By the 1960s, Bette was past her prime as a romantic leading lady and the few interesting characters she found to play appeared primarily in horror films. At right, Bette with Joan Crawford in WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962), her tenth and final Oscar nomination.

Even More Memorable Quotations:

• "What a dump!" as Rosa Moline in BEYOND THE FOREST (1949).
• "There's only one person in this town that does anybody a real favor. That's the undertaker--carries them out." --as Rosa Moline in BEYOND THE FOREST (1949) (a WAV file).
• "I don't want people to like me. Nothing pleases me more than when they don't like me--means I don't belong." --as Rosa Moline in BEYOND THE FOREST (1949).
• "If I don't get out of here, I'll die. If I don't get out of here, I hope I die... and burn." --as Rosa Moline in BEYOND THE FOREST (1949).
• "Going... going... gone." --as Margaret Elliot in THE STAR (1952).
• "Come on, Oscar. Let's you and me get drunk." --as Margaret Elliot in THE STAR (1952).
• "I wonder if you can guess who I am." --as Jane Hudson in WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE (1962).
• "Loved? You never loved anybody but yourself!"--as Edith Phillips in DEAD RINGER (1964) (a WAV file).
• "You're a vile, sorry little bitch." --as Charlotte in HUSH... HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE (1965).
• "Very well, Master Joey. I swear." --as Nanny in THE NANNY (1965).

(For help opening any of the multimedia files, visit the plug-ins page.)

Originally intended as a reunion horror film for Bette and Joan Crawford after the success of BABY JANE in 1962, HUSH... HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE (1965), eventually co-starred Bette's longtime friend from the Warner Bros. lot, Olivia de Havilland, as well as Joseph Cotten, Mary Astor and Agnes Moorehead.

Continuing her success in horror films, only this time across the Atlantic in Britain, Bette demurely haunted William Dix in plain sight of his mother and aunt, Wendy Craig and Jill Bennett, in THE NANNY (1965).

In one of her final horror films, Bette played haunted house neighbor Mrs. Aylwood in Disney's 1980 thriller WATCHER IN THE WOODS, co-starring Carroll Baker and a young Kyle Richards (with Bette at left).

Further Reading:

• The lonely life: an autobiography by Bette Davis (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, c1962).
• The Women of Warner Brothers: The Lives and Careers of 15 Leading Ladies by Daniel Bubbeo (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2002).

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