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WASHINGTON (AP) -- "She did it the
hard way." That's how Bette Davis wanted to be remembered, and a new U.S.
postage stamp honoring her does that iron-willed image justice.
Davis chose "She did it
the hard way" for an epitaph because a lot of her life was difficult but
rewarding.
The 42-cent commemorative stamp, being released Thursday in
Boston, Massachusetts, features a portrait of Davis as she appeared in the 1950
film "All About Eve," in which she played Margo Channing, an aging stage actress
battling to save her career as a younger woman schemes to replace her.
In one scene author Joseph Mankiewicz' stage directions for
Margo read: "the steel begins to flash," as Davis, her blue eyes glaring,
responds to her lover's description of Eve as a "stage-struck kid."
"Stage-struck kid ... She's a young lady -- of qualities.
And I'll have you know I'm fed up with both the young lady and her qualities!
Studying me as if -- as if I were a play or a set of blueprints! How I walk,
talk, think, eat, sleep!"
Davis was nominated for an Academy Award for that
performance.
Indeed, she collected 10 nominations, winning in 1935 for
"Dangerous" and in 1938 for "Jezebel," and was nominated every year from 1938 to
1942.
Taking advantage of her age, she played a demented former
child star in 1962's "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane," scoring another Oscar
nomination.
Davis chose
"She did it the hard way" for an epitaph because she viewed a lot of her life as
difficult but rewarding. "It isn't that she was complaining, but that she had
persevered ... to achieve great things and satisfying things even though it
wasn't easy for her," explained her son, Michael Merrill, in a telephone
interview.
People always think that life is easy for stars, he said,
"but when you live with one, you realize it's not."
"She could be intimidating," Merrill said. But "there was a
sharing there. She was mom. She really filled that role well, she was very much
a mother."
"She would have been tremendously thrilled" to be honored
with a postage stamp, he added.
Throughout her career the intensity of Davis' eyes brought
her characters to life, and a new generation was introduced to her in 1981 when
Kim Carnes sang the hit song "Bette Davis Eyes," including the lyric "She'll
tease you, She'll unease you, Just to please you, She's got Bette Davis
eyes."
Born Ruth Elizabeth Davis 100 years ago in Lowell,
Massachusetts, Davis went into acting early and won acclaim playing characters
many consider tough and unsympathetic. She died in France in 1989.
Along the way she appeared in more than 100 films, was the
first woman to be honored with the American Film Institute's Lifetime
Achievement Award and the first woman to be president of the Motion Picture
Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Davis fought a court battle with Warner Brothers over her
unhappiness with the roles she was offered, and over time earned a reputation
for being difficult to work with, including an alleged feud with Joan Crawford,
though both denied it.
But by 1942 she was reportedly the
highest-paid woman in America and she helped organize the Hollywood Canteen
during World War II for soldiers passing through Los Angeles, California.
saying.You have a good eye Martin.