Bette Midler (born December 1, 1945) is an American singer, actress, comedian and author. Throughout her career, which spans over five decades, Midler has received numerous accolades, including four Golden Globe Awards, three Grammy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards and a Kennedy Center Honor, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and a British Academy Film Award.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Midler began her professional career in several off-off-Broadway plays, prior to her engagements in Fiddler on the Roof and Salvation on Broadway in the late 1960s. She came to prominence in 1970 when she began singing in the Continental Baths, a local gay bathhouse where she managed to build up a core following. +more
Midler made her starring film debut with the musical drama The Rose (1979), which won her the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She went on to star in numerous films, including Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), Ruthless People (1986), Outrageous Fortune (1987), Big Business (1988), Beaches (1988), Hocus Pocus (1993), The First Wives Club (1996), The Stepford Wives (2004), Parental Guidance (2012), and The Addams Family (2019). +more
In 2008, Midler signed a contract with Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for a residency, Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On, which ended in 2010. She starred in the Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!, which began previews in March 2017 and premiered at the Shubert Theatre in April 2017. +more
Early life
Bette Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, where her family was one of the few Jewish families in a mostly Asian neighborhood. Her mother, Ruth (née Schindel), was a seamstress and housewife, and her father, Fred Midler, worked at a Navy base in Hawaii as a painter, and was also a housepainter. +more
Career
1965-1971: Beginnings and early theatre work
Midler relocated to New York City in the summer of 1965, using money from her work in the film Hawaii. She studied theatre at HB Studio under Uta Hagen. +more
She began singing in the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse in the Ansonia Hotel, in the summer of 1970. During this time, she became close to her piano accompanist, Barry Manilow, who produced her first album in 1972, The Divine Miss M. +more
Midler starred in the first professional production of the Who's rock opera Tommy in 1971, with director Richard Pearlman and the Seattle Opera. It was during the run of Tommy that Midler first appeared on The Tonight Show.
1972-1980: The Divine Miss M and success
Midler released her debut album, The Divine Miss M, on Atlantic Records in December 1972. The album was co-produced by Barry Manilow, who was Bette's arranger and music conductor at the time. +more
Her self-titled follow-up album was released at the end of 1973. Again, the album was co-produced by Manilow. +more
Midler made her first motion picture in 1979, starring in the 1960s-era rock and roll tragedy The Rose, as a drug-addicted rock star modeled after Janis Joplin. That year, she also released her fifth studio album, Thighs and Whispers. +more
Her performance in The Rose earned her a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actress, a role for which she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress (Comedy or Musical). The film's acclaimed soundtrack album sold over two million copies in the United States alone, earning a Double Platinum certification. +more
1981-1989: "Wind Beneath My Wings", Beaches, and chart comeback
Midler worked on the troubled comedy project Jinxed! in 1981. However, during production, there was friction with co-star Ken Wahl and the film's director, Don Siegel. +more
Midler performed on USA for Africa's 1985 fund-raising single "We Are the World", and participated at the Live Aid event at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. Also in 1985, she signed a multi-picture deal with the Walt Disney Studios, where she starred in a string of successful films produced by the studio's newly formed Touchstone Pictures division. +more
1990-1999: Further acting career, and television appearances
Midler's 1990 cover of the Julie Gold song "From a Distance", the first offering from her seventh studio album Some People's Lives (1990), topped the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts and achieved platinum status in the US. The same year, she starred along with Trini Alvarado as the title character in John Erman's drama film Stella. +more
She co-starred with Woody Allen in the 1991 film Scenes from a Mall, again for Paul Mazursky. In the film, Allen's character reveals to his author wife Deborah, played by Midler, after years of a happy marriage, that he has had an affair, resulting in her request for divorce. +more
Midler turned down the lead role in the musical comedy Sister Act in 1992, which instead went to Whoopi Goldberg. Midler won an Emmy Award in 1992 for her performance on the penultimate episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in May 1992, during which she sang an emotion-laden "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)" to Johnny Carson. +more
She appeared on Seinfeld in the 1995 episode "The Understudy", which was the season finale of that show's sixth season in 1995. That same year, Midler had a supporting role in Get Shorty. +more
In 1998, Midler released her ninth studio album, Bathhouse Betty, named after the nickname she was given for performing at bathhouses early in her career. In 1999, she appeared in an episode of the CBS sitcom Murphy Brown and was featured in the animated musical film Fantasia 2000.
