Bette Midler (born December 1, 1945) is an
American singer, actress and comedienne, also known (by her
informal stage name) as
The Divine Miss M. During
her career, she has been nominated for two
Academy Awards; and won four
Grammy Awards, four
Golden Globes, three
Emmy
Awards, and a special
Tony
Award.
Biography
In 1945,
Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii
. She is the daughter of seamstress/housewife
Ruth (
née Schindel) and
house painter Fred Midler, who worked at a Navy base in Hawaii.
Her
parents were from Paterson
, New Jersey
and moved to Honolulu before Midler was
born. She was named after the actress
Bette Davis, though Davis pronounced her first
name in two syllables, and Midler uses one, . Midler's family was
one of the few
Jewish families in a mostly Asian
neighborhood.
She was raised in nearby Aiea
and attended Radford High
School
in Honolulu. She was voted in Hoss Election
1961 "Most Talkative" and in her Senior Year (Class of 1963) "Most
Dramatic". She majored in drama at the
University of Hawaii (though she only
attended for three semesters) and earned money in the film
Hawaii (released in 1966) as
an
extra, playing a
seasick passenger named Mrs David Buff in the
film.
Personal life
Midler's manager and boyfriend for a significant period was
Aaron Russo. Midler married
Martin von Haselberg (Harry Kipper of
her opening act
the Kipper Kids) on
December 16, 1984 in a chapel in
Las Vegas. Two years into their
marriage she had a daughter, Sophie Frederica Alohilani von
Haselberg, on November 14, 1986. Sophie graduated from Yale in 2008
with a degree in Sociology and a minor in East Asian Studies.Her
double in Outrageous fortune was Rhonda Tipton.
Charity work
In 1995, Midler founded the
New York Restoration Project, 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
.
In 1999, the city planned to auction 114
community gardens for commercial
development. Midler led a coalition of greening organizations to
save them. NYRP took ownership of 60 of the most neglected plots.
Today Midler and her organization work with local volunteers and
community groups to ensure that these gardens are kept safe, clean
and vibrant.
In 2003, Midler opened Swindler Cove Park, a
new public park on the Harlem River
shore featuring specially designed educational
facilities and the Peter Jay Sharp Boathouse, the first community
rowing facility to be built on the
Harlem River in more than 100 years. The organization offers
free in-school and after-school
environmental education programming
to students from high-poverty
Title I
schools.
Career
Theater Actress
In the
summer of 1965, Midler relocated to New York City
, using the money from playing an extra in the film
Hawaii. She landed her first professional onstage
role in
Tom Eyen's
Off-Off-Broadway plays in 1965,
Miss
Nefertiti Regrets and
Cinderella Revisited, a
children's play by day and an adult show by night.
From 1966 to 1969, she
played the role of Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway
; during this period her sister Judith, visiting New
York to see her perform, was killed by a taxi
cab .
In the
summer of 1970, Midler began singing in the Continental
Baths
, a gay bathhouse in
the city, where she became close to her piano
accompanist, Barry Manilow. He
later produced her first album, 1972's
The Divine Miss M. It was
during her time at the Continental Baths that she built up a core
following. In the late 1990s, during the release of her album
Bathhouse Betty, Midler
commented on her time performing there:
- "Despite the way things turned out [with the AIDS crisis], I'm
still proud of those days. I feel like I was at the forefront of
the gay liberation movement, and I hope I did my part to help it
move forward. So, I kind of wear the label of 'Bathhouse Betty'
with pride" .
In 1971, Midler starred in the first professional production of
The Who's
rock
opera Tommy with
director
Richard Pearlman and the
Seattle Opera. It was during the run
of
Tommy that Midler was asked to appear on the
The Tonight Show. She
proved to be so popular that her career immediately
skyrocketed.
1970-1990 Success
Midler released her debut album
The Divine Miss M on Atlantic Records
in December 1972. It streaked into Billboard's Top 10 and became a
million-selling Platinum-certified album, making her a star in the
process and earning Midler the 1973 Grammy Award for Best New
Artist. It featured two hit singles with "
Do You Want To Dance?" and "
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" which
became Bette's first #1 Adult Contemporary hit.
In 1975, she received a Special
Tony
Award for her contribution to Broadway with
Clams on the
Half Shell Revue playing at the Minskoff Theater. From
1975–1978, she also provided the voice of Woody the Spoon on the
PBS educational series
Vegetable Soup.
In 1979, Midler made her first motion picture, starring in the
1960s-era
rock and roll tragedy
The Rose, as a
drug-addicted rock star modeled after
Janis
Joplin. Soon afterwards she left to go on a world concert tour,
with one of the shows (in Pasadena) being filmed and released as
the concert film
Divine
Madness. Also in 1980, she was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best
Actress for
The Rose. The film's acclaimed soundtrack
album sold over two million copies in the United States alone,
earning a Double Platinum certification. The single version of the
song held the #1 position on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart
for five consecutive weeks and reached #3 on Billboard's Hot 100.
It earned Midler her first Gold single.
In 1981, Midler worked on the troubled project
Jinxed!, a comedy in which she did not get
along with her co-star (
Ken Wahl) or the
film's director (veteran
Don Siegel).
Released in 1982, the film was a major flop. Midler wouldn't appear
in another film until 1986, and concentrated on her music
career.
In 1985,
she was a performer on USA for
Africa's 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
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 with
Ruthless People (1986),
Outrageous Fortune (1987),
and
Big Business
(1988). She scored a hit with the 1988
tearjerker Beaches, co-starring
Barbara Hershey.
