Bette Midler

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Date of Birth : Dec 1st 1945

American singer, actress and comedienne, also known to her fans as The Divine Miss M. She is named after the actress Bette Davis although Davis pronounced her first name in two syllables, and Midler uses one. During her career, she has won four Grammy Awards, an Emmy Award, and a Tony Award, and has been nominated for two Academy Awards.

In 1965, she relocated to New York City after using the money she got for playing an extra, and landed her first professional onstage role in Tom Eyen’s Off-Off-Broadway plays in 1965, Miss Nefertiti Regrets and Cinderella Revisited, a children’s play by day and an adult show by night. From 1966 to 1969 she played the role of Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway; during this period her sister Judith, visiting New York to see her perform, was killed by a taxi cab.

In 1970, Midler began singing the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse in the city, where she became close to her piano accompanist, Barry Manilow, who produced her first major album, The Divine Miss M in 1973.

She has won four Grammy Awards including the 1973 Best New Artist and the prestigious Record of the Year in 1989 for the # 1 hit “Wind Beneath My Wings”, the theme from Beaches. Her rendition of the 1990 “From a Distance” also earned her a Grammy and is another of her most popular songs. When the American Film Institute announced “The 100 years of the Greatest Songs” on June 22, 2004, two of her hits were selected by the board: “Wind Beneath My Wings” (#44) and “The Rose” (#83).

After a long-standing feud with Barry Manilow, the two joined forces for the first time in twenty years in 2003 to record “Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook.” Of the project, Barry said he had a dream that he was recording with Bette again, so he called her up with the idea and she agreed that it was due time to work together again. They got Columbia Records on board and the album was an instant success, going gold in only a few short weeks. The album was one of her best-selling albums in 20 years, and was nominated for a Grammy the following year.