Bette Davis won Oscars for Dangerous (1935) and Jezebel (1938) and received eight other Oscar nominations, including one for All About Eve (1950) which was her last profitable film for nearly ten years. She was having such a difficult time finding work that she placed a famous job wanted ad in the trade papers which helped revived her career with What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). Unfortunately, she costarred with her nemesis Joan Crawford whom she hated with a passion.

According to the book Bette & Joan - The Divine Feud by Shaun Considine, Joan Crawford actively campaigned against Bette Davis for winning Best Actress for All About Eve. Bette had a Coca-Cola machine installed on the set due to Joan' s being the widow of Pepsi's CEO).  According to Bette,” We were polite to each other - all the social amenities, 'Good morning, Joan' and 'Good Morning, Bette' crap - and thank God we weren't playing roles where we had to like each other. But people forget that our big scenes were alone - just the camera was on me or her. No actresses on earth are as different as we are, all the way down the line. Yet what we do works. It's so strange, this acting business. It comes from inside. She was always so damn proper. She sent thank you notes for thank you notes. I screamed when I found out she signed autographs.”

But her tone was a little more acidic at other times. Here are a few choice quotes about Joan.

                Joan always cries a lot. Her tear ducts must be very close to her bladder

                I wouldn't piss on her if she was on fire.

                She has slept with every male star at MGM except Lassie     

               You should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good . . .
               Joan Crawford  is dead. Good.

When Kim Carnes song "Bette Davis Eyes”  became the best-selling record of 1981 in the US,  another generation was introduced to the legendary Bette. Just imagine what a song like” Bette Davis Mouth” could have done, especially if peppered with a few more more of her famous quotes, such as 

                An affair now and then is good for a marriage. It adds spice, stops it from getting
                boring. I ought to know.

                Until you're known in my profession as a monster, you're not a star.                

                If you want a thing well done, get a couple of old broads to do it.

                I was a person who couldn't make divorce work. For me, there's nothing lonelier than
                a turned-down toilet seat. 

To celebrate Bette's birthday, we suggest watching What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?  but enjoying a dessert commemorating one of her most famous bitchy lines  - "What a Dump." -  from Beyond The Forest (1959) made famous by being quoted in Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962).  Just don't watch the film. It is the worst one she ever made. Watch All About Eve.instead.