Florence Bates
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.
TV Shows(3)
Movies(60)
Paris Model
Nora Sullivan
1953
Main Street to Broadway
Mrs. Bessmer in Fantasy Sequence
1953
Les Miserables
Madame Bonnet
1952
The San Francisco Story
Sadie
1952
Havana Rose
Mrs. Fillmore
1951
The Tall Target
Mrs. Charlotte Alsop
1951
Father Takes the Air
Minerva Bobbin
1951
Lullaby of Broadway
Mrs. Anna Hubbell
1951
County Fair
Nora 'Ma' Ryan
1950
The Second Woman
Amelia Foster
1950
Belle of Old Mexico
Nellie Chatfield
1950
On the Town
Madame Dilyovska
1949
The Girl from Jones Beach
Miss Emma Shoemaker
1949
A Letter to Three Wives
Mrs. Manleigh
1949
Portrait of Jennie
Mrs. Jekes
1948
My Dear Secretary
Horrible Hannah Reeve (the landlady)
1948
Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven
Mandy
1948
River Lady
Ma Dunnegan
1948
Winter Meeting
Mrs. Castle
1948
The Inside Story
Geraldine Atherton
1948
I Remember Mama
Florence Dana Moorhead
1948
The Judge Steps Out
Chita
1947
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Irmagarde Griswold
1947
Love and Learn
Mrs. Bella Davis - Landlady
1947
The Brasher Doubloon
Mrs. Murdock
1947
The Time, The Place and The Girl
Mme. Lucia Cassel
1946
The Man I Love
Mrs. Thorpe (uncredited)
1946
Cluny Brown
Dowager at Ames's Party
1946
Claudia and David
Nancy Riddle
1946
The Diary of a Chambermaid
Rose
1946
Whistle Stop
Molly Veech
1946
San Antonio
Henrietta
1945
Saratoga Trunk
Sophie Bellop
1945
Out of This World
Harriet Pringle
1945
Tonight and Every Night
May Tolliver
1945
Tahiti Nights
Queen Liliha
1944
Belle of the Yukon
Viola Chase
1944
Kismet
Karsha
1944
The Mask of Dimitrios
Madame Elise Chavez
1944
His Butler's Sister
Lady Sloughberry
1943
Heaven Can Wait
Mrs. Edna Craig (uncredited)
1943
Mr. Lucky
Mrs. Van Every
1943
Mister Big
Mrs. Mary Davis
1943
Slightly Dangerous
Mrs. Amanda Roanoke-Brooke
1943
They Got Me Covered
Gypsy Woman
1943
My Heart Belongs to Daddy
Mrs. Saunders
1942
The Moon and Sixpence
Tiare Johnson
1942
The Tuttles of Tahiti
Emily
1942
We Were Dancing
Mrs. Elsa Vanderlip
1942
Mexican Spitfire at Sea
Mrs. Baldwin
1942
The Chocolate Soldier
Madame Helene
1941
Love Crazy
Mrs. Cooper
1941
Strange Alibi
Katie
1941
The Devil and Miss Jones
Store Shopper
1941
Road Show
Mrs. Newton
1941
Kitty Foyle
Customer
1940
Hudson's Bay
Duchess (scenes deleted)
1940
The Son of Monte Cristo
Countess Mathilde Von Braun
1940
Calling All Husbands
Emmie Trippe
1940
Rebecca
Edythe Van Hopper
1940