Barbara Bates

Acting

Barbara Bates

Born 1925-08-06 · Denver, Colorado, USA

Barbara Jane Bates (August 6, 1925 – March 18, 1969) was an American singer and actress, best known for her portrayal of Phoebe in the 1950 drama film All About Eve and as Katy Morgan on It's a Great Life (1954–1956). The eldest of three daughters, Bates was born in Denver, Colorado. While growing up in Denver, she studied ballet and worked as a teen fashion model. The shy teen was persuaded to enter a local beauty contest and won, receiving two round-trip train tickets to Hollywood, California. Two days before returning to Denver, Bates met Cecil Coan, a United Artists publicist, whom she would later marry. In September 1944, 19-year-old Bates signed a contract with Universal Pictures after Cecil Coan introduced her to producer Walter Wanger. Soon after, she was cast as one of the "Seven Salome Girls" in the 1945 drama, Salome Where She Danced starring Yvonne De Carlo. Around this time, she fell in love with Coan, who was married with two sons and two daughters. In March 1945, Coan divorced his wife Helen Coan and secretly married Bates, on March 25, 1945, in Chihuahua, Mexico. Bates spent the next few years as a stock actress, landing bit parts in movies and doing cheesecake layouts for magazines such as Yank, the Army Weekly and Life. One of those photo sessions caught the eye of executives at Warner Bros., which signed her in 1947. Warner Bros. highlighted her "girl-next-door" image and her acting career took off. She appeared with some of the biggest stars of the day, including Bette Davis in June Bride and Danny Kaye in The Inspector General. In late 1949, Bates auditioned for the small role of Phoebe in Fox's upcoming All About Eve. In competition for the part were Zsa Zsa Gabor and others, but Bates impressed the producers and was given the part. She made a short but important appearance as the devious schemer, Phoebe, at the end of the film. Bates's image is enshrined in the film's last scene, posing in front of a three-way mirror, while holding the award won by her idol Eve Harrington, played by Anne Baxter. After her appearance in All About Eve, Bates co-starred in Cheaper by the Dozen, and its sequel Belles on Their Toes, with Jeanne Crain and Myrna Loy. In 1951, she landed a role opposite MacDonald Carey and Claudette Colbert in the comedy Let's Make It Legal. Fox refused to lend out Bates for the role of the suicidal ballerina saved by Charlie Chaplin's aging vaudevillian in Limelight (1952). She co-starred with Donna Reed as the love interests of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in the 1953 hit comedy The Caddy. In January 1967, Bates's husband died of cancer. Devastated by his death, Bates grew more depressed, and she again became suicidal. Later that year, she returned to Denver and fell out of public view. For a time, Bates worked as a secretary, dental assistant, and hospital aide. In December 1968, she married for the second time, to a childhood friend, sportscaster William Reed. Despite her new marriage and location, Bates remained increasingly despondent and depressed. On March 18, 1969, just months after her marriage to Reed, Barbara Bates died from suicide in her mother's garage by carbon monoxide poisoning. She was 43 years old. She is buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in Jefferson County, Colorado.

Acting credits

All About Eve poster
8.1

From the moment she glimpses her idol at the stage door, Eve Harrington is determined to take the reins of power away from the great actress Margo Channing. Eve maneuvers her way into Margo's Broadway role, becomes a sensation and even causes turmoil in the lives of Margo's director boyfriend, her playwright and his wife. Only the cynical drama critic sees through Eve, admiring her audacity and perfect pattern of deceit.

All About Eve

1950

The Caddy poster
6.4

Although the son of a skilled golfer and an outstanding player in his own right, Harvey Miller is too nervous to play in front of a gallery, so he acts as coach and caddy for Joe Anthony, his girlfriend's brother.

The Caddy

1953

Cheaper by the Dozen poster
6.4

"Cheaper by the Dozen", based on the real-life story of the Gilbreth family, follows them from Providence, Rhode Island, to Montclair, New Jersey, and details the amusing anecdotes found in large families.

Cheaper by the Dozen

1950

Romance on the High Seas poster
6.7

Georgia Garrett is sent by jealous wife Elvira Kent on an ocean cruise to masquerade as herself while she secretly stays home to catch her husband cheating. Meanwhile equally suspicious husband Michael Kent has sent a private eye on the same cruise to catch his wife cheating. Love and confusion ensues along with plenty of musical numbers.

Romance on the High Seas

1948

Adventures of Don Juan poster
6.8

Spanish Lothario Don Juan, the legendary lover and adventurer returns to Spain following a scandal and comes to the aid of his queen, who is under threat from sinister forces.

Adventures of Don Juan

1948

Johnny Belinda poster
6.9

A small-town doctor helps a deaf-mute farm girl learn to communicate.

Johnny Belinda

1948

June Bride poster
7.1

A magazine's staff, including bickering ex-lovers Linda and Carey, cover an Indiana wedding, which goes slightly wrong.

June Bride

1948

The Inspector General poster
6.6

An illiterate stooge in a traveling medicine show wanders into a strange town and is picked up on a vagrancy charge. The town's corrupt officials mistake him for the inspector general whom they think is traveling in disguise. Fearing he will discover they've been pocketing tax money, they make several bungled attempts to kill him.

