an Oscar® nomination…..5 years in a row. Davis was nominated every year from 1938-1942. Garson did the same accomplishment 1941-1945.

4. Bette Davis was married four times in her life. Her marriages to Harmon Nelson (1932-1939) and Arthur Farnsworth (1940-till his death in 1943) produced no children. She had one daughter with her third husband William Sherry(1945-1950) and two adopted children(boy and a girl) with fourth husband Gary Merrill(1950-1960).

5. Roles Bette Davis turned down or was seriously considered for during her career: Cool Hand Luke, The African Queen, Come Back Little Sheba, 1931’s Frankenstein, Mary Poppins and Gone With The Wind. Davis really wanted the Scarlett O’Hara role but her studio would not allow her to work for another studio.

6. Bette Davis and Lucille Ball both attended the John Murray Anderson Dramatic School. Davis was the star of the school, while Ball was sent home because she was too shy to become an actress.

7. Bette Davis was one of the founders of the Hollywood Canteen in 1942. The Hollywood Canteen was a nightclub where soldiers passing through Los Angeles during World War II got to see Hollywood stars perform live on stage. Often Davis would spend all day making a movie and all night performing for soldiers at the Hollywood Canteen. She felt that the Hollywood Canteen was one of her greatest accomplishments.

8. Bette Davis once sold over two million dollars worth of war bonds for the troops during World War II in only two days.

9. In 1981 Kim Carnes released the song “Bette Davis Eyes”. The song would reach number one and earn gold and platinum record status. Bette Davis Eyes helped Davis be discovered by a new generation.

10. One of the best collection of Bette Davis fans can be found on Facebook at Bette Davis Babylon.  If you are a Bette Davis you have to join this group….it is easily the best movie group on Facebook that I have come across….and I am in many Facebook movie groups.

Check out Bette Davis‘s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

Steve Lensman’s Bette Davis You Tube Video

For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.

184 thoughts on “Bette Davis Movies

  1. To me she was the best actress. She could play any part and did. Her expressions were the best of ant star, it made the movie. She is missed and we are so great full to have had her. I am so thankful we are able to enjoy her movies, I watch them over and over again. I wish we could have a whole week of her movies to see one we might have. Missed but it would be longer then a week to see all of her movies. ?

  2. My favourite actress of all time I watch her DVDs every nite far better than anything on the TV ???

  3. Bette Davis is the TCM Star of the Month for November. Each Tuesday in November, TCM will air 24 hours of Bette Davis movies starting at 6am Eastern/3am Pacific.

    1. Hey Flora…thanks for sharing this information on Bette Davis being TCM’s Star of the Month for November…..she has so many good movies…yet…I wonder if her worst movie, Trog, made the calendar. Good stuff as always.

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