Bette Midler (/bɛt/; December 1, 1945, Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, USA) is an American singer, actress, comedian and author. Throughout her career, which spans over five decades, Midler has received numerous accolades, including four Golden Globe Awards, three Grammy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards and a Kennedy Center Honor, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and a British Academy Film Award.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Midler began her professional career in several off-off-Broadway plays, prior to her engagements in Fiddler on the Roof and Salvation on Broadway in the late 1960s. She came to prominence in 1970 when she began singing in the Continental Baths, a local gay bathhouse where she managed to build up a core following. Since 1970, Midler has released 14 studio albums as a solo artist, selling over 30 million records worldwide, and has received four Gold, three Platinum, and three Multiplatinum albums by RIAA. Many of her songs became chart hits, including her renditions of "The Rose", "Wind Beneath My Wings", "Do You Want to Dance", "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy", and "From a Distance". She won Grammy Awards for Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "The Rose", and Record of the Year for "Wind Beneath My Wings".
Midler made her starring film debut with the musical drama The Rose (1979), which won her the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She went on to star in numerous films, including Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), Ruthless People (1986), Outrageous Fortune (1987), Big Business (1988), Beaches (1988), Hocus Pocus (1993) and it's sequel (2022), The First Wives Club (1996), The Stepford Wives (2004), Parental Guidance (2012), and The Addams Family (2019) and its sequel (2021). Midler also had starring roles in For the Boys (1991) and Gypsy (1993), winning two additional Golden Globe Awards for these films and receiving a second Academy Award nomination for the former.
In 2008, Midler signed a contract with Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for a residency, Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On, which ended in 2010. She starred in the Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!, which began previews in March 2017 and premiered at the Shubert Theatre in April 2017. The show was her first leading role in a Broadway musical. Midler received the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance.
Bette Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, where her family was one of the few Jewish families in a mostly Asian neighborhood. Her mother, Ruth (née Schindel), was a seamstress and housewife, and her father, Fred Midler, worked at a Navy base in Hawaii as a painter, and also painted houses. Both parents were born in New Jersey. She was named after actress Bette Davis, although Davis pronounced her first name in two syllables (and phonetically sounds like "Betty") and Midler uses one syllable (and phonetically sounds like "bet"). She was raised in Aiea and attended Radford High School in Honolulu. She was voted "Most Talkative" in the 1961 school Hoss Election, and "Most Dramatic" in her senior year (class of 1963). Midler majored in drama at the University of Hawaii at Manoa but left after three semesters. During her time at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, she pledged Delta Phi Epsilon and is a sorority alumna. She earned money in the 1966 film Hawaii as an extra, playing an uncredited seasick passenger named Miss David Buff.
Midler relocated to New York City in the summer of 1965, using money from her work in the film Hawaii. She studied theatre at HB Studio under Uta Hagen. She 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. After Fiddler, she joined the original cast of Salvation in 1969.
Midler released her debut album, The Divine Miss M, on Atlantic Records in December 1972. The album was co-produced by Barry Manilow, who was Bette's arranger and music conductor at the time. It reached Billboard's Top 10 and became a million-selling Platinum-certified album, earning Midler the 1973 Grammy Award for Best New Artist. It featured three hit singles—"Do You Wanna Dance?", "Friends", and "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy"—the third of which became Midler's first No. 1 Adult Contemporary hit. "Bugle Boy" became a successful rock cover of the classic swing tune originally introduced and popularized in 1941 by the Andrews Sisters, to whom Midler has repeatedly referred as her idols and inspiration, as far back as her first appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Midler told Carson in an interview that she always wanted to move like the sisters, and Patty Andrews remembered: "When I first heard the introduction on the radio, I thought it was our old record. When Bette opened at the Amphitheater in Los Angeles, Maxene and I went backstage to see her. Her first words were, 'What else did you record?'" During another Midler concert, Maxene went on stage and presented her with an honorary bugle. Bette recorded other Andrews Sisters hits, including "In the Mood" and "Lullaby of Broadway".
