Bette Midler Bio

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Bette Midler (born December 1, 1945) is an American singer, actress and comedienne, also known (by her informal stage name) as The Divine Miss M. During her career, she has won four Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes, three Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award, and has been nominated for two Academy Awards.

Bette Midler: Early life

In 1945, Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. She is the daughter of Ruth (née Schindel), a seamstress and housewife, and Fred Midler, a house painter who worked at a Navy base in Hawaii. Her parents were from Paterson, New Jersey and moved to Honolulu before Midler was born. She was named after the actress Bette Davis, though Davis pronounced her first name in two syllables, and Midler uses one, /ˈbÉ›t/. Midler's family was one of the few Jewish families in a mostly Asian neighborhood. She was raised in nearby Aiea and 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 named Mrs David Buff in the film.

Bette Midler: Career

In the summer of 1965, Midler relocated to New York City, using the money from playing an extra in the film Hawaii, 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 the summer of 1970, Midler began singing in the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse in the city, where she became close to her piano accompanist, Barry Manilow, who produced her first album, The Divine Miss M, in 1972. It was during her time at the Continental Baths that she built up a core following. In the late 1990s, during the release of her album Bathhouse Betty, Midler commented on her time performing there:

"Despite the way things turned out [with the AIDS crisis], I'm still proud of those days. I feel like I was at the forefront of the gay liberation movement, and I hope I did my part to help it move forward. So, I kind of wear the label of 'Bathhouse Betty' with pride".

In 1971, Midler starred in the first professional production of The Who's rock opera Tommy with director Richard Pearlman and the Seattle Opera.. It was during the run of Tommy that Midler was asked to appear on the The Tonight Show. She proved to be so popular that her career immediately skyrocketed.

Midler released her debut album The Divine Miss M on Atlantic Records in December of 1972. It streaked into Billboard's Top 10 and became a million-selling Platinum album, making her a star in the process and earning Bette the 1973 Grammy Award for Best New Artist.

Bette Midler at the premiere of The Rose.

In 1975, she received a Special Tony Award for her contribution to Broadway with Clams on the Half Shell Revue playing at the Palace Theater. From 1975-1978, she also provided the voice of Woody the Spoon on the PBS educational series Vegetable Soup.

In 1979, Midler made her first motion picture, starring in the 1960s-era rock and roll tragedy The Rose, as a drug-addicted rock star modeled after Janis Joplin. Soon afterwards she left to go on a world concert tour, with one of the shows (in Pasadena) being filmed and released as the concert film Divine Madness. Also in 1980, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Rose.

In 1981, Midler worked on the troubled project Jinxed!, a comedy in which she did not get along with her co-star (Ken Wahl) or the film's director (veteran Don Siegel). Released in 1982, the film was a major flop. Midler wouldn't appear in another film until 1986, and concentrated on her music career.

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.

Also in 1985, 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 with Ruthless People (1986), Outrageous Fortune (1987), and Big Business (1988). She scored a hit with the 1988 tearjerker Beaches, co-starring Barbara Hershey.

Midler lent her voice to the animated character Georgette, a snobbish poodle, in Disney's Oliver & Company (1989). In 1990, she co-starred with Woody Allen in Scenes from a Mall, again for Mazursky. She earned another Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for 1991's For the Boys co-starring 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, which instead went to Whoopi Goldberg.

Other films include Hocus Pocus (1993), The First Wives Club (1996), and The Stepford Wives (2004). 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 next-to-last 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.

Midler has guest-starred in various sitcoms over the years, including The Simpsons in the episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled" (she is first seen traversing a highway picking up trash when she is approached by Bart and Lisa with a request for Midler to appear on a show to revive Krusty's dying career). She appeared on Seinfeld in the episode "The Understudy," which was the season finale of that show's sixth season. She also appeared on The Nanny in the aptly titled episode "You Bette Your Life". In 2000, Midler starred in her own sitcom, Bette. Airing on CBS, initial ratings were high but soon declined and the show did not last a full season, being cancelled in early 2001. During the show's short lifespan, Bette's daughter (played by Lindsay Lohan in the pilot, then by Marina Malota starting with the third episode) and her husband were recast (Robert Hays succeeded Kevin Dunn in the final episode aired). The show was also reportedly rocked by backstage turmoil.

