Bette Midler's Biography

Midler, who was named after the actress Bette Davis, used to work in a pineapple factory in Honolulu.

Bette Midler studied drama at the University of Hawaii and was an extra in the film Hawaii.

In the mid-1960s Bette Midler moved to New York, where she studied acting and started getting parts in plays including Miss Nefertiti Regrets and the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof, in which she played the important role of the oldest daughter Tzeitel.

Bette Midler had a long run singing under the name 'The Divine Miss M' at the Continental Baths, a predominantly gay venue.

In 1973, Bette Midler won her first Grammy for the album called The Divine Miss M.

Several more Grammys, Tonys and other awards were to follow in Midler's hugely successful acting and singing career.

In 1979, Bette Midler starred as Mary Rose Foster, based to some extent on Janis Joplin, in The Rose. She was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

On Inside the Actor's Studio Bette Midler explained that for some inexplicable reason she could not get work after The Rose, until she was hired for Down and Out in Beverly Hills because she was affordable!

Midler's other notable film credits include Ruthless People, Outrageous Fortune, Big Business, Beaches, Stella, Scenes From a Mall, For the Boys (for which she was Oscar nominated again), Hocus Pocus, Get Shorty, and The First Wives Club.

Bette Midler also acted on TV and picked up awards for her role as herself in the series Bette.

As well as a continuing stream of tours, records, and acting roles, Bette Midler kept herself busy with The New York Restoration Project, which she founded in 1995.

Bette Midler is married to Martin Von Haselberg. They have a daughter, Sophie, who was born in 1986.