Florence Bates
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- April 13, 1888
- Died
- January 31, 1954
- Birthplace
- 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
as Nora Sullivan
Main Street to Broadway 1953
as Mrs. Bessmer in Fantasy Sequence
Les Miserables 1952
as Madame Bonnet
The San Francisco Story 1952
as Sadie
Havana Rose 1951
as Mrs. Fillmore
The Tall Target 1951
as Mrs. Charlotte Alsop
Father Takes the Air 1951
as Minerva Bobbin
Lullaby of Broadway 1951
as Mrs. Anna Hubbell
County Fair 1950
as Nora 'Ma' Ryan
The Second Woman 1950
as Amelia Foster
Belle of Old Mexico 1950
as Nellie Chatfield
On the Town 1949
as Madame Dilyovska
The Girl from Jones Beach 1949
as Miss Emma Shoemaker
A Letter to Three Wives 1949
as Mrs. Manleigh
Portrait of Jennie 1948
as Mrs. Jekes
My Dear Secretary 1948
as Horrible Hannah Reeve (the landlady)
Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven 1948
as Mandy
River Lady 1948
as Ma Dunnegan
Winter Meeting 1948
as Mrs. Castle
The Inside Story 1948
as Geraldine Atherton
I Remember Mama 1948
as Florence Dana Moorhead
The Judge Steps Out 1947
as Chita
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty 1947
as Mrs. Griswold
Love and Learn 1947
as Mrs. Bella Davis - Landlady
The Brasher Doubloon 1947
as Mrs. Murdock
The Man I Love 1946
as Mrs. Thorpe (uncredited)
The Time, The Place and The Girl 1946
as Mme. Lucia Cassel
Cluny Brown 1946
as Dowager at Ames's Party
Claudia and David 1946
as Nancy Riddle
The Diary of a Chambermaid 1946
as Rose
Whistle Stop 1946
as Molly Veech
San Antonio 1945
as Henrietta
Saratoga Trunk 1945
as Sophie Bellop
Out of This World 1945
as Harriet Pringle
Tonight and Every Night 1945
as May Tolliver
Tahiti Nights 1944
as Queen Liliha
Belle of the Yukon 1944
as Viola Chase
Kismet 1944
as Karsha
The Mask of Dimitrios 1944
as Madame Elise Chavez
His Butler's Sister 1943
as Lady Sloughberry
Heaven Can Wait 1943
as Mrs. Edna Craig (uncredited)
Mr. Lucky 1943
as Mrs. Van Every
Mister Big 1943
as Mrs. Mary Davis
Slightly Dangerous 1943
as Mrs. Amanda Roanoke-Brooke
They Got Me Covered 1943
as Gypsy Woman
My Heart Belongs to Daddy 1942
as Mrs. Saunders
The Moon and Sixpence 1942
as Tiare Johnson
The Tuttles of Tahiti 1942
as Emily
We Were Dancing 1942
as Mrs. Elsa Vanderlip
Mexican Spitfire at Sea 1942
as Mrs. Baldwin
The Chocolate Soldier 1941
as Madame Helene
Love Crazy 1941
as Mrs. Cooper
Strange Alibi 1941
as Katie
The Devil and Miss Jones 1941
as Store Shopper
Road Show 1941
as Mrs. Newton
Kitty Foyle 1940
as Customer
Hudson's Bay 1940
as Duchess (scenes deleted)
The Son of Monte Cristo 1940
as Countess Mathilde Von Braun
Calling All Husbands 1940
as Emmie Trippe
Rebecca 1940
as Edythe Van Hopper
Credits from TMDB.