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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
April 13, 1888
Died
January 31, 1954
Place of Birth
San Antonio, Texas, USA
Also Known As
- Florence Rabe
Florence Bates
0.4 Popularity
Biography
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.
Known For
2.8
Nora Sullivan
Paris Model
1953
6.5
Mrs. Bessmer in Fantasy Sequence
Main Street to Broadway
1953
🎬
6.7
Ottilie
Four Star Playhouse
1952
5.2
Madame Bonnet
Les Miserables
1952
4.6
Sadie
The San Francisco Story
1952
7.9
Mrs. Pettebone
I Love Lucy
1951
0.0
Mrs. Fillmore
Havana Rose
1951
6.8
Mrs. Charlotte Alsop
The Tall Target
1951
5.0
Minerva Bobbin
Father Takes the Air
1951
5.8
Mrs. Anna Hubbell
Lullaby of Broadway
1951
Credits
Paris Model
as Nora Sullivan
1953
2.8
Main Street to Broadway
as Mrs. Bessmer in Fantasy Sequence
1953
6.5
🎬
Four Star Playhouse
as Ottilie
1952
6.7
Les Miserables
as Madame Bonnet
1952
5.2
The San Francisco Story
as Sadie
1952
4.6
I Love Lucy
as Mrs. Pettebone
1951
7.9
Havana Rose
as Mrs. Fillmore
1951
0.0
The Tall Target
as Mrs. Charlotte Alsop
1951
6.8
Father Takes the Air
as Minerva Bobbin
1951
5.0
Lullaby of Broadway
as Mrs. Anna Hubbell
1951
5.8
Dick Tracy
as Mrs. Frothingham
1950
6.0
🎬
County Fair
as Nora 'Ma' Ryan
1950
0.0
The Second Woman
as Amelia Foster
1950
5.4
Belle of Old Mexico
as Nellie Chatfield
1950
0.0
On the Town
as Madame Dilyovska
1949
7.0
The Girl from Jones Beach
as Miss Emma Shoemaker
1949
4.8
A Letter to Three Wives
as Mrs. Manleigh
1949
7.2
Portrait of Jennie
as Mrs. Jekes
1948
7.1
My Dear Secretary
as Horrible Hannah Reeve (the landlady)
1948
5.9
Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven
as Mandy
1948
5.3
River Lady
as Ma Dunnegan
1948
5.0
Winter Meeting
as Mrs. Castle
1948
6.5
The Inside Story
as Geraldine Atherton
1948
6.5
I Remember Mama
as Florence Dana Moorhead
1948
7.1
The Judge Steps Out
as Chita
1947
7.0
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
as Mrs. Griswold
1947
6.8
Love and Learn
as Mrs. Bella Davis - Landlady
1947
5.5
The Brasher Doubloon
as Mrs. Murdock
1947
5.9
The Man I Love
as Mrs. Thorpe (uncredited)
1946
6.1
The Time, The Place and The Girl
as Mme. Lucia Cassel
1946
5.4
Cluny Brown
as Dowager at Ames's Party
1946
7.2
Claudia and David
as Nancy Riddle
1946
6.0
The Diary of a Chambermaid
as Rose
1946
6.2
Whistle Stop
as Molly Veech
1946
4.3
San Antonio
as Henrietta
1945
5.9
Saratoga Trunk
as Sophie Bellop
1945
5.7
Out of This World
as Harriet Pringle
1945
7.3
Tonight and Every Night
as May Tolliver
1945
5.2
Tahiti Nights
as Queen Liliha
1944
0.0
Belle of the Yukon
as Viola Chase
1944
5.4
Kismet
as Karsha
1944
5.2
The Mask of Dimitrios
as Madame Elise Chavez
1944
7.0
His Butler's Sister
as Lady Sloughberry
1943
7.1
Heaven Can Wait
as Mrs. Edna Craig (uncredited)
1943
6.9
Mr. Lucky
as Mrs. Van Every
1943
7.0
Mister Big
as Mrs. Mary Davis
1943
2.2
Slightly Dangerous
as Mrs. Amanda Roanoke-Brooke
1943
6.1
They Got Me Covered
as Gypsy Woman
1943
5.9
My Heart Belongs to Daddy
as Mrs. Saunders
1942
4.2
The Moon and Sixpence
as Tiare Johnson
1942
6.1
The Tuttles of Tahiti
as Emily
1942
5.5
We Were Dancing
as Mrs. Elsa Vanderlip
1942
3.6
Mexican Spitfire at Sea
as Mrs. Baldwin
1942
3.0
The Chocolate Soldier
as Madame Helene
1941
6.4
Love Crazy
as Mrs. Cooper
1941
6.7
Strange Alibi
as Katie
1941
6.6
The Devil and Miss Jones
as Store Shopper
1941
7.7
Road Show
as Mrs. Newton
1941
5.3
Kitty Foyle
as Customer
1940
6.5
Hudson's Bay
as Duchess (scenes deleted)
1940
5.8
The Son of Monte Cristo
as Countess Mathilde Von Braun
1940
5.9
Calling All Husbands
as Emmie Trippe
1940
6.0
Rebecca
as Edythe Van Hopper
1940
7.9