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