The on-screen ageing of Bette Davis

During her impressive career, Bette Davis starred in a number of films in which she played characters older than her actual age. In 1939, Bette (aged 31) played spinster Charlotte Lovell in The Old Maid, her character ageing some 20 years to 40 at the end of the film, the look of 'middle-age' created by makeup artist Perc Westmore with pale makeup. The same year Bette portrayed 60-year-old Queen Elizabeth I in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, shaving her hairline and eyebrows to resemble the older queen. To play 40-year-old Regina Giddens in The Little Foxes (1941), Bette had Westmore give her a mask of white powder in order to look her character's age (much to the dismay of director William Wyler who felt she looked like a Kabuki player). Then in 1944, Bette played Fanny Skeffington in Vincent Sherman's Mr. Skeffington, being mid-20s at the beginning of the film while ageing to 50, with her looks not only affected by age but also by diphtheria (Bette wore a rubber mask to get the look she wanted). And in 1945, 37-year-old Bette was a schoolteacher in her fifties in The Corn is Green, wearing a grey wig and padding under her clothes to look the part.

Above (clockwise): Bette Davis playing older than her age in The Old Maid, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, The Corn is Green and The Little Foxes. Below: Bette as the younger and older Fanny in Mr. Skeffington.

While Bette didn't shy away from portraying older women --for The Corn is Green she even insisted on her character being older, feeling it suited the part better (even though Warner Bros. wanted her to play someone younger)-- in some cases she did object to ageing for her role. For Mr. Skeffington Bette initially turned down the role of Fanny after Warners had acquired the film rights in 1940. The novel by Elizabeth von Arnim was mostly told in flashbacks by the female protagonist, and in the original script Bette would have long scenes as the older Fanny while talking about her past. Bette felt she wouldn't be convincing as the 50-year-old woman, as she explained to her boss Jack Warner in the following letter from December 1940. It wasn't until several years later that she was offered a revised script and agreed to play the part.

December 5, 1940 

Dear Jack, 

I have also heard rumors that Skeffington with Mr. [Edmund] Goulding [directing] was my next. This, I would be forced, for my own future career, to refuse. It is physically impossible for me to play this woman of fifty- I am not old enough in face or figure, and I have worked too hard to do something that I know I would never be convincing in. The Old Maid and Elizabeth [in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex] were different. They were very eccentric characters and wore costumes which always helps age. This is a chic modern woman.  

If your action in these matters is suspension, or if you decide to give me my three months vacation for next year in January, February and March, I would appreciate knowing as soon as possible so I can open my house in New Hampshire.

Sincerely,

Bette Davis

Source: Inside Warner Bros. (1935-1951) (1985), selected and edited by Rudy Behlmer.

Make-up artist Perc Westmore adjusting Bette's makeup on the set of The Little Foxes.

Another project for which Bette had to age against her will was The Gay Sisters. According to a memo from producer Henry Blanke to co-producer Hal Wallis dated 7 June 1941 (as seen below), Bette was worried that she had to play an older woman again, at the time also playing the older Regina Giddens in The Little Foxes. When assured that the character Fiona would not age beyond 32 years, Bette still had objections to the casting of Mary Astor as her younger sister (Mary was two years her senior). In the end, The Gay Sisters (1942) was made without Bette or Mary, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Geraldine Fitzgerald instead. 

TO: Mr. Wallis

FROM: Mr. Blanke

DATE: June 7, 1941

SUBJECT: "The Gay Sisters" - Bette Davis

Dear Hal:

When you got me on the dictaphone yesterday to inquire about the Bette Davis situation in regards to the Gay Sisters script, I forgot to tell you a rather important point which she made in her telephone conversation with me.

She stated that she likes Mary Astor very much and -as I could prove- helped her in every way on The Great Lie to make a success. So-  this as a preface in order not to misunderstand her motivations on the following point:

She is now in Little Foxes [for Samuel Goldwyn], playing an elderly woman and one of her main objections on the The Gay Sisters was that she was afraid in "Fiona" she would again have to portray an aged woman.

I set her at ease on this point by telling her that in the story she is six or eight years old at the time of 1918, which makes her for the most part of the story around thirty to thirty-two years old.

This set her at ease in regards to this point, but brought her to the criticism of casting Mary Astor as Evelyn, her next younger sister. Her point is that Mary Astor, no matter what we do, will always photograph older than Bette, and that Bette automatically would have to age herself considerably in order to make it believable that she is older than Mary Astor, and by doing this we would get to the result that she is afraid of-- namely, that she will arrive at an age similar to the one she is putting on in Little Foxes...  

Source: Inside Warner Bros. (1935-1951) (1985), selected and edited by Rudy Behlmer.

Bette Davis and Mary Astor in The Great Lie (1941). It would take a few decades before they would make another film together- Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964).


This post is my contribution to the THE FOURTH ANNUAL BETTE DAVIS BLOGATHON, hosted by IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS OF CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD. Be sure to check out all the other entries!