2000-2005: Bette sitcom, tribute albums, and Kiss My Brass tour
Midler starred in her own sitcom in 2000, Bette, which featured Midler playing herself, a divine celebrity who is adored by her fans. Airing on CBS, initial ratings were high, marking the best sitcom debut for the network in more than five years, but viewers percentage soon declined, resulting in the show's cancellation in early 2001. +more
The same year Midler starred in Isn't She Great and Drowning Mona. In Andrew Bergman's Isn't She Great, a highly fictionalized account of the life and career of author Jacqueline Susann, she played alongside Nathan Lane and Stockard Channing, portraying Susann with her early struggles as an aspiring actress relentlessly hungry for fame, her relationship with press agent Irving Mansfield, her success as the author of Valley of the Dolls, and her battle with and subsequent death from breast cancer. +more
After nearly three decades of erratic record sales, Midler was dropped from the Warner Music Group in 2001. Following a reported long-standing feud with Barry Manilow, the two joined forces after many years in 2003 to record Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook. +more
Throughout 2003 and 2004, Midler toured the United States in her new show, Kiss My Brass, to sell-out audiences. Also in 2004, she appeared in a supporting role in Frank Oz' science fiction satire The Stepford Wives, a remake of the 1975 film of the same name also based on the Ira Levin novel. +more
Midler joined forces again with 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, returned Midler to the top ten of US Billboard 200, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.
2006-2011: Albums, Vegas show and appearances
Midler released a new Christmas album titled Cool Yule in 2006, which featured a duet of Christmastime pop standards "Winter Wonderland"/"Let It Snow" with Johnny Mathis. Well-received, the album garnered a Grammy Award nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album in 2007. +more
Midler debuted her Vegas show titled Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on February 20, 2008. It comprised The Staggering Harlettes, 20 female dancers called The Caesar Salad Girls and a 13-piece band. +more
Midler appeared on the +more
2012-present: Return to Broadway
In June 2012, Midler received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award at the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York in recognition of her having "captivated the world" with her "stylish presentation and unmistakable voice. " The same year, she co-starred alongside Billy Crystal in the family movie Parental Guidance (2012), playing a couple of old school grandparents trying to adapt to their daughter's 21st-Century parenting style. +more
In 2013, Midler performed on Broadway for the first time in more than 30 years in a play about the Hollywood superagent Sue Mengers. The play, titled I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers and dramatized by John Logan, opened on April 24, 2013, at the Booth Theatre. +more
In March 2014, she performed at the 86th Academy Awards telecast at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, singing "Wind Beneath My Wings" during the in memoriam section. In November 2014, Midler released her 25th overall album, It's the Girls!, through Warner Bros. +more
In March 2017, she began playing the role of Dolly Gallagher Levi, continuing through January 2018, in the Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly! for which she won a Tony Award. In 2017 she also appeared in the role of Muv in the 2017 film Freak Show. +more
Midler performed the song, The Place Where Lost Things Go from Mary Poppins Returns at the 91st Annual Academy Awards ceremony on February 24, 2019.
In 2020, Midler starred in The Glorias a biographical film revolving around the life of Gloria Steinem portraying the role of Bella Abzug, directed by Julie Taymor. She also starred in the second season of The Politician after previously guest starring in the first.
