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“Until you’re known in my profession as a monster, you’re not a star,” Bette Davis once
said. Let’s just say in Hollywood she was considered the ultimate star. The Academy
Award-winning actress was one of the movies’ most riveting and volatile personalities
both on and off the screen. She comes to life in the pages of Bette Davis: Larger
Than Life (Running Press) by Richard Schickel and George Perry, a lavish, fully
illustrated tribute produced in conjunction with her estate.
Bette Davis remains one of the most acclaimed and well-known stars in the history of
film. Breaking new ground for women, she was a fighter who took on the Hollywood
establishment at the drop of a dime. She reveled in lifelong feuds (such as with arch
nemesis and co-star Joan Crawford). She was a mother, wife, and friend. She was also a
no-nonsense New Englander who happened to have more talent than the movies seemed able
to contain. Her personality leapt off the screen and earned her an unprecedented number
of high-profile nominations and awards for her work in films like Jezebel, Dark
Victory, All About Eve, and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? As the epitaph
on Davis’s tombstone reads, “She did it the hard way.” Through a biography,
comprehensive filmography, and hundreds of rare photos, readers will find out
why.
About the Authors
Richard Schickel was a movie critic for Life, Time, and Time.com from 1965 through
2008. He is the author, co-author, or editor of close to forty books, including You
Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story. He is also the director, writer, and
producer of a similar number of documentary films. His latest, a profile of Ron Howard,
is nineteenth in his series of director portraits, which constitute an unparalleled
history of film authorship in America.
George Perry is a film critic, journalist, and broadcaster who has interviewed an array
of film greats in his distinguished career. He is also author of many books on film
history and the stars who lived it, his most recent work as co-author being You Must
Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story. George lives in London.
Bette Davis: Larger Than Life will be available in bookstores everywhere in
October.
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