The Inspector General

1949

The Secret of Convict Lake poster
6.6

After a group of convicts escapes from prison, they take refuge in the wilderness. While most of the crew are ruthless sociopaths, Jim Canfield is an innocent man who was jailed under false pretenses. When Canfield and his fellow fugitives reach an isolated farming settlement where the men are all away, it creates tension with the local women. Things get direr when rumors of hidden money arise, and Canfield discovers that the man who framed him is part of the community.

The Secret of Convict Lake

1951

A Scandal in Paris poster
6.4

A smooth-talking French thief wangles his way into an important position as prefect of police.

A Scandal in Paris

1946

The Fabulous Joe poster
5.5

Milo Terkel's life is never the same after he is willed a dog named Joe. Milo buys his wife a diamond necklace for their anniversary, but when he returns home he finds a note saying she is attending a charity affair. He decides to celebrate alone, taking Joe along for company. After two "mystery gardenias" at the Florida Club, he meets gorgeous Miss Gilmore who spots the necklace and asks to try it on. Milo is punched in the nose by Miss Gilmore's boyfriend, Louie. But Milo's troubles really begin when his dog starts to talk to him, and ONLY to him! He tells Milo to act tough, like Humphrey Bogart. It's a laugh-a-minute as Milo changes from lamb to lion and is innocently caught by his wife with the shapely Miss Gilmore. When his wife sues for divorce he tells the judge about Joe being his advisor. The judge can only suggest that Milo and his wife take a long vacation to work out their problems. Everyone knows a dog simply can't talk!

The Fabulous Joe

1947

Let's Make It Legal poster
5.7

A woman divorces her husband of 20 years because he gambles too much.

Let's Make It Legal

1951

Salome, Where She Danced poster
4.1

During the Austrian-Prussian war, Anna Marie is a dancer who is forced to flee her country after she is accused of being a spy. She ends up in a lawless western town in Arizona, where she uses her charms and dancing skills to transform herself into "Salome" during her dance routines.

Salome, Where She Danced

1945

Rhapsody poster
6.6

A rich, young beauty, Louise Durant, follows the man she loves and hopes to marry to Zurich where he studies violin at the conservatory. A piano student at the conservatory falls madly in love with Louise. The violinist loves his music first and Louise second. The pianist loves Louise first and his music second. Louise must ultimately choose which man she wants.

Rhapsody

1954

Lady on a Train poster
6.7

While watching from her train window, Nikki Collins witnesses a murder in a nearby building. When she alerts the police, they think she has read one too many mystery novels. She then enlists a popular mystery writer to help her solve the crime on her own, but her sleuthing attracts the attentions of suitors and killers.

Lady on a Train

1945

Becoming Marilyn poster
7.3

The story of how Norma Jeane Mortenson became Marilyn Monroe (1926-62), a lucid path of self-discovery, from anonymity to stardom: the painful birth of a myth.

Becoming Marilyn

2022

Belles on Their Toes poster
7.1

The "Cheaper by the Dozen" crew is back, sans Clifton Webb. Lillian is struggling to make ends meet without her husband's income, while Anne, Martha, and even Ernestine find romance.

Belles on Their Toes

1952

Apache Territory poster
6.5

Logan Cates sets out to rescue a white woman captured by Apache Indians and prevent a war. On the way he is joined by a few civilians and a small band of soldiers at a water hole. They are ambushed and laid siege to by Apache. As their food and water supplies dwindle a storm arrives which enables Cates to put an escape plan into action.

Apache Territory

1958

All Ashore poster
7.3

Three sailors finally get some shore leave, and go in search of fun and girls.

All Ashore

1953

Town on Trial poster
6.5

When an attractive young girl is murdered, suspicion falls on several members of the local tennis club. It falls to Police Inspector Halloran to sort out all the red herrings, and finally after a confrontation at the top of the local church spire, arrest the culprit. Another fascinating look at what life was like in Britain during the 50's.

Town on Trial

1957

Quicksand poster
6.1

Young auto mechanic Dan Brady takes $20 from a cash register at work to go on a date with blonde femme fatale Vera Novak. Brady intends to put the money back before it is missed, but the garage's bookkeeper shows up earlier than scheduled. As Brady scrambles to cover evidence of his petty theft, he fast finds himself drawn into an ever worsening "quicksand" of crime.

Quicksand

1950

I'd Climb the Highest Mountain poster
6.7

A minister from the Deep South is assigned a new parish and moves with his wife to a town in Georgia's Blue Ridge Mountains, where he tends to the spiritual and emotional needs of his small flock.

I'd Climb the Highest Mountain

1951

House of Secrets poster
6.4

Police in Paris recruit an English ship's officer (Michael Craig) to help trap counterfeiters by joining them.

House of Secrets

1956

The House Across the Street poster
4.8

Dave Joslin, the managing editor of a big-city newspaper, is demoted and moved to the Miss Lonely Hearts column-writing department by the newspaper's publisher, J. B. Grennell, because Joslin refuses to desist in printing stories linking a gangster, Matthew Keever, to a murder. But Joslin, aided by Kit Williams, a newspaper woman with whom he is in love, investigate the murder case on their own time.

The House Across the Street

1949