Florence Bates

Biography

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.

Known For

I Love Lucy

Rebecca

Dick Tracy

The Man I Love

On the Town

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Heaven Can Wait

I Remember Mama

All Movies (60)

• Paris Model1953 · as Nora Sullivan
• Main Street to Broadway1953 · as Mrs. Bessmer in Fantasy Sequence
• Les Miserables1952 · as Madame Bonnet
• The San Francisco Story1952 · as Sadie
• Havana Rose1951 · as Mrs. Fillmore
• The Tall Target1951 · as Mrs. Charlotte Alsop
• Father Takes the Air1951 · as Minerva Bobbin
• Lullaby of Broadway1951 · as Mrs. Anna Hubbell
• County Fair1950 · as Nora 'Ma' Ryan
• The Second Woman1950 · as Amelia Foster
• Belle of Old Mexico1950 · as Nellie Chatfield
• On the Town1949 · as Madame Dilyovska
• The Girl from Jones Beach1949 · as Miss Emma Shoemaker
• A Letter to Three Wives1949 · as Mrs. Manleigh
• Portrait of Jennie1948 · as Mrs. Jekes
• My Dear Secretary1948 · as Horrible Hannah Reeve (the landlady)
• Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven1948 · as Mandy
• River Lady1948 · as Ma Dunnegan
• Winter Meeting1948 · as Mrs. Castle
• The Inside Story1948 · as Geraldine Atherton
• I Remember Mama1948 · as Florence Dana Moorhead
• The Judge Steps Out1947 · as Chita
• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty1947 · as Mrs. Griswold
• Love and Learn1947 · as Mrs. Bella Davis - Landlady
• The Brasher Doubloon1947 · as Mrs. Murdock
• The Time, The Place and The Girl1946 · as Mme. Lucia Cassel
• The Man I Love1946 · as Mrs. Thorpe (uncredited)
• Cluny Brown1946 · as Dowager at Ames's Party
• Claudia and David1946 · as Nancy Riddle
• The Diary of a Chambermaid1946 · as Rose
• Whistle Stop1946 · as Molly Veech
• San Antonio1945 · as Henrietta
• Saratoga Trunk1945 · as Sophie Bellop
• Out of This World1945 · as Harriet Pringle
• Tonight and Every Night1945 · as May Tolliver
• Tahiti Nights1944 · as Queen Liliha
• Belle of the Yukon1944 · as Viola Chase
• Kismet1944 · as Karsha
• The Mask of Dimitrios1944 · as Madame Elise Chavez
• His Butler's Sister1943 · as Lady Sloughberry
• Heaven Can Wait1943 · as Mrs. Edna Craig (uncredited)
• Mr. Lucky1943 · as Mrs. Van Every
• Mister Big1943 · as Mrs. Mary Davis
• Slightly Dangerous1943 · as Mrs. Amanda Roanoke-Brooke
• They Got Me Covered1943 · as Gypsy Woman
• My Heart Belongs to Daddy1942 · as Mrs. Saunders
• The Moon and Sixpence1942 · as Tiare Johnson
• The Tuttles of Tahiti1942 · as Emily
• We Were Dancing1942 · as Mrs. Elsa Vanderlip
• Mexican Spitfire at Sea1942 · as Mrs. Baldwin
• The Chocolate Soldier1941 · as Madame Helene
• Love Crazy1941 · as Mrs. Cooper
• Strange Alibi1941 · as Katie
• The Devil and Miss Jones1941 · as Store Shopper
• Road Show1941 · as Mrs. Newton
• Kitty Foyle1940 · as Customer
• Hudson's Bay1940 · as Duchess (scenes deleted)
• The Son of Monte Cristo1940 · as Countess Mathilde Von Braun
• Calling All Husbands1940 · as Emmie Trippe
• Rebecca1940 · as Edythe Van Hopper

All TV Shows (3)

• Four Star Playhouse1952 · as Ottilie
• I Love Lucy1951 · as Mrs. Pettebone
• Dick Tracy1950 · as Mrs. Frothingham