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Comedienne, singer and actress
Bette Midler was born Dec. 01. 1945 in Honolulu, Hawaii as a member of
the only Jewish family in the neighborhood. Bette early on showed an interest
in singing and acting. After studying drama at the University of Hawaii,
she took a tiny role in the 1965 film Hawaii, playing a missionarys wife
who is constantly sick. In the 1996 she moved to New York to try her luck
in showbiz, following in the footsteps of her namesake, Bette Davis. While
training for her dancing career in New York, she took a role in the chorus
and then the featured part of Tzeitel (the eldest daughter), of Broadway's
long-running hit musical Fiddler on the Roof, and held that part for three
years. After leaving Fiddler OnThe Roof, she performed briefly in the off
Broadway musical Salvation, and worked as a go-go dancer in a Broadway
bar.
Singing and comedy late at
night after the Broadway show was where Bette got her big break.
Bette developed a popular nightclub
act that included comedy and singing of a variety of kinds of material,
(show tunes, pophits, even a takeoff on The Andrew Sisters). She told dirty
jokes and belted out songs in Manhattan's Continental Baths in 1971, and
she became a campy cult figure on the local gay scene. She was
noticed by an executive from the David Frost show. Her appearances
on David Frost's show, The Tonight show, and in nightclubs exploded into
hit pop albums. She was signed to Atlantic Records and released The Divine
Miss M (1972), which went gold and won her a Grammy Award as Best New Artist.
Her secon album Bette Midler
(1973) was similarly successful. |
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The Bette Midler album made
the US Top Ten, and she received the After Dark Award for performance of
the year. After that she released two more albums, Songs for the new Depression,
in 1974 and, Broken Blossom in 1977.
Bette's first big movie and
first starring role was in the movie "The Rose" (1979), based on the life
of rock singer Janis Joplin. Her dramatic performance in that movie earned
her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, and she also won Golden Globe
Award for her performance as the Best Actress in a Leading Role-Musical
or Comedy.
Two songs, When a Man Loves
a Woman, and The Rose, entered the US charts as well as the movie sound
track.
1980 saw the release of Midler's
concert film, Divine Madness, and her best-selling book, A View from a
Broad, a book with her humorous memories of her first world tour.
The movie soundtrack album
Divine Madness, entered the US charts and went platinum.
After all big success her career
slump began in 1982, when she performed in a black comedy called, Jinxed.
Movie was a disaster at the box office, and rumors about violent disagreements
between Bette and her co-stars damaged her career. Bette became persona
non grata in Hollywood, and suffered from from a nervous breakdown. In
1983 Bette put out a childrens book called, The Saga of Baby Divine.
In 1984 she married Martin
Von Haselberg, a former commodities broker, and performance artist. Their
first and only child, a girl named Sophi was born in 1986.
The same year Bette began to
pick up her career. She signed a long term contract to the Walt Disney
Studios, making her comeback in the comedy Down And Out In Beverly Hills
(1986), with Nick Nolte and Richard Dreyfuss, Ruthless People (1986) co-starring
Danny De Vito, Outrageous Fortune (1987), and Big Business (1988). Bette
returned to the drama movies with Beaches (1988), which is also the first
movie to be made by her own company. |
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Movie Beaches gave Bette one
of her best roles, and the opportunity to sing songs within the context
of the story. Soundtrack from that movie reached a multiplatinum, number
two soundtrack, and number one single, Wind Beneath my Wings, the song
also won a Grammy. In 1990, she appeared in Stella, a remake of the classic
weepie, Stella Dallas. The following year Bette co-starred with Woody Allen
in Scenes from a Mall. In 1991, Bette put out another multiplatinum album,
Some Peoples Lives, which produced a number two Grammy award ballad From
a Distance.
Bette received her second Oscar
nomination for her role in movie For the Boys (1991), and soundtrack album
from the movie went gold.
In 1992 Good-bye To Johnny
Carson was rewarded with an Emmy, and 1993 she won Golden Globe and National
Board of Review Awards for her outstanding performance as Rose in a CBS
television musical production of Gypsy. That same year she brought
a spectacular show Experience the Divine, and that was one of her best
if not the best shows. In 1995 she released Bette Of Roses, her first studio
album for five years, and that same year she appeared in movie Get Shorty.
In 1996 Bette Midler delivered up an uncredited role in The First Wives
Club with Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton.
Then in the following year
Bette played another first wife in That Old Feeling (1997). She played
wife whose romantic sentiments for her ex-husband are rekindled at their
daughter’s wedding. Also in 1997 Bette Midler did a concert in Las Vegas
called Diva Las Vegas.
In 1998 she put out another
gteat album called, Bathhouse Betty.
In 1999 Bette she played in
movie Get Bruce, and went on another tour called The Divine Miss Millenium
Tour, which started in the fall of 1999 and ended on new years day of 2000
in Las Vegas. She also played in movies; Fantasia (1999/2000), Drowning
Mona (2000), Isn't She Great (2000), and What Women Want (2000). In 2000
she also started her own comedy searies, a semi-biographical sitcom called
Bette. Also that year she put out another CD called, Bette.
Bette Midler is a pure entertainer
and we love her. |
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