Florence Bates

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: Acting

Born: San Antonio, Texas, USA, 1888-04-13

Died: 1954-01-31

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1940	Rebecca	Edythe Van Hopper	79
2	1940	Calling All Husbands	Emmie Trippe	60
3	1940	The Son of Monte Cristo	Countess Mathilde Von Braun	56
4	1940	Kitty Foyle	Customer	66
5	1941	Road Show	Mrs. Newton	54
6	1941	The Devil and Miss Jones	Store Shopper	77
7	1941	Strange Alibi	Katie	66
8	1941	Love Crazy	Mrs. Cooper	71
9	1941	The Chocolate Soldier	Madame Helene	64
10	1942	Mexican Spitfire at Sea	Mrs. Baldwin	30
11	1942	We Were Dancing	Mrs. Elsa Vanderlip	42
12	1942	The Tuttles of Tahiti	Emily	55
13	1942	The Moon and Sixpence	Tiare Johnson	63
14	1942	My Heart Belongs to Daddy	Mrs. Saunders	58
15	1943	They Got Me Covered	Gypsy Woman	59
16	1943	Slightly Dangerous	Mrs. Amanda Roanoke-Brooke	60
17	1943	Mister Big	Mrs. Mary Davis	22
18	1943	Mr. Lucky	Mrs. Van Every	70
19	1943	Heaven Can Wait	Mrs. Edna Craig (uncredited)	69
20	1943	His Butler's Sister	Lady Sloughberry	71
21	1944	The Mask of Dimitrios	Madame Elise Chavez	70
22	1944	Kismet	Karsha	48
23	1944	Belle of the Yukon	Viola Chase	47
24	1944	Tahiti Nights	Queen Liliha	0
25	1945	Tonight and Every Night	May Tolliver	52
26	1945	Out of This World	Harriet Pringle	73
27	1945	Saratoga Trunk	Sophie Bellop	57
28	1945	San Antonio	Henrietta	57
29	1946	Whistle Stop	Molly Veech	43
30	1946	The Diary of a Chambermaid	Rose	63
31	1946	Claudia and David	Nancy Riddle	60
32	1946	Cluny Brown	Dowager at Ames's Party	71
33	1946	The Time, The Place and The Girl	Mme. Lucia Cassel	54
34	1946	The Man I Love	Mrs. Thorpe (uncredited)	62
35	1947	The Brasher Doubloon	Mrs. Murdock	60
36	1947	Love and Learn	Mrs. Bella Davis - Landlady	55
37	1947	The Secret Life of Walter Mitty	Mrs. Griswold	67
38	1947	The Judge Steps Out	Chita	70
39	1948	I Remember Mama	Florence Dana Moorhead	71
40	1948	The Inside Story	Geraldine Atherton	65
41	1948	Winter Meeting	Mrs. Castle	65
42	1948	River Lady	Ma Dunnegan	50
43	1948	Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven	Mandy	53
44	1948	My Dear Secretary	Horrible Hannah Reeve (the landlady)	58
45	1948	Portrait of Jennie	Mrs. Jekes	71
46	1949	A Letter to Three Wives	Mrs. Manleigh	72
47	1949	The Girl from Jones Beach	Miss Emma Shoemaker	54
48	1949	On the Town	Madame Dilyovska	70
49	1950	Belle of Old Mexico	Nellie Chatfield	0
50	1950	The Second Woman	Amelia Foster	56
51	1950	County Fair	Nora 'Ma' Ryan	0
52	1951	Lullaby of Broadway	Mrs. Anna Hubbell	58
53	1951	Father Takes the Air	Minerva Bobbin	50
54	1951	The Tall Target	Mrs. Charlotte Alsop	68
55	1951	Havana Rose	Mrs. Fillmore	0
56	1952	The San Francisco Story	Sadie	48
57	1952	Les Miserables	Madame Bonnet	54
58	1953	Main Street to Broadway	Mrs. Bessmer in Fantasy Sequence	65
59	1953	Paris Model	Nora Sullivan	30

No.

Year

Title

Role

Vote Average

1940