Midler has written several books, including Saga of Baby Divine, A View from a Broad, Bette Midler Greatest Hits: Experience the Divine, The Wind Beneath My Wings. In 2020 she published a children's book entitled The Tale of the Mandarin Duck, based on the story of a rare duck seen in Central Park in 2018.
She played Miriam Nessler, a retired teacher from New York, in HBO's Coastal Elites by Paul Rudnick.
In December 2021, Midler came under fire when criticizing Joe Manchin for not supporting Joe Biden's Build Back Better Plan. While criticizing Manchin, Midler also criticized the State of West Virginia with a tweet on twitter where Midler stated, "What #JoeManchin, who represents a population smaller than Brooklyn, has done to the rest of America, who wants to move forward, not backward, like his state, is horrible. +more
As Casey Kasem reported on the American Top 40 broadcast of August 11, 1973, Midler has been acclaimed as, "She's faster than speeding bullet, is louder than Ethel Merman, has a bigger nose than Barbra Streisand, is shorter than Mickey Rooney, and more outrageous than Mick Jagger. She is an eclectic ripoff artist who takes off on 40s musicals, Carmen Miranda and the Andrews Sisters. +more
On December 4, 2021, Midler received the Kennedy Center Honor for a lifetime of achievement in the performing arts at the Medallion Ceremony, held at the Library of Congress in Washington, D. C. +more
Personal life
Midler married artist Martin von Haselberg on December 16, 1984. The two had one daughter, actress Sophie von Haselberg, born on November 14, 1986.
Charity work
In 1991, Midler was an early sponsor of the Adopt-a-Highway, paying $2,000 a month for a crew to clean up a 2 mi section of the Ventura Freeway in Burbank, California. Signs at both ends of the section read "Litter Removal Next 2 Miles, Bette Midler. +more
Midler founded the New York Restoration Project (NYRP) in 1995, a non-profit organization with the goal of revitalizing neglected neighborhood parks in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods of New York City. These include Highbridge Park, Fort Washington Park, and Fort Tryon Park in upper Manhattan and Roberto Clemente State Park and Bridge Park in the Bronx.
When the city planned in 1991 to auction 114 community gardens for commercial development, Midler led a coalition of green organizations to save them. NYRP took ownership of 60 of the most neglected plots. +more
In 2001 after 9/11, she established programs run by her foundation which help wounded service members and their families by providing them resources, including custom homes. One of these programs helps service members recovering from trauma, injury, and loss. +more
Bette Midler pledged to match Pink with a donation of $500,000 to help Australia during the wildfires in 2020.
Discography
Studio albums *The Divine Miss M (1972) *Bette Midler (1973) *Songs for the New Depression (1976) *Broken Blossom (1977) *Thighs and Whispers (1979) *No Frills (1983) *Some People's Lives (1990) *Bette of Roses (1995) *Bathhouse Betty (1998) *Bette (2000) *Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook (2003) *Bette Midler Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook (2005) *Cool Yule (2006) *It's the Girls! (2014)
Tours
1970-72: Continental Baths Tour *1972: Cross Country Tour *1973: The Divine Miss M Tour *1975: Clams on the Half Shell Revue *1975-76: The Depression Tour *1977-78: An Intimate Evening with Bette *1978: The Rose Live in Concert *1978: World Tour *1979-80: Bette! Divine Madness *1980: Divine Madness: Pasadena *1982-83: De Tour *1993: Experience the Divine *1994: Experience the Divine Again! *1997: Diva Las Vegas *1999: Bathhouse Betty Club Tour *1999-2000: The Divine Miss Millennium Tour *2003-04: Kiss My Brass *2005: Kiss My Brass Down Under *2008-10: The Showgirl Must Go On *2015: Divine Intervention Tour
Filmography
Film
