Comprehensive information and links about Bette Midler

Bette Midler (born December 1, 1945), is a singer, actress, and comedian. She is named after the legendary actress Bette Davis although Midler pronounces her name as one syllable, not two.

Bette Midler was born on December 1, 1945, in New Jersey, and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her aspirations were clearly defined from the outset, and she majored in drama at the University of Hawaii. After earning money as an extra in the film Hawaii (1966), Bette relocated to New York City to become a stage actress. She landed her first professional onstage role in Miss Nefertiti Regrets, then hit Broadway in the role of Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof.

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Biography

Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii to Jewish parents, she majored in drama at the University of Hawaii but got her start singing in the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse in New York City, where she became friends with, among others, Barry Manilow, who was her piano accompanist. He produced her first major album, on Broadway, but it was her singing that made her a star. In 1974, she received a Special Tony Award for her great addition to Broadway for the "Clams on the Half Shell Review" at the Palace Theater. She was tapped for the role of the 1960s drug-addled rock music star in , modeled after Janis Joplin, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Her manager and boyfriend for a significant period of time was Aaron Russo.

Bette married Martin von Haselberg on December 16, 1984. They had a daughter, Sophie, on November 14, 1986.

In 1986, director Paul Mazursky cast her in , beginning a successful comedic acting career. She appeared in such other popular late-1980s comedies as . She also contributed her voice to the animated character Georgette, a snobbish poodle, in Disney's Oliver Company that same year. She has won four Grammy Awards including the 1973 Best New Artist and the prestigious Record of the Year in 1989 for the soaring # 1 hit "Wind Beneath My Wings." Her rendition of 1990's "From a Distance" also earned her a Grammy and is another of her most popular songs. In 2004 she reunited with Manilow to record , which was nominated for a Grammy and was one of her best-selling albums in 20 years.

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).

Other films include .

Midler won an Emmy Award in 1992 for her memorable performance on the penultimate episode of in May of that year, during which she sang an emotion-laden "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)" to Johnny Carson. There was speculation later that there was a falling out between Midler and the only other guest on the show, Robin Williams. It was perceived that Midler had stolen the limelight from Williams, not an easy task.

She had her own short-lived CBS sitcom (2000-2001). Although the initial ratings were high, numbers soon declined and in the show's short lifespan her daughter (played by Lindsay Lohan) was written out and her husband (played by Kevin Dunn) was recast. The show was reportedly rocked by backstage turmoil, and did not last a full season.

In 1995, Midler founded the New York Restoration Project [NYRP], a non-profit organization with the goal of revitalizing neglected neighborhood parks in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods of New York City. These include Highbridge Park, Fort Washington Park, and Fort Tryon Park in upper Manhattan and Roberto Clemente State Park and Bridge Park in the Bronx. In 1999 the city planned to auction 114 community gardens for commercial development. Midler led a coalition of greening organizations to save them. NYRP took ownership of 60 of the most neglected plots. Today Midler and her organization work with local volunteers and community groups to ensure that these gardens are kept safe, clean and vibrant. In 2003 Midler opened Swindler Cove Park, a new five-acre public park on the Harlem River shore featuring specially designed educational facilities and the Peter Jay Sharp Boathouse, the first community rowing facility to be built on the Harlem River in more than 100 years. The organization offers free in-school and after-school environmental education programming to students from high-poverty Title I schools.

In 2003-2004 Midler toured her new show 'Kiss My Brass' to sell-out crowds around the United States. In 2005 'Kiss My Brass' was equally successful in Australia. The release of Bette Midler's new album 'The Peggy Lee Songbook' came out in October of 2005.