67 Facts About Bette Midler

Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, comedian and author.

Bette Midler came to prominence in 1970 when she began singing in the Continental Baths, a local gay bathhouse where she managed to build up a core following.

Since 1970, Bette Midler has released 14 studio albums as a solo artist, selling over 30 million records worldwide, and has received four Gold, three Platinum, and three Multiplatinum albums by RIAA.

Bette Midler won Grammy Awards for Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "The Rose", and Record of the Year for "Wind Beneath My Wings".

Bette Midler went on to star in numerous films, including Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Ruthless People, Outrageous Fortune, Big Business, Beaches, Hocus Pocus and it's sequel, The First Wives Club, The Stepford Wives, Parental Guidance, and The Addams Family.

Bette Midler had starring roles in For the Boys and Gypsy, winning two additional Golden Globe Awards for these films and receiving a second Academy Award nomination for the former.

Bette Midler received the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance.

Bette Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, where her family was one of the few Jewish families in a mostly Asian neighborhood.

Bette Midler's mother, Ruth, was a seamstress and housewife, and her father, Fred Midler, worked at a Navy base in Hawaii as a painter, and painted houses.

Bette Midler was named after actress Bette Davis, although Davis pronounced her first name in two syllables and Midler uses one syllable.

Bette Midler was raised in Aiea and attended Radford High School in Honolulu.

Bette Midler was voted "Most Talkative" in the 1961 school Hoss Election, and "Most Dramatic" in her senior year.

Bette Midler majored in drama at the University of Hawaii at Manoa but left after three semesters.

Bette Midler earned money in the 1966 film Hawaii as an extra, playing an uncredited seasick passenger named Miss David Buff.

Bette Midler relocated to New York City in the summer of 1965, using money from her work in the film Hawaii.

Bette Midler studied theatre at HB Studio under Uta Hagen.

Bette Midler landed her first professional onstage role in Tom Eyen's off-off-Broadway plays in 1965, Miss Nefertiti Regrets and Cinderella Revisited, a children's play by day and an adult show by night.

Bette Midler starred in the first professional production of the Who's rock opera Tommy in 1971, with director Richard Pearlman and the Seattle Opera.

Bette Midler released her debut album, The Divine Miss M, on Atlantic Records in December 1972.

When Bette Midler opened at the Amphitheater in Los Angeles, Maxene and I went backstage to see her.

Bette Midler recorded other Andrews Sisters hits, including "In the Mood" and "Lullaby of Broadway".

Bette Midler's self-titled follow-up album was released at the end of 1973.

Bette Midler returned to recording with the 1976 and 1977 albums, Songs for the New Depression and Broken Blossom.

In 1977, Bette Midler's first television special, whose title, Ol' Red Hair is Back, was a takeoff on Frank Sinatra's Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back, premiered, featuring guest stars Dustin Hoffman and Emmett Kelly.

Bette Midler made her first motion picture in 1979, starring in the 1960s-era rock and roll tragedy The Rose, as a drug-addicted rock star modeled after Janis Joplin.

Bette Midler's first foray into disco was a commercial and critical failure and went on to be her all-time lowest charting album, peaking at No 65 on the Billboard album chart.

Bette Midler did not appear in any other films until 1986; however, she was an early choice for Miss Hannigan in the 1982 film Annie.

Bette Midler released an all-comedy album called Mud Will Be Flung Tonight in 1985.

Bette Midler performed on USA for Africa's 1985 fund-raising single "We Are the World", and participated at the Live Aid event at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.

Bette Midler produced them through her production banner, All Girl Productions with producing partner Bonnie Bruckheimer.

Bette Midler was cast by director Paul Mazursky in Down and Out in Beverly Hills, beginning a successful comedic acting career.

Bette Midler followed that role with several more Touchstone comedies, Ruthless People, Outrageous Fortune, and Big Business.

Bette Midler's 1990 cover of the Julie Gold song "From a Distance", the first offering from her seventh studio album Some People's Lives, topped the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts and achieved platinum status in the US.

The third feature film adaptation of the 1920 novel Stella Dallas by Olive Higgins Prouty, Bette Midler portrayed a vulgar single mother living in Watertown, New York, who, determined to give her daughter all the opportunities she never had, ultimately makes a selfless sacrifice to ensure her happiness.

The movie scored mediocre reviews, while Bette Midler received her first Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress.

Bette Midler co-starred with Woody Allen in the 1991 film Scenes from a Mall, again for Paul Mazursky.