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1966 | Hawaii | Passenger | Uncredited |
1968 | The Detective | Girl at Party | Uncredited |
1969 | Goodbye, Columbus | Wedding Guest | Uncredited |
1971 | The Thorn | Virgin Mary | Also known as The Divine Mr. J |
1972 | Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers | Lullabye Singer (voice) | |
1979 | The Rose | Mary Rose Foster | |
1980 | Divine Madness! | Herself / Divine Miss M. +more | Concert film |
1982 | Jinxed! | Bonita Friml | |
1986 | Women in Rock | Herself | Documentary |
1986 | Down and Out in Beverly Hills | Barbara Whiteman | |
1986 | Ruthless People | Barbara Stone | |
1987 | Outrageous Fortune | Sandy Brozinsky | |
1988 | Big Business | Sadie Shelton / Sadie Ratliff | |
1988 | Oliver & Company | Georgette (voice) | |
1988 | Beaches | C. C. Bloom | Also producer |
1989 | The Lottery | Music Teacher | Short film |
1990 | Stella | Stella Claire | |
1991 | Scenes from a Mall | Deborah Fifer | |
1991 | For the Boys | Dixie Leonard | Also producer |
1992 | Earth and the American Dream | Reader (voice) | Documentary |
1993 | Hocus Pocus | Winifred 'Winnie' Sanderson | |
1994 | A Century of Cinema | Herself | Documentary |
1995 | Get Shorty | Doris Saphron | Uncredited |
1996 | The First Wives Club | Brenda Cushman | |
1997 | That Old Feeling | Lilly Leonard | |
1999 | Get Bruce | Herself | |
1999 | Fantasia 2000 | Herself / Hostess | Segment: "Piano Concerto No. 2, Allegro, Opus 102" |
2000 | Drowning Mona | Mona Dearly | |
2000 | Isn't She Great | Jacqueline Susann | |
2000 | What Women Want | Dr. J. M. Perkins | Uncredited |
2004 | The Stepford Wives | Bobbie Markowitz | |
2005 | The Divine Bette Midler | Herself | Documentary |
2007 | Then She Found Me | Bernice Graves | |
2008 | The Women | Leah Miller | |
2010 | Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore | Kitty Galore (voice) | |
2012 | Casting By | Herself | Documentary |
2012 | Parental Guidance | Diane Decker | |
2013 | 20 Feet from Stardom | Herself | Documentary |
2017 | Freak Show | Muv | |
2019 | The Addams Family | Grandmama (voice) | |
2020 | The Glorias | Bella Abzug | |
2021 | The Addams Family 2 | Grandmama (voice) | |
2022 | Hocus Pocus 2 | Winifred 'Winnie' Sanderson |
Television
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1970 | The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson | Herself | 11 episodes |
1975 | Cher | Herself | Episode: "#1. 1" |
1976 | Vegetable Soup | Woody the Spoon (voice) | Unknown episodes |
1976 | The Bette Midler Show | Herself | Television special |
1977 | Ol' Red Hair is Back | Herself | Television special |
1977 | Bing! A 50th Anniversary Gala | Herself | Television special |
1977 | Rolling Stone Magazine: The 10th Anniversary | Herself | Television special |
1979 | Saturday Night Live | Herself | Episode: "Buck Henry/Bette Midler" |
1984 | A Celebration of Life: A Tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. +more | Herself | Television special |
1984 | Superstars of Comedy Salute the Improv | Herself | Television special |
1984 | Art or Bust | Herself / Divine Miss M. | Television special |
1984 | MTV Video Music Awards | Herself / Co-Host | Television special |
1988 | The Mondo Beyondo Show | Mondo Beyondo | Television special |
1988 | Mickey's 60th Birthday | Herself | Television special |
1990 | Sinatra 75: The Best Is Yet to Come | Herself | Television special |
1990 | The Earth Day Special | Mother Nature | Television special |
1991 | Walt Disney World's 20th Anniversary Celebration | Herself | Television special |
1992 | Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories | Narrator | Episode: "Weird Parents" |
1993 | Gypsy | Mama Rose | Television film |
1993 | The Simpsons | Herself (voice) | Episode: "Krusty Gets Kancelled" |
1995 | Seinfeld | Herself | Episode: "The Understudy" |
