Bette Midler's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Bette Bette Conversations with Michael Eisner Bette Midler Vegetable Soup Woody The S…

Main Movie Roles 2010 - Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore 2008 - The Women 2007 - Then She Found Me 2007 - Talk to Me 2004 - The Stepford Wives 2000 - What Women Want 2000 - Drowning Mona 1999 - Fantasia/2000 1997 - That Old Feeling 1996 - The First Wives Club 1995 - Get Shorty 1993 - Hocus Pocus 1991 - Scenes from a Mall 1990 - Stella 1988 - Beaches 1988 - Oliver & Company 1988 - Big Business 1987 - Outrageous Fortune 1986 - Down and Out in Beverly Hills 1986 - Ruthless People 1979 - The Rose 1969 - Goodbye, Columbus 1968 - The Detective 1966 - Hawaii

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:

• Worked at a Dole pineapple processing plant in Hawaii in her early years.
• Won four Grammy awards including the 1973 Best New Artist and the prestigious Record of the Year in 1989 for the soaring rendition of her # 1 hit "Wind Beneath My Wings" from the movie _Beaches (1988)_ (qv).
• Sang to 'Johnny Carson (I)' (qv) on his second-to-last show (The last show was taped highlights).
• Her album "Bette Midler Sings the 'Rosemary Clooney' (qv) Songbook" was originally titled "Rosemary for Remembrance". The name was changed just weeks before the album's September 30, 2003 release.
• Has brown eyes, hair is naturally blonde
• Majored in drama at the University of Hawaii at Manoa
• Performed her cabaret act at the famed gay men's club, The Continental Baths, in the 70s with 'Barry Manilow' (qv) as her accompanist.
• She is a member of Delta Phi Epsilon International Sorority.