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