Biography of Bette Midler
Bette Davis Midler, named after the actress Bette Davis, was born on December 1, 1945 and grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii. She graduated from Radford High School in Honolulu in 1963 and attended the University of Hawaii, majoring in Drama for only three semesters. She continued to live in Hawaii until 1965 when after earning enough money from playing an extra in the film Hawaii (release in 1966) moved to New York City.
Midler quickly landed her first professional onstage role in Tom Eyen’s Off-Off-Broadway plays, Miss Nefertiti Regrets and Cinderella Revisited, a children's play by day and an adult show by night. Bette continued to do Broadway shows through 1969 including playing the role of Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof. In 1970, Midler began singing in the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse in the city, where she became close to her piano accompanist, Barry Manilow, who produced her first major album, The Divine Miss M, in 1973. During this time she took on the fun-loving name of “Bathouse Betty” from endearing fans. Her Broadway career took recognition in 1974 when she received a Special Tony Award for her contribution to Broadway for her Clams on the Half Shell Revue at the Palace Theater. Then in 1979 she played the title role of a 1960s drug-addicted rock star, modeled after Janis Joplin, in The Rose, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
After spending some time in 1982 on a film Jinxed! – a comedy – that became a major flop, in 1985, Midler performed on USA for Africa's fund-raising single We Are the World, and participated at the 'Live Aid' event at JFK stadium in Philadelphia. That same year, she signed a multi-picture deal with Touchstone Pictures. She was subsequently cast by director Paul Mazursky in Down and Out in Beverly Hills, beginning a successful comedic acting career. She followed that up with Ruthless People (1986), Outrageous Fortune (1987), and Big Business (1988). She also scored a hit with the 1988 tearjerker Beaches, costarring Barbara Hershey. She lent her voice to the animated character Georgette, a snobbish poodle, in Disney's Oliver & Company (1989). In 1990, she costarred with Woody Allen in Scenes from a Mall, again for Mazursky. She earned another Academy Award nomination as Best Actress for 1991's For the Boys costarring with James Caan and directed by Mark Rydell, who had also directed The Rose. She reportedly turned down the lead role in 1992's Sister Act.
Her other films include Hocus Pocus (1993), The First Wives Club (1996), and The Stepford Wives (2004), starring Nicole Kidman. Her television work includes an Emmy-nominated version of the stage musical Gypsy and a guest appearance as herself in Fran Drescher's "The Nanny" in the episode title “You Bette Your Life”. Midler won an Emmy Award in 1992 for her memorable performance on the next-to-last episode of The Tonight Show in May of that year, during which she sang an emotion-laden "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)" to Johnny Carson. She had her own short-lived CBS sitcom Bette (2000-2001). Although the initial ratings were high, numbers soon declined and in the show's short lifespan her daughter (played by Lindsay Lohan in the pilot, then by Marina Malota starting with the third episode) and her husband were recast (Robert Hays succeeded Kevin Dunn in the final episode aired). The show was reportedly rocked by backstage turmoil, and did not last a full season. Midler has guest-starred on The Simpsons in the episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled" and she appeared on Seinfeld in the episode "The Understudy," which was the season finale of that show's sixth season. Also in 2001, Bette or Bust, a book chronicling Midler's Divine Miss Millennium Tour was released.
She has won four Grammy Awards including the 1973 Best New Artist and the prestigious Record of the Year in 1989 for the # 1 hit "Wind Beneath My Wings", the theme from Beaches. Her rendition of the 1990 "From a Distance" also earned her a Grammy and is another of her most popular songs. When the American Film Institute announced "The 100 years of the Greatest Songs" on June 22, 2004, two of her hits were selected by the board: "Wind Beneath My Wings" (#44) and "The Rose" (#83). After years of declining sales, however, Bette was officially dropped from Warner Brothers in 2001.
After a long-standing feud with Barry Manilow, the two joined forces for the first time in twenty years in 2003 to record "Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook." Of the project, Barry said he had a dream that he was recording with Bette again, so he called her up with the idea and she agreed that it was due time to work together again. They got Columbia Records on board and the album was an instant success, going gold in only a few short weeks.One of the songs from Rosemary Clooney Songbook "This Ole House" became Bettes first Christian radio single shipped by Rick Hendrix and his positive music movement. The album was one of her best-selling albums in twenty years, and was nominated for a Grammy the following year.
In 2003–2004, Midler toured her new show Kiss My Brass to sell-out crowds around the United States. In early 2005, Kiss My Brass Down Under was equally successful in Australia. After the success of her last album, Columbia Records considered releasing a live album, but it never came to pass. Instead, Bette joined forces again with Barry Manilow for another tribute album, Bette Midler Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook. Released in October 2005, the album sold 55,000 copies the first week of release and debuted at #10.
In 2006, a new Christmas album Cool Yule was released by Midler featuring the title song (written by Steve Allen) and a duet with Johnny Mathis of "Winter Wonderland/Let It Snow". Midler next starred in the 2007 film Then She Found Me, directed by Helen Hunt and starring Hunt, Matthew Broderick and Colin Firth, and appeared on the American Idol (season 6) finale, singing "The Wind Beneath My Wings" live at the Kodak Theatre. On December 6, 2007, Midler's album Cool Yule was given a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
Currently, Bette Midler has a Vegas show titled "Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On" at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. The show debuted on February 20, 2008 and is scheduled to run 100 shows through 2010. The show comprises The Staggering Harlettes, twenty female dancers and a thirteen piece band.
Bette's new Album 'Best Bette' reached #66 on the U.S Charts, and #6 in the U.K Charts, her first compilation album in ten years.