Bette Midler turned down the lead role in the musical comedy Sister Act in 1992, which instead went to Whoopi Goldberg.

Bette Midler won an Emmy Award in 1992 for her performance on the penultimate episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in May 1992, during which she sang an emotion-laden "One for My Baby " to Johnny Carson.

Bette Midler played the lead role of Winifred 'Winnie' Sanderson, the head witch and eldest of the fictional Sanderson Sisters; the sisters are a trio of convicted colonial-era witches who were executed by hanging during the Salem Witch Trials, and then magically brought back to life in the 1990s by teenagers who recite a mysterious spell.

Bette Midler appeared on Seinfeld in the 1995 episode "The Understudy", which was the season finale of that show's sixth season in 1995.

That same year, Bette Midler had a supporting role in Get Shorty.

In 1997, Bette Midler, along with her co-stars from The First Wives Club, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton, was a recipient of the Women in Film Crystal Award, which honors "outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry".

In 1998, Bette Midler released her ninth studio album, Bathhouse Betty, named after the nickname she was given for performing at bathhouses early in her career.

Midler starred in her own sitcom in 2000, Bette, which featured Midler playing herself, a divine celebrity who is adored by her fans.

Bette Midler openly griped about the show's demanding shooting schedule, while the show itself was reportedly rocked by backstage turmoil, involving the replacement of co-star Kevin Dunn whose departure was attributed to his behind-the scenes bickering with Bette Midler by the media.

However, Bette Midler, critically praised, was awarded a People's Choice Award for her performance in the show and received a Golden Globe Award nomination the following year.

Also starring Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Christopher Walken and Glenn Close, Bette Midler played Bobbie Markowitz, a writer and recovering alcoholic.

Also starring Hunt along with Matthew Broderick and Colin Firth, the comedy-drama film tells the story of a 39-year-old Brooklyn elementary school teacher, who after years is contacted by the flamboyant host of a local talk show, played by Bette Midler, who introduces herself as her biological mother.

Bette Midler appeared on the Bravo TV show My Life on the D-List with Kathy Griffin in an episode that aired in June 2009.

Bette Midler performed "In My Life" and "Wind Beneath My Wings" as the closing act.

In November 2010, Bette Midler released Memories of You, another compilation of lesser known tracks from her catalog.

Bette Midler was one of the producers of the Broadway production of the musical Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, which opened in February 2011.

In 2013, Bette Midler performed on Broadway for the first time in more than 30 years in a play about the Hollywood superagent Sue Mengers.

Bette Midler performed the song, The Place Where Lost Things Go from Mary Poppins Returns at the 91st Annual Academy Awards ceremony on February 24,2019.

In 2020, Bette Midler starred in The Glorias a biographical film revolving around the life of Gloria Steinem portraying the role of Bella Abzug, directed by Julie Taymor.

Bette Midler starred in the second season of The Politician after previously guest starring in the first.

Bette Midler has written several books, including The Saga of Baby Divine and A View from a Broad.

Bette Midler played Miriam Nessler, a retired teacher from New York, in HBO's Coastal Elites by Paul Rudnick.

In December 2021, Midler came under fire when criticizing Joe Manchin for not supporting Joe Biden's Build Back Better Plan.

Bette Midler wants us all to be just like his state, West Virginia.

On December 4,2021, Bette Midler received the Kennedy Center Honor for a lifetime of achievement in the performing arts at the Medallion Ceremony, held at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC The next day, Bette Midler attended the show at the Kennedy Center.

In 2022, Bette Midler reprised her role as Winifred Sanderson in Hocus Pocus 2 for Disney+.

Bette Midler married artist Martin von Haselberg on December 16,1984.

In 1991, Bette Midler was an early sponsor of the Adopt-a-Highway, paying $2,000 a month for a crew to clean up a 2 miles section of the Ventura Freeway in Burbank, California.

Bette Midler founded the New York Restoration Project in 1995, a non-profit organization with the goal of revitalizing neglected neighborhood parks in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods of New York City.

In 2003, Bette Midler opened Swindler Cove Park, a new 5-acre public park on the Harlem River shore featuring specially designed educational facilities and the Peter Jay Sharp Boathouse, the first community rowing facility to be built on the Harlem River in more than 100 years.

Bette Midler pledged to match Pink with a donation of $500,000 to help Australia during the wildfires in 2020.