After fifty-five years in the film industry, during which she made over ninety films, Bette Davis was considered the indisputable grand dame of Hollywood. Alexander Walker, who knew Bette Davis for twenty years, has pieced together her early life through to her promising career on the New York stage. The subsequent film career was by no means an instant success. The turbulent relationship between Bette Davis and Warner Brothers is legendary but gradually she managed to seize the opportunities to show her astonishing range. In this book, Alexander Walker identifies the extraordinary qualities that enabled Bette Davis to survive the Hollywood system and become one of its most durable actresses.