Acting · San Antonio, Texas, USA · Born April 13, 1888
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.
MovieParis Model
1953
as Nora Sullivan
MovieMain Street to Broadway
1953
as Mrs. Bessmer in Fantasy Sequence
TVFour Star Playhouse
1952
as Ottilie
MovieLes Miserables
1952
as Madame Bonnet
MovieThe San Francisco Story
1952
as Sadie
TVI Love Lucy
1951
as Mrs. Pettebone
MovieHavana Rose
1951
as Mrs. Fillmore
MovieThe Tall Target
1951
as Mrs. Charlotte Alsop
MovieFather Takes the Air
1951
as Minerva Bobbin
MovieLullaby of Broadway
1951
as Mrs. Anna Hubbell
TVDick Tracy
1950
as Mrs. Frothingham
MovieCounty Fair
1950
as Nora 'Ma' Ryan
MovieThe Second Woman
1950
as Amelia Foster
MovieBelle of Old Mexico
1950
as Nellie Chatfield
MovieOn the Town
1949
as Madame Dilyovska
MovieThe Girl from Jones Beach
1949
as Miss Emma Shoemaker
MovieA Letter to Three Wives
1949
as Mrs. Manleigh
MoviePortrait of Jennie
1948
as Mrs. Jekes
MovieMy Dear Secretary
1948
as Horrible Hannah Reeve (the landlady)
MovieTexas, Brooklyn & Heaven
1948
as Mandy
MovieRiver Lady
1948
as Ma Dunnegan
MovieWinter Meeting
1948
as Mrs. Castle
MovieThe Inside Story
1948
as Geraldine Atherton
MovieI Remember Mama
1948
as Florence Dana Moorhead
MovieThe Judge Steps Out
1947
as Chita
MovieThe Secret Life of Walter Mitty
1947
as Mrs. Griswold
MovieLove and Learn
1947
as Mrs. Bella Davis - Landlady
MovieThe Brasher Doubloon
1947
as Mrs. Murdock
MovieThe Time, The Place and The Girl
1946
as Mme. Lucia Cassel
MovieThe Man I Love
1946
as Mrs. Thorpe (uncredited)
MovieCluny Brown
1946
as Dowager at Ames's Party
MovieClaudia and David
1946
as Nancy Riddle
MovieThe Diary of a Chambermaid
1946
as Rose
MovieWhistle Stop
1946
as Molly Veech
MovieSan Antonio
1945
as Henrietta
MovieSaratoga Trunk
1945
as Sophie Bellop
MovieOut of This World
1945
as Harriet Pringle
MovieTonight and Every Night
1945
as May Tolliver
MovieTahiti Nights
1944
as Queen Liliha
MovieBelle of the Yukon
1944
as Viola Chase
MovieKismet
1944
as Karsha
MovieThe Mask of Dimitrios
1944
as Madame Elise Chavez
MovieHis Butler's Sister
1943
as Lady Sloughberry
MovieHeaven Can Wait
1943
as Mrs. Edna Craig (uncredited)
MovieMr. Lucky
1943
as Mrs. Van Every
MovieMister Big
1943
as Mrs. Mary Davis
MovieSlightly Dangerous
1943
as Mrs. Amanda Roanoke-Brooke
MovieThey Got Me Covered
1943
as Gypsy Woman
MovieMy Heart Belongs to Daddy
1942
as Mrs. Saunders
MovieThe Moon and Sixpence
1942
as Tiare Johnson
MovieThe Tuttles of Tahiti
1942
as Emily
MovieWe Were Dancing
1942
as Mrs. Elsa Vanderlip
MovieMexican Spitfire at Sea
1942
as Mrs. Baldwin
MovieThe Chocolate Soldier
1941
as Madame Helene
MovieLove Crazy
1941
as Mrs. Cooper
MovieStrange Alibi
1941
as Katie
MovieThe Devil and Miss Jones
1941
as Store Shopper
MovieRoad Show
1941
as Mrs. Newton
MovieKitty Foyle
1940
as Customer
MovieHudson's Bay
1940
as Duchess (scenes deleted)
MovieThe Son of Monte Cristo
1940
as Countess Mathilde Von Braun
MovieCalling All Husbands
1940
as Emmie Trippe
MovieRebecca
1940
as Edythe Van Hopper
