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
Edythe Van Hopper
Rebecca
Mrs. Murdock
The Brasher Doubloon
Mrs. Cooper
Love Crazy
Nellie Chatfield
Belle of Old Mexico
Mrs. Bessmer in Fantasy Sequence
Main Street to Broadway
Mrs. Charlotte Alsop
The Tall Target
Queen Liliha
Tahiti Nights
Mrs. Griswold
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Madame Elise Chavez
The Mask of Dimitrios
Mrs. Anna Hubbell
Lullaby of Broadway
Florence Dana Moorhead
I Remember Mama
Mrs. Castle
Winter Meeting
Karsha
Kismet
May Tolliver
Tonight and Every Night
Store Shopper
The Devil and Miss Jones
Amelia Foster
The Second Woman
Rose
The Diary of a Chambermaid
Viola Chase
Belle of the Yukon
Mrs. Manleigh
A Letter to Three Wives
Mrs. Van Every
Mr. Lucky
Henrietta
San Antonio
Countess Mathilde Von Braun
The Son of Monte Cristo
Katie
Strange Alibi
Dowager at Ames's Party
Cluny Brown
Tiare Johnson
The Moon and Sixpence
Molly Veech
Whistle Stop
Madame Helene
The Chocolate Soldier
Ma Dunnegan
River Lady
Madame Bonnet
Les Miserables
Emily
The Tuttles of Tahiti
Mrs. Newton
Road Show
Geraldine Atherton
The Inside Story
Mrs. Amanda Roanoke-Brooke
Slightly Dangerous
Mrs. Elsa Vanderlip
We Were Dancing
Mrs. Mary Davis
Mister Big
Mrs. Baldwin
Mexican Spitfire at Sea
Nora Sullivan
Paris Model
Nancy Riddle
Claudia and David
Mandy
Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven
Harriet Pringle
Out of This World
Chita
The Judge Steps Out
Emmie Trippe
Calling All Husbands
Horrible Hannah Reeve (the landlady)
My Dear Secretary
Mrs. Edna Craig (uncredited)
Heaven Can Wait
Miss Emma Shoemaker
The Girl from Jones Beach
Sadie
The San Francisco Story
Mrs. Saunders
My Heart Belongs to Daddy
Gypsy Woman
They Got Me Covered
Customer
Kitty Foyle
Sophie Bellop
Saratoga Trunk
Mme. Lucia Cassel
The Time, The Place and The Girl
Madame Dilyovska
On the Town
Mrs. Bella Davis - Landlady
Love and Learn
Lady Sloughberry
His Butler's Sister
Nora 'Ma' Ryan
County Fair
Mrs. Jekes
Portrait of Jennie
Minerva Bobbin
Father Takes the Air
Mrs. Fillmore
Havana Rose
Mrs. Thorpe (uncredited)
The Man I Love
Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Known Credits
59
Gender
Female
Birthday
1888-04-13
Place of Birth
San Antonio, Texas, USA
Also Known As
Florence Rabe