Also in 2001, Bette or Bust, a book chronicling Midler's "Divine Miss Millennium Tour" was released.

Midler has won four Grammy Awards including the 1973 Best New Artist and the prestigious Record of the Year in 1989 for the # 1 hit "Wind Beneath My Wings", the theme from Beaches. Her rendition of the 1990 "From a Distance" also earned her a Grammy and is another of her most popular songs. When the American Film Institute announced "The 100 Years of the Greatest Songs" on June 22, 2004, two of Midler's recordings were selected by the board: "Wind Beneath My Wings" (#44) and "The Rose" (#83). However, after years of erratic record sales, Midler was dropped from the Warner Brothers label in 2001.

After a long-standing feud with Barry Manilow, the two joined forces for the first time in twenty years in 2003 to record "Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook." Of the project, Manilow said he'd had a dream that he was recording with Midler again, so he called her up with the idea and she agreed that it was due time to work together again. Now signed to Columbia Records, the album was an instant success, being certified gold in only a few weeks. One of the Clooney Songbook selections, "This Ole House," became Midler's first Christian radio single shipped by Rick Hendrix and his positive music movement. The album was nominated for a Grammy the following year. worldwide.

In 2003-2004, Midler toured the U.S. in her new show, Kiss My Brass, to sell-out audiences. In early 2005, an Australian tour, Kiss My Brass Down Under, was equally successful. Midler joined forces again with Manilow for another tribute album, Bette Midler Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook. Released in October 2005, the album sold 55,000 copies the first week of release and debuted at #10.

In 2006, a new Christmas album Cool Yule was released by Midler featuring the title song (written by Steve Allen) and a duet with Johnny Mathis of "Winter Wonderland/Let It Snow". Midler next starred in the 2007 film Then She Found Me, directed by Helen Hunt and starring Hunt, Matthew Broderick and Colin Firth, and appeared on the American Idol (season 6) finale, singing "The Wind Beneath My Wings" live at the Kodak Theatre.

On December 6, 2007, Midler's album Cool Yule received a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.

Midler has a Vegas show titled "Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On" at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. The show has approximately 400 shows in a two year run. The show comprises The Staggering Harlettes, twenty female dancers and a thirteen piece band. Midler is reportedly being paid $40 million per year for her 200 shows. The show debuted on February 20, 2008.

A new "best of" album, "Jackpot: The Best Bette", was released in 2008 and reached #66 on the U.S. charts, and #6 in the U.K., where it was certified Platinum.

In June 2009, Midler appeared on the Bravo TV show "My Life on the D-List" with Kathy Griffin.

Bette Midler: Personal life

Midler's manager and boyfriend for a significant period was Aaron Russo. Midler married Martin von Haselberg (Harry Kipper of her opening act the Kipper Kids) on December 16, 1984 in a chapel in Las Vegas. Two years into their marriage she had a daughter, Sophie Frederica Alohilani von Haselberg, on November 14, 1986. Sophie graduated from Yale in 2008 with a degree in Sociology and a minor in East Asian Studies.

Bette Midler: Charity work

Bette Midler in Los Angeles, 1990

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. These include Highbridge Park, Fort Washington Park, and Fort Tryon Park in upper Manhattan and Roberto Clemente State Park and Bridge Park in the Bronx.

In 1999, the city planned to auction 114 community gardens for commercial development. Midler led a coalition of greening organizations to save them. NYRP took ownership of 60 of the most neglected plots. Today Midler and her organization work with local volunteers and community groups to ensure that these gardens are kept safe, clean and vibrant. In 2003, Midler opened Swindler Cove Park, a new 5-acre (20,000 m) public park on the Harlem River shore featuring specially designed educational facilities and the Peter Jay Sharp Boathouse, the first community rowing facility to be built on the Harlem River in more than 100 years. The organization offers free in-school and after-school environmental education programming to students from high-poverty Title I schools.