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Bette Midler

Bette Midler has built a career in which singing, comedy and acting are not separate talents so much as parts of the same performance. Born in Honolulu on December 1, 1945, she studied drama at the University of Hawaii at Manoa before leaving after three semesters. An uncredited appearance in Hawaii came before her move to New York City in 1965, where early theatre work eventually led to Broadway’s Fiddler on the Roof. Her following grew through performances at the Continental Baths, and her 1972 debut album, The Divine Miss M, established her as a recording artist with a taste for theatricality. That quality carried naturally to the screen. Midler’s first motion picture, The Rose, gave her the role of a self-destructive rock star and brought an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, as well as a Golden Globe win. The shape of her film career became clearer during the 1980s, when she moved easily into comedy with Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Ruthless People, Outrageous Fortune and Big Business. She could play abrasive, glamorous, wounded or ridiculous—sometimes within the same performance—without sanding down the character’s rough edges. Beaches drew on both her dramatic and musical strengths, while Oliver & Company showed how readily her personality translated to voice acting. Midler earned a second Best Actress Oscar nomination for For the Boys, playing entertainer Dixie Leonard across a story spanning decades. For many viewers, however, her defining comic creation is Winifred Sanderson in Hocus Pocus: grand, scheming and played at exactly the right theatrical pitch. She returned to the role in Hocus Pocus 2 nearly three decades later. Her screen work has continued alongside recording, television and theatre, including roles in The First Wives Club, The Addams Family, The Glorias and Sitting in Bars with Cake. Whether carrying a drama, sharpening an ensemble comedy or voicing an animated character, Midler brings the instincts of a stage performer to the camera: timing, projection and a clear sense that personality is part of the craft.