Bette Davis

Ruth Elizabeth Bette Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in Hollywood history, she was noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic, sardonic characters and was reputed for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies, although her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas.

Ruth Elizabeth Davis, known from early childhood as Betty, was born on April 5, 1908, atChester Street, Lowell, Massachusetts, the daughter of Harlow Morrell Davis, a law student from Augusta, Maine, and Ruth Augusta Ruthie , from Tyngsboro, Massachusetts. Bettys younger sister, Barbara Harriet Bobby, was born October 25, 1909, at 55 Ward Street in Somerville, Massachusetts, by which time their father was a patent attorney. In 1915, Daviss parents separated and Betty and Bobby attended a Spartan boarding school called Crestalban in Lanesborough, which is located in the Berkshires. In 1921, Ruth Davis moved to New York City with her daughters, where she worked as a portrait photographer. Betty was inspired to become an actress after seeing Rudolph Valentino in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Mary Pickford in Little Lord Fauntleroy , and changed the spelling of her name to Bette after Honor de Balzacs La Cousine Bette.

Source: Wikipedia