Florence Bates
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.
Known For
Credits
- 1955 · Alfred Hitchcock Presents as Mrs. Van Hopper (archive footage) (uncredited)
- 1953 · Paris Model as Nora Sullivan
- 1953 · Main Street to Broadway as Mrs. Bessmer in Fantasy Sequence
- 1952 · Four Star Playhouse as Ottilie
- 1952 · Les Miserables as Madame Bonnet
- 1952 · The San Francisco Story as Sadie
- 1951 · I Love Lucy as Mrs. Pettebone
- 1951 · Havana Rose as Mrs. Fillmore
- 1951 · The Tall Target as Mrs. Charlotte Alsop
- 1951 · Father Takes the Air as Minerva Bobbin
- 1951 · Lullaby of Broadway as Mrs. Anna Hubbell
- 1950 · Dick Tracy as Mrs. Frothingham
- 1950 · County Fair as Nora 'Ma' Ryan
- 1950 · The Second Woman as Amelia Foster
- 1950 · Belle of Old Mexico as Nellie Chatfield
- 1949 · On the Town as Madame Dilyovska
- 1949 · The Girl from Jones Beach as Miss Emma Shoemaker
- 1949 · A Letter to Three Wives as Mrs. Manleigh
- 1948 · Portrait of Jennie as Mrs. Jekes
- 1948 · My Dear Secretary as Horrible Hannah Reeve (the landlady)
- 1948 · Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven as Mandy
- 1948 · River Lady as Ma Dunnegan
- 1948 · Winter Meeting as Mrs. Castle
- 1948 · The Inside Story as Geraldine Atherton
- 1948 · I Remember Mama as Florence Dana Moorhead
- 1947 · The Judge Steps Out as Chita
- 1947 · The Secret Life of Walter Mitty as Mrs. Griswold
- 1947 · Love and Learn as Mrs. Bella Davis - Landlady
- 1947 · The Brasher Doubloon as Mrs. Murdock
- 1946 · The Time, The Place and The Girl as Mme. Lucia Cassel
- 1946 · Cluny Brown as Dowager at Ames's Party
- 1946 · Claudia and David as Nancy Riddle
- 1946 · The Diary of a Chambermaid as Rose
- 1946 · Whistle Stop as Molly Veech
- 1945 · San Antonio as Henrietta
- 1945 · Saratoga Trunk as Sophie Bellop
- 1945 · Out of This World as Harriet Pringle
- 1945 · Tonight and Every Night as May Tolliver
- 1944 · Tahiti Nights as Queen Liliha
- 1944 · Belle of the Yukon as Viola Chase
- 1944 · Kismet as Karsha
- 1944 · The Mask of Dimitrios as Madame Elise Chavez
- 1943 · His Butler's Sister as Lady Sloughberry
- 1943 · Heaven Can Wait as Mrs. Edna Craig (uncredited)
- 1943 · Mr. Lucky as Mrs. Van Every
- 1943 · Mister Big as Mrs. Mary Davis
- 1943 · Slightly Dangerous as Mrs. Amanda Roanoke-Brooke
- 1943 · They Got Me Covered as Gypsy Woman
- 1942 · My Heart Belongs to Daddy as Mrs. Saunders
- 1942 · The Moon and Sixpence as Tiare Johnson
- 1942 · The Tuttles of Tahiti as Emily
- 1942 · We Were Dancing as Mrs. Elsa Vanderlip
- 1942 · Mexican Spitfire at Sea as Mrs. Baldwin
- 1941 · The Chocolate Soldier as Madame Helene
- 1941 · Love Crazy as Mrs. Cooper
- 1941 · Strange Alibi as Katie
- 1941 · The Devil and Miss Jones as Store Shopper
- 1941 · Road Show as Mrs. Newton
- 1940 · Kitty Foyle as Customer
- 1940 · The Son of Monte Cristo as Countess Mathilde Von Braun
- 1940 · Calling All Husbands as Emmie Trippe
- 1940 · Rebecca as Edythe Van Hopper