Florence Bates
Acting
1888-04-13 · San Antonio, Texas, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Florence Bates (born Florence Rabe, April 15, 1888 – January 31, 1954) was an American film and stage character actress who often played grande dame characters in supporting roles. Her path to becoming an actress had many turns. She had a degree in Mathematics, taught school until married, then became the first Texas female lawyer. Then she became a bilingual radio commentator. After her husband lost her fortune, she and her husband opened a bakery in Los Angeles. In the mid-1930s, Bates auditioned for and won the role of Miss Bates in a Pasadena Playhouse adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma. When she decided to continue working with the theatre group, she changed her professional name to that of the first character she played on stage. In 1939, she was introduced to Alfred Hitchcock, who cast her in her first major screen role, the vain dowager Mrs. Van Hopper, in Rebecca (1940). Bates appeared in more than sixty films over the course of the next thirteen years. Among her cinema credits are Kitty Foyle, Love Crazy, The Moon and Sixpence, Mr. Lucky, Heaven Can Wait, Lullaby of Broadway, Mister Big, Since You Went Away, Kismet, Saratoga Trunk, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Winter Meeting, I Remember Mama, Portrait of Jennie, A Letter to Three Wives, On the Town, and Les Misérables. In television, Bates had a regular role on The Hank McCune Show and made guest appearances on I Love Lucy, My Little Margie, I Married Joan and Our Miss Brooks.
Filmography
Paris Model
1953 · Movie
Main Street to Broadway
1953 · Movie
Four Star Playhouse
1952 · Series
Les Miserables
1952 · Movie
The San Francisco Story
1952 · Movie
I Love Lucy
1951 · Series
Havana Rose
1951 · Movie
The Tall Target
1951 · Movie
Father Takes the Air
1951 · Movie
Lullaby of Broadway
1951 · Movie
Dick Tracy
1950 · Series
County Fair
1950 · Movie
The Second Woman
1950 · Movie
Belle of Old Mexico
1950 · Movie
On the Town
1949 · Movie
The Girl from Jones Beach
1949 · Movie
A Letter to Three Wives
1949 · Movie
Portrait of Jennie
1948 · Movie
My Dear Secretary
1948 · Movie
Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven
1948 · Movie
River Lady
1948 · Movie
Winter Meeting
1948 · Movie
The Inside Story
1948 · Movie
I Remember Mama
1948 · Movie
The Judge Steps Out
1947 · Movie
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
1947 · Movie
Love and Learn
1947 · Movie
The Brasher Doubloon
1947 · Movie
The Man I Love
1946 · Movie
The Time, The Place and The Girl
1946 · Movie
Cluny Brown
1946 · Movie
Claudia and David
1946 · Movie
The Diary of a Chambermaid
1946 · Movie
Whistle Stop
1946 · Movie
San Antonio
1945 · Movie
Saratoga Trunk
1945 · Movie
Out of This World
1945 · Movie
Tonight and Every Night
1945 · Movie
Tahiti Nights
1944 · Movie
Belle of the Yukon
1944 · Movie
Kismet
1944 · Movie
The Mask of Dimitrios
1944 · Movie
His Butler's Sister
1943 · Movie
Heaven Can Wait
1943 · Movie
Mr. Lucky
1943 · Movie
Mister Big
1943 · Movie
Slightly Dangerous
1943 · Movie
They Got Me Covered
1943 · Movie
My Heart Belongs to Daddy
1942 · Movie
The Moon and Sixpence
1942 · Movie
The Tuttles of Tahiti
1942 · Movie
We Were Dancing
1942 · Movie
Mexican Spitfire at Sea
1942 · Movie
The Chocolate Soldier
1941 · Movie
Love Crazy
1941 · Movie
Strange Alibi
1941 · Movie
The Devil and Miss Jones
1941 · Movie
Road Show
1941 · Movie
Kitty Foyle
1940 · Movie
Hudson's Bay
1940 · Movie
The Son of Monte Cristo
1940 · Movie
Calling All Husbands
1940 · Movie
Rebecca
1940 · Movie