CELEBRITY BIRTHDAY SPOTLIGHT

Bette Midler
Born: December 1, 1945
Place: Honolulu, HI



She was named after the actress Bette Davis. Davis pronounced her first name in two syllables, and Midler uses one.

She was raised in nearby Aiea 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.

In 1965, she relocated to New York City after using the money she got for playing an extra, and 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 1970, Midler began singing in the Continental Baths, a gay bathyouse in the city, where she became close to her piano accompanist, Barry Manilow, who produced her first major album, The Divine Miss M, in 1973.

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.

That same year, 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 up with Ruthless People (1986), Outrageous Fortune (1987), and Big Business (1988). She also scored a hit with the 1988 tearjerker Beaches, costarring Barbara Hereshey. She lent her voice to the animated character Georgette, a snobbish poodle, in Disney's Oliver & Company (1989). In 1990, she costarred with Woody Allen (sporting a ponytail) in Scenes from a Mall, again for Mazursky. She earned another Academy Award nomination as Best Actress for 1991's For the Boys costarring 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.

Her other films include Hocus Pocus (1993), The First Wives Club (1996), and The Stepford Wives. 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 final episode of The Tonight Show in May of that year, during which she sang an emotion-laden "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)" to Johnny Carson.

Bette Midler has a Vegas show titled "Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On" at The Colosseum at Ceasars Palace. The show has approximately 100 shows for a two year run. Bette is reportedly being paid $40 million per year for her 200 a year shows, amounting in $120 million. The show debuted on February 20, 2008.

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.