Re: Fox's Bette Davis: Centenary Celebration Collection on April
Interesting sidenote.
As many know, I spent some time working for Pioneer Laserdisc doing Pioneer special editons and some paramount titles.
Before then, I had come to california back in 1985 to work on some film restorations with Tom Bodley, then head of Post for Goldwyn.
Tom told me that Bette Davis was a good friend of his and that I would probably spend some time with here, which turned out to be true.
ONe Friday afternoon, Bette Arrived at toms house, tom had called to say he would arrive late from work, so I was on my own to entertain Miss D (as everyone called her).
I asked her if that, when here career was at its height, was there any other actress she admired that could do things she could not do.
Bette didn't hesitate, and said, " Yes. Jean Simmons!!"
Tom had a large tape collection in a side room and miss D knew where all the Jean Simmons taped were.
She pulled out Young bess from 1953, starring miss simmons and Deborah Kerr. Bette went right for a particular scene and said,
"Look at that. Look at what she's doing. I could never do that"
I am also a fan of Jean simmons and Miss D and I spent some talkking talking about here films. Bette knew all the major ones andmost of the minor ones too.
She liked Jeans performance as Elizabeth the first, back in 1953, that it made bEtte want to play Elizabeth again. So bette did The Virgin Queen.
This story from Miss D herself.
