Bette Davis

R is for Rains


He was often a suave crook, but he also had a good line in kindly patriarchs and jovial villains, and he enjoyed himself enormously: he has an indecently good time playing evil Prince John in The Adventures of Robin Hood

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Q is for Queens


Q is for Queens Golden Age Hollywood was often obsessed with Ye Olden Days, and the studio backlots would often be jammed with dukes and duchesses, lords and ladies, and princes and princesses. Much of this historical play-acting was down to moguls wanting to seem literate, cultured gentlemen instead of carny hucksters. So they would […]

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D is for Davis


She was an elegant, ladylike smoker onscreen; at home, though, she held cigarettes cupped in her fist like a working man. That’s only apt as she worked for Warner Bros., the working man’s studio, and she was, after all, a tough broad.

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Diasporational Part Seven: The Irish Revolutionary Who Wooed Hollywood Leading Ladies


Big, broad, brawny, with a warm speaking voice, he was popular with his audience and his leading ladies. As an actor he might have been merely adequate, but he gained quite a reputation for his Hollywood conquests. Married five times, he had affairs with Bette Davis and Jane Powell, among others. He was quoted as saying “no woman will ever own me, I own myself.”

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