1888-04-13 San Antonio, Texas, USA
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.
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Main Street to Broadway | Mrs. Bessmer in Fantasy Sequence | 1953-10-12 |
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Paris Model | Nora Sullivan | 1953-11-10 |
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The San Francisco Story | Sadie | 1952-05-11 |
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Les Miserables | Madame Bonnet | 1952-08-14 |
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Havana Rose | Mrs. Fillmore | 1951-09-15 |
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Father Takes the Air | Minerva Bobbin | 1951-06-17 |
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Lullaby of Broadway | Mrs. Anna Hubbell | 1951-03-26 |
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The Tall Target | Mrs. Charlotte Alsop | 1951-08-17 |
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County Fair | Nora 'Ma' Ryan | 1950-07-30 |
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The Second Woman | Amelia Foster | 1950-07-07 |
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Belle of Old Mexico | Nellie Chatfield | 1950-03-01 |
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A Letter to Three Wives | Mrs. Manleigh | 1949-01-20 |
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The Girl from Jones Beach | Miss Emma Shoemaker | 1949-07-16 |
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On the Town | Madame Dilyovska | 1949-12-08 |
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My Dear Secretary | Horrible Hannah Reeve (the landlady) | 1948-11-05 |
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The Inside Story | Geraldine Atherton | 1948-03-14 |
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Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven | Mandy | 1948-07-16 |
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River Lady | Ma Dunnegan | 1948-05-20 |
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Portrait of Jennie | Mrs. Jekes | 1948-12-25 |
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Winter Meeting | Mrs. Castle | 1948-04-07 |
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I Remember Mama | Florence Dana Moorhead | 1948-03-09 |
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The Judge Steps Out | Chita | 1947-12-15 |
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The Secret Life of Walter Mitty | Mrs. Griswold | 1947-09-01 |
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Love and Learn | Mrs. Bella Davis - Landlady | 1947-05-02 |
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The Brasher Doubloon | Mrs. Murdock | 1947-02-06 |
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The Time, The Place and The Girl | Mme. Lucia Cassel | 1946-12-26 |
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Cluny Brown | Dowager at Ames's Party | 1946-06-02 |
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The Diary of a Chambermaid | Rose | 1946-02-15 |
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Claudia and David | Nancy Riddle | 1946-02-25 |
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The Man I Love | Mrs. Thorpe (uncredited) | 1946-12-26 |
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Whistle Stop | Molly Veech | 1946-01-25 |
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Saratoga Trunk | Sophie Bellop | 1945-11-21 |
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Out of This World | Harriet Pringle | 1945-07-13 |
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Tonight and Every Night | May Tolliver | 1945-01-09 |
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San Antonio | Henrietta | 1945-12-29 |
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Belle of the Yukon | Viola Chase | 1944-12-27 |
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Kismet | Karsha | 1944-10-01 |
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Tahiti Nights | Queen Liliha | 1944-12-28 |
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The Mask of Dimitrios | Madame Elise Chavez | 1944-06-23 |
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Heaven Can Wait | Mrs. Edna Craig (uncredited) | 1943-08-05 |
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They Got Me Covered | Gypsy Woman | 1943-03-04 |
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Slightly Dangerous | Mrs. Amanda Roanoke-Brooke | 1943-04-01 |
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His Butler's Sister | Lady Sloughberry | 1943-11-26 |
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Mr. Lucky | Mrs. Van Every | 1943-07-01 |
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Mister Big | Mrs. Mary Davis | 1943-05-28 |
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My Heart Belongs to Daddy | Mrs. Saunders | 1942-11-07 |
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The Tuttles of Tahiti | Emily | 1942-05-01 |
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The Moon and Sixpence | Tiare Johnson | 1942-10-27 |
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We Were Dancing | Mrs. Elsa Vanderlip | 1942-04-30 |
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Mexican Spitfire at Sea | Mrs. Baldwin | 1942-03-13 |
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Strange Alibi | Katie | 1941-04-19 |
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The Chocolate Soldier | Madame Helene | 1941-11-01 |
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Road Show | Mrs. Newton | 1941-02-18 |
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The Devil and Miss Jones | Store Shopper | 1941-04-11 |
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Love Crazy | Mrs. Cooper | 1941-05-23 |
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The Son of Monte Cristo | Countess Mathilde Von Braun | 1940-12-05 |
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Rebecca | Edythe Van Hopper | 1940-03-23 |
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Kitty Foyle | Customer | 1940-12-27 |
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Calling All Husbands | Emmie Trippe | 1940-09-07 |