She was subsequently cast by director Paul Mazursky in Down and Out in Beverly Hills, beginning a successful comedic acting career. She followed that role with several more Touchstone comedies, Ruthless People (1986), Outrageous Fortune (1987), and Big Business (1988). Later in 1988, Midler lent her voice to the animated character Georgette, a snobbish poodle, in Disney's Oliver & Company, and had a hit with Beaches, co-starring Barbara Hershey. She co-starred with Woody Allen in the 1991 film Scenes from a Mall, again for Paul Mazursky. In the film, Allen's character reveals to his author wife Deborah, played by Midler, after years of a happy marriage, that he has had an affair, resulting in her request for divorce. The movie performed poorly, and received a mixed reception by critics. Midler fared somewhat better with her other 1991 project For the Boys, on which she reteamed with The Rose director Mark Rydell. A historical musical drama, it tells the story of 1940s actress and singer Dixie Leonard, played by Midler, who teams up with Eddie Sparks, a famous performer, to entertain American troops. While the film received a mixed reception from critics, Midler earned rave reviews for her portrayal. The following year she was awarded her second Golden Globe and received her second Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Midler turned down the lead role in the musical comedy Sister Act in 1992, which instead went to Whoopi Goldberg. Midler won an Emmy Award in 1992 for her performance on the penultimate episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in May 1992, during which she sang an emotion-laden "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)" to Johnny Carson. During the show, Midler began singing "Here's That Rainy Day", Carson's favorite song; Carson joined in a few lyrics later. In 1993, she starred with Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy in the Walt Disney Halloween comedy fantasy film, Hocus Pocus. Midler played the lead role of Winifred ‘Winnie’ Sanderson, the head witch and eldest of the fictional Sanderson Sisters; the sisters are a trio of convicted colonial-era witches who were executed by hanging during the Salem Witch Trials, and then magically brought back to life in the 1990s by teenagers who recite a mysterious spell. Released to initially mixed reviews, through various outlets (such as strong DVD sales and annual record-breaking showings on 13 Nights of Halloween), the film has achieved cult status over the years. In relation to Hocus Pocus, every year Midler hosts her annual Hulaween costume party, which benefits the New York Restoration Project. 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 starred in her own sitcom in 2000, Bette, which featured Midler playing herself, a divine celebrity who is adored by her fans. Airing on CBS, initial ratings were high, marking the best sitcom debut for the network in more than five years, but viewers percentage soon declined, resulting in the show's cancellation in early 2001. Midler openly griped about the show's demanding shooting schedule, while the show itself was also reportedly rocked by backstage turmoil, involving the replacement of co-star Kevin Dunn whose departure was attributed to his behind-the scenes bickering with Midler by the media. However, Midler, critically praised, was awarded a People's Choice Award for her performance in the show and received a Golden Globe Award nomination the following year. Also in 2000, Midler made an uncredited cameo appearance in Nancy Meyers' fantasy rom–com What Women Want, starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. In the film, she portrayed a therapist who realizes that central character Nick, played by Gibson, is able to understand women's thoughts. Released to generally mixed reviews, it became the then-most successful film ever directed by a woman, taking in $183 million in the United States, and grossing upward of $370 million worldwide.
Throughout 2003 and 2004, Midler toured the United States in her new show, Kiss My Brass, to sell-out audiences. Also in 2004, she appeared in a supporting role in Frank Oz' science fiction satire The Stepford Wives, a remake of the 1975 film of the same name also based on the Ira Levin novel. Also starring Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Christopher Walken and Glenn Close, Midler played Bobbie Markowitz, a writer and recovering alcoholic. The project underwent numerous production problems that occurred throughout its shooting schedule, with reports of problems on-set between director Oz and the actors being rampant in the press. Oz later blamed Midler — who was amid recording her next album and rehearsing for her tour — for being under a lot of stress by other projects and making "the mistake of bringing her stress on the set." While the original book and film had tremendous cultural impact, the remake was marked by poor reviews by many critics, and a financial loss of approximately $40 million at the box office.
In March 2017, she began playing the role of Dolly Gallagher Levi, continuing through January 2018, in the Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly! for which she won a Tony Award. In 2017 she also appeared in the role of Muv in the 2017 film Freak Show. Midler returned to Hello, Dolly! on July 17, 2018, to close out the run of the successful revival. In October 2019, Midler voiced the character of Grandmama, Gomez and Fester's mother, in the animated movie version of The Addams Family. She reprised the role in the 2021 sequel The Addams Family 2. In 2022, Midler reprised her role as Winifred Sanderson in Hocus Pocus 2 for Disney+.
| Year | Image | Character | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 
|
Granny | The Addams Family (2019) |
| 1988 | 
|
Georgette | Oliver & Company |