Bette Midler in Los Angeles, 1990
Midler lent her voice to the animated character Georgette, a
snobbish poodle, in Disney's
Oliver & Company (1989). In
1990, she co-starred with
Woody Allen in
Scenes from a Mall,
again for Mazursky. She earned another
Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for
1991's
For the Boys
co-starring 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, which instead
went to
Whoopi Goldberg.
Other films include
Stella (1990),
Hocus Pocus (1993),
The First Wives Club
(1996), and
The Stepford
Wives (2004). 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.
Midler won an
Emmy Award in 1992 for her
memorable performance on the next-to-last episode of
The Tonight Show
Starring Johnny Carson in May 1992; during which she sang
an emotion-laden "
One for My Baby
" to
Johnny Carson. Another memorable
event occurred that night, Midler began singing
Here's That Rainy Day, Carson's
favorite song. Carson then joined a few lyrics later, and a piano
soon after. She appeared on
Seinfeld in the episode "The Understudy,"
which was the season finale of that show's sixth season in
1995.
2000
Midler has guest-starred in various sitcoms over the years,
including
The Simpsons in the
episode "
Krusty Gets
Kancelled" (she is first seen traversing a highway picking up
trash when she is approached by
Bart
and
Lisa with a request for Midler to
appear on a show to revive
Krusty's dying
career). She also appeared on
The
Nanny in the aptly titled episode "You Bette Your Life".
In 2000, Midler starred in her own sitcom,
Bette. Airing on
CBS, initial ratings were high but soon declined and the
show did not last a full season, being cancelled in early 2001.
During the show's short lifespan, Bette's 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 also reportedly rocked by backstage turmoil.
Also in 2001,
Bette or Bust, a book chronicling Midler's
"Divine Miss Millennium Tour" was released.
Midler is to play Carrie Bradshaw's mother in the Sex and the City
sequel.
Music
Midler has won four Grammy Awards including the 1973
Best New Artist and the prestigious
Record of the Year in 1989 for her
Platinum-certified #1 Pop hit "
Wind Beneath My Wings", the theme from
Beaches. Her rendition of the 1990 "
From a Distance" also earned a Grammy award
(for the song's composer Julie Gold), and became her longest
running #1 - six consecutive weeks - on Billboard's Adult
Contemporary chart. It also reached #2 Pop and was another
Platinum-selling single for Bette. When the
American Film Institute announced
"The 100 Years of the Greatest Songs" on June 22, 2004, two of
Midler's recordings were selected by the board: "Wind Beneath My
Wings" (#44) and "
The Rose" (#83).
However, after years of erratic record sales, Midler was dropped
from the Warner Brothers label 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,
Manilow said he'd had a dream that he was recording with Midler
again, so he called her up with the idea and she agreed that it was
due time to work together again. Now signed to
Columbia Records, the album was an instant
success, being certified gold in only a few weeks. One of the
Clooney Songbook selections, "This Ole House," became Midler's
first Christian radio single shipped by
Rick Hendrix and his positive music movement.
The album was nominated for a Grammy the following year. worldwide
.
In 2003–2004, Midler toured the U.S. in her new show,
Kiss My
Brass, to sell-out audiences. In early 2005, an Australian
tour,
Kiss My Brass Down Under, was equally successful.
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 and debuted at #10.
Recent work
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 finale, singing
"The Wind Beneath My
Wings" live at the Kodak Theatre
.
On December 6, 2007, Midler's album
Cool Yule received a
Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
Midler
has a Vegas
show titled
"Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must
Go On" at The Colosseum at Caesars
Palace
. The show has approximately 400 shows in a
two year run. The show comprises
The Staggering Harlettes, twenty
female dancers and a thirteen piece band. Midler is reportedly
being paid $40 million per year for her 200 shows The show debuted
on February 20, 2008 .
A new "best of" album, "
Jackpot:
The Best Bette", was released in 2008 and reached #66 on the
U.S. charts, and #6 in the U.K., where it was certified
Platinum.
In June 2009, Midler appeared on the
Bravo TV show "
My Life on the D-List" with
Kathy Griffin.
Bette has confirmed that she will be releasing a new album in 2010,
an album of new love songs, which will be entitled 'Leaving Las
Vegas'.
Discography
Tours
- 1970-1972: Continental Baths
- 1972: Cross Country Tour
- 1973: The Divine Miss M Tour
- 1975: Clams on the Half Shell Revue
- 1975-1976: The Depression Tour
- 1977-1978: An Intimate Evening with Bette
- 1978: The Rose Live In Concert
- 1978: World Tour (Bette Midler)|World Tour
- 1979-1980: Bette! Divine Madness
Filmography
Television
See also
References
- FilmReference.com, Bette Midler, Biography.
- Yahoo! Movies, Bette Midler: Biography.
- Adherents.com, Bette Midler.
- The Class of 1963! We're Radgrads!
- High School Hoss Elections
- The Oprah Winfrey Show. Original air
date January 28, 2008. Interview with Bette Midler.
- Time magazine profile on Midler.
- Seattle Times
- http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=stepfordwives.htm
- Aeg.com,
Bette Midler.
- BetteMidler.com Official site.
Further reading
"A View From A Broad" 1981
- The Saga of Baby Divine (Crown Publishers, 1984), ISBN
978-0517550403
- Bette: An Intimate Biography of Bette Midler by George
Mair (Birch Lane Press, 1995), ISBN 1-55972-272-X
External links
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