Person
Florence Bates
San Antonio, Texas, USA
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 gra…
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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
Movies and shows, newest first
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1953
Paris Model
Movie Nora Sullivan
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1953
Main Street to Broadway
Movie Mrs. Bessmer in Fantasy Sequence
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1952
Four Star Playhouse
TV show Ottilie
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1952
Les Miserables
Movie Madame Bonnet
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1952
The San Francisco Story
Movie Sadie
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1951
I Love Lucy
TV show Mrs. Pettebone
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1951
Havana Rose
Movie Mrs. Fillmore
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1951
The Tall Target
Movie Mrs. Charlotte Alsop
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1951
Father Takes the Air
Movie Minerva Bobbin
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1951
Lullaby of Broadway
Movie Mrs. Anna Hubbell
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1950
Dick Tracy
TV show Mrs. Frothingham
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1950
County Fair
Movie Nora 'Ma' Ryan
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1950
The Second Woman
Movie Amelia Foster
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1950
Belle of Old Mexico
Movie Nellie Chatfield
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1949
On the Town
Movie Madame Dilyovska
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1949
The Girl from Jones Beach
Movie Miss Emma Shoemaker
More credits
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1949
A Letter to Three Wives
Movie Mrs. Manleigh
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1948
Portrait of Jennie
Movie Mrs. Jekes
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1948
My Dear Secretary
Movie Horrible Hannah Reeve (the landlady)
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1948
Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven
Movie Mandy
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1948
River Lady
Movie Ma Dunnegan
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1948
Winter Meeting
Movie Mrs. Castle
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1948
The Inside Story
Movie Geraldine Atherton
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1948
I Remember Mama
Movie Florence Dana Moorhead
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1947
The Judge Steps Out
Movie Chita
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1947
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Movie Mrs. Griswold
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1947
Love and Learn
Movie Mrs. Bella Davis - Landlady
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1947
The Brasher Doubloon
Movie Mrs. Murdock
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1946
The Man I Love
Movie Mrs. Thorpe (uncredited)
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1946
The Time, The Place and The Girl
Movie Mme. Lucia Cassel
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1946
Cluny Brown
Movie Dowager at Ames's Party
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1946
Claudia and David
Movie Nancy Riddle
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1946
The Diary of a Chambermaid
Movie Rose
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1946
Whistle Stop
Movie Molly Veech
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1945
San Antonio
Movie Henrietta
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1945
Saratoga Trunk
Movie Sophie Bellop
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1945
Out of This World
Movie Harriet Pringle
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1945
Tonight and Every Night
Movie May Tolliver
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1944
Tahiti Nights
Movie Queen Liliha
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1944
Belle of the Yukon
Movie Viola Chase
