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Florence Bates
Actor
Died January 31, 1954 (65 years)
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.
Filmography
| 1953 | Private Secretary (TV Series) · as actor |
| 1952 | Les Miserables · as Madame Bonnet |
| 1952 | The San Francisco Story · as Sadie |
| 1952 | My Little Margie (TV Series) · as Lady Franklin |
| 1952 | The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet (TV Series) · as Mrs. Howard |
| 1952 | I Married Joan (TV Series) · as Ballet teacher |
| 1952 | My Hero (1952) (TV Series) · as Aunt Polly |
| 1952 | Our Miss Brooks (TV Series) · as Mrs. Carney |
| 1952 | Four Star Playhouse (TV Series) · as Ottilie |
| 1951 | The Tall Target · as Mrs. Charlotte Alsop |
| 1951 | Lullaby of Broadway · as Mrs. Anna Hubbell |
| 1951 | I Love Lucy (TV Series) · as Mrs. Pettebone |
| 1950 | The Second Woman · as Amelia Foster |
| 1950 | County Fair · as Nora 'Ma' Ryan |
| 1950 | The Bigelow Theatre (TV Series) · as actor |
| 1950 | The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (TV Series) · as Mrs. McEveety |
| 1950 | Dick Tracy (1950) (TV Series) · as Mrs. Frotheringham |
| 1949 | On the Town · as Madame Dilyovska |
| 1949 | A Letter to Three Wives · as Mrs. Manleigh |
| 1949 | The Girl from Jones Beach · as Miss Emma Shoemaker |
| 1948 | My Dear Secretary · as Horrible Hannah Reeve (the landlady) |
| 1948 | Portrait of Jennie · as Mrs. Jekes |
| 1948 | I Remember Mama · as Florence Dana Moorhead |
| 1948 | Winter Meeting · as Mrs. Castle |
| 1948 | The Inside Story · as Geraldine Atherton |
| 1948 | Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven · as Mandy |
| 1947 | The Secret Life of Walter Mitty · as Mrs. Griswold |
| 1947 | Desire Me · as Mrs.Lannie |
| 1946 | The Man I Love · as Mrs. Thorpe |
| 1946 | The Diary of a Chambermaid · as Rose |
| 1946 | Whistle Stop · as Molly Veech |
| 1946 | Claudia and David · as Nancy Riddle |
| 1945 | San Antonio · as Henrietta |
| 1945 | Tonight and Every Night · as May Tolliver |
| 1945 | Saratoga Trunk · as Sophie Bellop |
| 1944 | The Mask of Dimitrios · as Madame Elise Chavez |
| 1944 | Since You Went Away · as Hungry Woman on Train |
| 1944 | Kismet · as Karsha |
| 1944 | Belle of the Yukon · as Viola Chase |
| 1943 | Mr. Lucky · as Mrs. Van Every |
| 1943 | His Butler's Sister · as Lady Sloughberry |
| 1943 | They Got Me Covered · as Gypsy Woman |
| 1943 | Heaven Can Wait · as Mrs. Edna Craig (uncredited) |
| 1942 | We Were Dancing · as Mrs. Elsa Vanderlip |
| 1942 | Mexican Spitfire at Sea · as Mrs. Baldwin |
| 1941 | Love Crazy · as Mrs. Cooper |
| 1941 | The Devil and Miss Jones · as Store Shopper |
| 1941 | The Chocolate Soldier · as Madame Helene |
| 1941 | Road Show · as Mrs. Newton |
| 1940 | Rebecca · as Edythe Van Hopper |
| 1940 | Kitty Foyle · as Customer |
| 1940 | The Son of Monte Cristo · as Countess Mathilde Von Braun |