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