1997 | Diva Las Vegas | Herself / Divine Miss M. | Television special; also executive producer |
1997 | The Nanny | Herself | Episode: "You Bette Your Life" |
1998, 2018 | Murphy Brown | Caprice Morton (née Feldman) | 2 episodes |
1999 | Jackie's Back | Herself | Television film |
2000-2001 | Bette | Bette | 18 episodes; also executive producer |
2001 | Crossover | Herself | Television special |
2003 | A Barry Manilow Christmas: Live by Request | Herself | Television special |
2006-2007 | American Masters | Herself / Narrator | 2 episodes |
2009 | The Magic 7 | Herself | Television film |
2009 | Loose Women | Herself / Guest Host | Episode: "#13. 107" |
2009 | The Royal Variety Performance | Herself | Television special |
2009 | The Marriage Ref (U. S. TV series) | Herself | Episode: "Episode Eleven" |
2009 | Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List | Herself | Episode: "Place Your Bette" |
2010 | The Showgirl Must Go On | Herself | Television special; also director and producer |
2010 | Paul O'Grady's Christmas | Herself | Television special |
2013 | Project Runway | Herself / Guest Judge | Episode: "The Ultimate Hard and Soft" |
2014 | Inside Comedy | Herself | Episode: "Bette Midler & Richard Belzer" |
2014 | Bette Midler: One Night Only | Herself | Television special |
2016 | The Voice | Herself / Adviser | 6 episodes |
2018 | The Hocus Pocus 25th Anniversary Halloween Bash | Herself / Winifred Sanderson | Television special |
2019-2020 | The Politician | Hadassah Gold | 8 episodes |
2020 | Saturday Night Seder | Herself | Television special |
2020 | Coastal Elites | Miriam Nessler | Television special |
Stage
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1967 | Fiddler on the Roof | Tzeitel | Broadway |
1970 | Salvation | Betty Lou | Off-Broadway |
1973 | Bette Midler | Herself | Concerts |
1975 | Bette Midler's Clams on the Half Shell Revue | Herself | Revue |
1979 | Bette! Divine Madness | Herself | Concerts |
2002 | Short Talks on the Universe | Nora | Special event |
2011 | Priscilla, Queen of the Desert | N/A | Broadway |
2013 | I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers | Sue Mengers | Broadway |
2017-2018 | Hello, Dolly! | Dolly Gallagher Levi | Broadway |
Awards and nominations
Bibliography
Bette Midler: A View from a Broad (Simon & Schuster, 1980; Updated edition April 1, 2014). *The Saga of Baby Divine (Crown Publishers, 1983). +more
Further reading
A View From A Broad (Simon & Schuster, 1980, Updated edition April 1, 2014) *The Saga of Baby Divine (Crown Publishers, 1984), *Bette Midler, Outrageously Divine, an Unauthorized Biography, by Mark Bego (New American Library, 1987), *Bette: An Intimate Biography of Bette Midler, by George Mair (Birch Lane Press, 1995),
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American singers
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American singers
Actresses from Honolulu
American dance musicians
American women pop singers
American film actresses
American stand-up comedians
American television actresses
American voice actresses
American women comedians
Atlantic Records artists
Audiobook narrators
Columbia Records artists
Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actress Golden Globe winners
Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Feminist musicians
French-language singers of the United States
Grammy Award winners
Jewish American actresses
Jewish American musicians
Jewish women singers
Living people
Musicians from Honolulu
New Star of the Year (Actress) Golden Globe winners
Tony Award winners
Traditional pop music singers
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni
Warner Records artists
Comedians from Hawaii
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
Admiral Arthur W. Radford High School alumni
Las Vegas shows
Special Tony Award recipients
American musical theatre actresses
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