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Bette Midler
Age: 64
Height: 5' 1"
Birth Place: Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Born: Dec. 1st, 1945
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Bette Midler's Main TV Roles
NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at
IMDB
BIOGRAPHY: Multi Grammy Award-winning singer/comedienne/author who has also proven herself to be a very capable actress in a string of both dramatic and comedic roles, Bette Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on December 1, 1945. She studied drama at the University of Hawaii and got her musical career started by performing in gay bathhouses with piano accompaniment from Barry Manilow. Her first album was "The Divine Miss M" released in November 1972, followed by the self-titled "Bette Midler" released in November 1973, both of which took off up the music charts, and Bette's popularity swiftly escalated from there.
After minor roles in several film/TV productions, she surprised all with her knockout performance of a hard-living rock-and-roll singer (loosely based on the life of Janis Joplin) in The Rose (1979), for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. In 1986, director Paul Mazursky cast Midler opposite Nick Nolte and Richard Dreyfuss in the hilarious Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), and so began a string of very funny comedic film roles. She played an obnoxious wife who was the victim of a kidnap plot by her scoundrel husband, played by Danny DeVito, in Ruthless People (1986), was pursued by CIA and KGB spies in Outrageous Fortune (1987), played mismatched twins with Lily Tomlin in Big Business (1988) and shone in the tear-jerker Beaches (1988).
Bette matched feisty James Caan (I) in the WWII drama For the Boys (1991), made a dynamic trio with Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton in The First Wives Club (1996), was back on screen with DeVito for the tepid comedy Drowning Mona (2000) and turned up in the glossy remake of The Stepford Wives (2004). Apart from her four Grammy awards, Bette Midler has also won four Golden Globes, one Tony Award, and three Emmy Awards, plus she has sold in excess of 15 million albums worldwide. Most recently, she toured with her sassy "Kiss My Brass" show, and is promoting her album "Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook".
TRIVIA:
- Graduated from Radford High School, Honolulu, Hawaii in 1963
- When The American Film Institute announced "The 100 Years of the Greatest Songs" on June 22, 2004, two of her hits were selected: "Wind Beneath My Wings" from _Beaches (1988)_ (qv) (#44), "The Rose" from _The Rose (1979)_ (qv), (#83).
- Can be seen in the crowd as an extra in _Hawaii (1966)_ (qv) (1966) as a seasick passenger aboard a ship listening to a preacher, played by 'Max von Sydow (I)' (qv). Midler was also hired for a small speaking role in the film and went to Los Angeles to film these scenes in a studio. Her scenes were cut from the final film. However, she used the money she earned to move to New York, where her career took off and she became a star.
- In 1974 she received a special Tony Award "for adding lustre to the Broadway season."
- Performed her cabaret act at the famed gay men's club, The Continental Baths, in the 70s with 'Barry Manilow' (qv) as her accompanist.
- Listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1979" in John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 31.
- Sang to 'Johnny Carson (I)' (qv) on his second-to-last show (The last show was taped highlights).
- The last syllable of her first name is unpronounced because her mother thought that was how 'Bette Davis' (qv) pronounced her name.
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