Bette Midler
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Bette Midler (born December 1, 1945) is a singer, actress and comedian. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, she majored in drama at the University of Hawaii, but got her start singing in the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse in New York City, where, among others, she became friends with Barry Manilow, who was her piano accompanist. He produced her first major album, The Divine Miss M (also the name by which she is known to her fans.)
Midler appeared in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway, but it was her singing that made her a star. In 1974, she received a Special Tony Award for her great addition to Broadway. She was tapped for the role of the 1960s drug-addled rock music star in The Rose, modeled after Janis Joplin, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
In 1986, director Paul Mazursky cast her in Down and Out in Beverly Hills, beginning a successful comedic acting career. She appeared in such other popular comedies as Ruthless People, Outrageous Fortune and Big Business.
In 1988 she starred in the film Beaches. She won four Grammy Awards including the 1973 Best New Artist and the pretigious Record of the Year in 1989 for the soaring # 1 hit "Wind Beneath My Wings". Her rendition of 1990's "From a Distance" also earned her a Grammy and is another of her most popular songs. In 2004 she reunited with Manilow to record Bette Midler Records the Rosemary Clooney Songbook, which was nominated for a Grammy and was one of her best-selling albums in 20 years.
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" from Beaches (#44), The Rose from The Rose (#83).
Other films include Scenes From a Mall, For the Boys (for which she was again nominated for an Academy Award), Hocus Pocus, The First Wives Club, and The Stepford Wives. Her television work includes a production of Gypsy and her sitcom Bette. She won an Emmy Award in 1993 for her memorable performance on the second to last episode of The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson.
Filmography
- Hawaii (1966)
- Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers (1972) (voice only)
- The Thorn (1974)
- The Rose (1979)
- Divine Madness! (1980)
- Jinxed! (1982)
- Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986)
- Ruthless People (1986)
- The Lottery (1987) (short subject)
- Outrageous Fortune (1987)
- Big Business (1988)
- Oliver & Company (1988) (voice)
- Beaches (1988)
- Stella (1990)
- Scenes from a Mall (1991)
- For the Boys (1991)
- Hocus Pocus (1993)
- A Century of Cinema (1994) (documentary)
- Get Shorty (1995) (Cameo)
- The First Wives Club (1996)
- That Old Feeling (1997)
- Get Bruce (1999) (documentary)
- Fantasia/2000 (1999)
- Drowning Mona (2000)
- Isn't She Great (2000)
- What Women Want (2000)
- The Stepford Wives (2004)
- In the Pink (2007) (currently in pre-production)
Albums
- 1973 The Divine Miss M
- 1973 Bette Midler
- 1976 Songs for the New Depression
- 1977 Live at Last
- 1977 Broken Blossom
- 1979 Thighs and Whispers
- 1979 The Rose soundtrack
- 1980 Divine Madness
- 1983 No Frills (Bette Midler album)
- 1985 Mud Will Be Flung Tonight
- 1988 Beaches soudtrack
- 1990 Some People's Lives
- 1991 For the Boys soundtrack
- 1993 Gypsy soundtrack
- 1993 Experience the Divine
- 1995 Bette of Roses
- 1998 Bathhouse Betty
- 2000 Bette
- 2003 Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook