Florence Bates April 15, 1888 - January 31, 1954), was an American film and stage character actress who often played grande dame characters in supporting roles.

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Thursday, October 20, 2022. 20:00.

Florence Bates-Actress

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About :

Born Florence Rabe, April 15, 1888, San Antonio, Texas, U.S.

Died January 31, 1954 (aged 65), Burbank, California, U.S.

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Alma mater University of Texas at Austin

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Occupation Actress

Years active 1937–1953

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Spouse(s) 

1.Joseph Ramer -(m. 1909, divorced)​,

*2.William F. Jacoby - (m. 1929; died 1951)​

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Children 1

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Introduction :

Florence Bates  April 15, 1888 - January 31, 1954), was an American film and stage character actress who often played grande dame characters in supporting roles.

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Life and career :


Bates was the second child born to Jewish immigrant parents, in San Antonio, Texas, where her father was the owner of an antique store. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in mathematics, after which she taught school.



In 1909, she met and married her first husband, Joseph Ramer, and gave up her career to raise their daughter. When the marriage ended in divorce, she began to study law and, in 1914 at the age of 26, passed the bar examination. She was one of the first female lawyers in her home state and practiced law for four years in San Antonio.


After the death of her parents, Bates left the legal profession to help her sister operate their father's antique business. She became a bilingual (English—Spanish) radio commentator whose program was designed to foster good relations between the United States and Mexico. In 1929, following the stock market crash and the death of her sister, Florence closed the antique shop and married a wealthy businessman, William F. Jacoby. When he lost his fortune, the couple moved to Los Angeles and opened a bakery, which proved a successful venture. They sold it in the 1940s.



*Laurence Olivier, Florence Bates and Joan Fontaine in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940)


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 theater 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, Mrs. Van Hopper, in Rebecca (1940).



Bates appeared in more than 60 films over the course of the next 13 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.


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*Rebecca (1940) - Mrs. Van Hopper

Selected filmography :

The Man in Blue (1937) - Woman (uncredited)

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*Rebecca (1940) - Mrs. Van Hopper

Calling All Husbands (1940) - Emmie Trippe

The Son of Monte Cristo (1940) - Countess Mathilde Von Braun

Kitty Foyle (1940) - Customer

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Hudson's Bay (1941) - Duchess (scenes deleted)

Road Show (1941) - Mrs. Newton

The Devil and Miss Jones (1941) - 'Store Shopper' (store detective)

Strange Alibi (1941) - Katie

*Love Crazy (1941) - Mrs. Cooper

The Gay Falcon (1941) - (scenes deleted)

The Chocolate Soldier (1941) - Madame Helene

Kathleen (1941) - Woman Customer at Shoner's Store (uncredited)

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Mexican Spitfire at Sea (1942) - Mrs. Baldwin

The Tuttles of Tahiti (1942) - Emily

We Were Dancing (1942) - Mrs. Elsa Vanderlip

*The Moon and Sixpence (1942) - Tiare Johnson

My Heart Belongs to Daddy (1942) - Mrs. Saunders

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They Got Me Covered (1943) - Gypsy Woman

Slightly Dangerous (1943) - Mrs. Amanda Roanoke-Brooke

Mister Big (1943) - Mrs. Mary Davis

*Mr. Lucky (1943) - Mrs. Van Every

Heaven Can Wait (1943) - Mrs. Edna Craig (uncredited)

His Butler's Sister (1943) - Lady Sloughberry

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Since You Went Away (1944) - Hungry Woman on Train (uncredited)

The Mask of Dimitrios (1944) - Madame Elise Chavez

Kismet (1944) - Karsha

Belle of the Yukon (1944) - Viola Chase

Tahiti Nights (1944) - Queen Liliha

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Tonight and Every Night (1945) - May Tolliver

Out of This World (1945) - Harriet Pringle

Saratoga Trunk (1945) - Sophie Bellop

San Antonio (1945) - Henrietta

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Whistle Stop (1946) - Molly Veech

The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946) - Rose

Claudia and David (1946) - Nancy Riddle

Cluny Brown (1946) - Dowager at Ames' Party

The Time, the Place and the Girl (1946) - Mme. Lucia Cassel

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The Man I Love (1947) - Mrs. Thorpe (uncredited)

The Brasher Doubloon (1947) - Mrs. Elizabeth Murdock

Love and Learn (1947) - Mrs. Bella Davis - Landlady

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) - Mrs. Irma Griswold

Desire Me (1947) - Mrs.Lannie (scenes deleted)

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The Judge Steps Out (1948) - Chita

I Remember Mama (1948) - Florence Dana Moorhead

The Inside Story (1948) - Geraldine Atherton

Winter Meeting (1948) - Mrs. Castle

River Lady (1948) - Ma Dunnegan

Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven (1948) - Mandy

My Dear Secretary (1948) - Horrible Hannah Reeve (the landlady)

Portrait of Jennie (1948) - Mrs. Jekes (landlady)

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A Letter to Three Wives (1949) - Mrs. Manleigh

The Girl from Jones Beach (1949) - Miss Emma Shoemaker

On the Town (1949) - Madame Dilyovska

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Belle of Old Mexico (1950) - Nellie Chatfield

The Second Woman (1950) - Amelia Foster

County Fair (1950) - Nora 'Ma' Ryan

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Lullaby of Broadway (1951) - Mrs. Anna Hubbell

Father Takes the Air (1951) - Minerva Bobbin

The Tall Target (1951) - Mrs. Charlotte Alsop

Havana Rose (1951) - Mrs. Fillmore

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The San Francisco Story (1952) - Sadie

Les Misérables (1952) - Madame Bonnet

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Main Street to Broadway (1953) - Mrs. Bessmer in Fantasy Sequence

Paris Model (1953) - Mrs. Nora Sullivan

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Tribute :

Jacoby, Florence Rabe (1888–1954)

By: Debbie Mauldin Cottrel

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JACOBY, FLORENCE RABE (1888–1954).Florence Rabe Jacoby, a Hollywood actress who used the name Florence Bates, the second child of Jewish immigrant parents, was born on April 15, 1888, in San Antonio, Texas, where her father was the owner of an antique store. Florence showed advanced musical talent as a child, but a hand injury ended her intended career as a pianist. She graduated from high school in San Antonio in 1903, then enrolled in the University of Texas, where she earned a degree in math in 1906. From 1906 to 1909 she pursued a career in schoolteaching and social work. Around 1909 she met and married her first husband and soon gave up her career to raise their daughter. When her marriage ended in divorce, however, she was enticed by a family friend and San Antonio judge to use his private library to prepare to become a lawyer. She studied for six months, passed the bar exam, and in 1914 became one of the first woman lawyers in Texas. She practiced law for four years in San Antonio.


After the death of her parents, Florence left the legal profession and joined her sister in running their father's antique business in San Antonio. Buying for the store took her to Europe and Asia, where she utilized her proficiency in foreign languages. Also during this time she became a radio commentator with a bilingual program designed to foster good relations between the United States and Mexico. In 1929, following the stock market crash and the death of her sister, Florence closed the antique shop. That same year she married William F. Jacoby, a wealthy Texan in the oil business. With him she lived in Mexico and El Paso; when he lost his business holdings and fortune, they moved to Los Angeles and opened a bakery. This business remained successful until the Jacobys sold it in the 1940s.


Soon after moving to California, Florence Jacoby and a friend participated in an open reading for a new stage production at the Pasadena Playhouse. From this audition, her first for a play, she earned the role of Miss Bates in a play based on Jane Austen's Emma. The success of this production and her popularity with its audiences allowed her to continue local theater work in the late 1930s with the Pasadena Playhouse acting group. After her role in Emma, she took the name Florence Bates because she thought her first character had brought her good luck. She subsequently earned the lead role in O Evening Star in Pasadena, and her agent began planning her career in films. Bates got bit parts in several features but continued to focus on local theater until 1939, when she met and did a screen test for Alfred Hitchcock. Impressed with her talent and surprised to learn that her training had not come from the stages of London and New York, he cast her as the vain American dowager Mrs. Van Hopper in his 1940 film Rebecca. Directed by Hitchcock, Bates made her movie debut in this release with Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier, and from it she became a well-known character actor and went on to roles in more than fifty films.


Her movie career began after her fiftieth birthday, and for the rest of her life she enjoyed a variety of comic and dramatic supporting roles with some of Hollywood's biggest names. She shared the screen with Ingrid Bergman (Saratoga Trunk, 1943), Claudette Colbert (Since You Went Away, 1944), Gypsie Rose Lee (The Belle of the Yukon, 1944), Errol Flynn (San Antonio, 1945), Kirk Douglas (My Dear Secretary, 1948), and Ronald Reagan (The Girl from Jones Beach, 1949). Her general stage persona was a plump, matronly character. She frequently played wealthy women (His Butler's Sister, 1943; Slightly Dangerous, 1943; Cluny Brown, 1946) but also ranged to play a gypsy (They Got Me Covered, 1943), several maids (Winter Meeting, 1948; The Judge Steps Out, 1949), and a murderer (The Brasher Doubloon, 1947). She also had several roles as a humorously obnoxious mother-in-law (Love Crazy, 1941; My Heart Belongs to Daddy, 1942; The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, 1947) and as a landlady (Love and Learn, 1947; Portrait of Jennie, 1948). Florence Bates enjoyed her work in films and was grateful for the financial, social, and professional success it gave her. Soon after her movie career started, her daughter and only child died from childbirth complications; Bates credited her new career with easing much of the pain of this loss. She also never forgot the origins of her success and throughout her life maintained ties to the Pasadena Playhouse, attending plays, endowing scholarships, and offering encouragement to local actors.



She made some radio and television appearances after her film career was established, but it was the movie screen that made her known to the public. She continued in films into the 1950s, although after the death of her husband in 1951 her own health and happiness declined. Florence Bates died of a heart attack on January 31, 1954, in Burbank, California. She was survived by a granddaughter, who lived in Texas and inherited the actress's fortune.

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