Bette Midler

A performer whose career has netted Grammy, Tony, and Emmy honors spanning seven decades, Bette Midler first stepped onto a Broadway stage in Fiddler on the Roof during 1966. Her recorded output ranges from the exuberant, overdubbed 1972 Andrews Sisters revival “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” to the expansive 1988 ballad “Wind Beneath My Wings,” a track that revealed a gentler timbre beneath her usual bravado.

The Divine Miss M, her 1972 debut, yielded three charting singles and initiated a run of five Billboard 200 top-ten albums that later encompassed the self-titled 1973 set, the platinum-certified Some People’s Lives from 1990, 2005’s Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook, and the 2014 girl-group tribute It’s the Girls!. Screen credits accumulated alongside these releases, among them The Rose in 1979, a drama loosely drawn from Janis Joplin’s life; Beaches in 1988, which introduced her signature reading of “Wind Beneath My Wings”; Fantasia 2000 in 1999; and the Disney comedies Hocus Pocus (1993) and its 2022 sequel. The latter project renewed acquaintance with younger viewers, yet Midler had remained active after her 2000–2001 CBS sitcom Bette through voice work, cameo appearances, and guest spots on programs ranging from The Voice to Netflix’s The Politician.

Honolulu-born and raised, she received her name from screen legend Bette Davis, though her mother rendered it as a single syllable; her sisters bore the names of Judy Garland and Susan Hayward. Early affinity for performance surfaced by first grade, and academic success followed, including election as senior-class president and a minor role in the 1966 film Hawaii while still an underclassman at the University of Hawaii. Conversations with cast members such as Gene Hackman prompted her to leave school for New York, where she enrolled in acting classes and secured the part of Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof, performing the role from February 1967 through February 1970.

Concurrently she assembled a nightclub repertoire blending comedy, show tunes, pop standards, and an Andrews Sisters homage, frequently appearing with pianist Barry Manilow. The partnership led to an Atlantic Records contract and The Divine Miss M, which earned gold status behind the top-ten “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.” Additional singles “Do You Want to Dance?” and “Friends” reached the top twenty and top forty, respectively. Returning to Broadway in 1973 with her own revue titled Bette Midler, she also issued a sophomore studio album of the same name; the set, arranged and conducted by Manilow, climbed to number six on the Billboard 200 and number three in Canada, interpreting material by Kurt Weill, Hoagy Carmichael, and Bob Dylan.

The following year brought a Grammy for Best New Artist, while The Divine Miss M and “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” collected nominations for Album of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; a Special Tony Award, shared with Liza Minnelli, recognized her contribution to the season. Album sales moderated through the later seventies, although Songs for the New Depression (1976) still entered the Billboard top thirty and the subsequent Broken Blossom and Thighs and Whispers placed just outside it. Stage spectacles such as Bette Midler’s Clams on the Half Shell Revue and Bette! Divine Madness sustained visibility, as did the 1979 title role in The Rose, which earned four Oscar nominations, including Best Actress for Midler, and yielded the platinum-certified soundtrack anchored by the top-three single “The Rose.”

A concert film, Divine Madness!, followed in 1980, succeeded by comedic features including Jinxed! (1982), Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), and Ruthless People (1986). No Frills (1983) again charted modestly, yet Beaches restored commercial momentum; her rendition of “Wind Beneath My Wings” topped the Hot 100 and propelled the soundtrack to number two domestically and number one in Australia, securing Record of the Year honors. The 1990 follow-up Some People’s Lives delivered the number-two single “From a Distance,” reached number six at home, and entered the top ten in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. A second Oscar nomination arrived for portraying Dixie Leonard in For the Boys (1991).

Emmy recognition accumulated through the nineties for Gypsy and an episode of Murphy Brown, with wins for a Tonight Show appearance and the concert special Diva Las Vegas. The 1993 compilation Experience the Divine Bette Midler: Greatest Hits topped charts in the Netherlands, while Bette of Roses (1995) and Bathhouse Betty (1998), the latter featuring the dance single “I’m Beautiful,” maintained top-fifty placement. After voicing a character in Fantasia 2000, the 2000 album Bette peaked at number sixty-nine and included covers of songs by Elvis Costello, Kirsty MacColl, and Patty Griffin.

Film work continued into the 2000s with comedies such as The Stepford Wives and The Women, alongside the short-lived CBS series Bette, which produced eighteen episodes from October 2000 to March 2001. Concert and television appearances persisted, and Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook (2003) returned her to the Billboard top twenty, marking a shift to Columbia after three decades with Atlantic. Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook improved to number ten in 2005; Cool Yule, her first holiday collection, reached number thirty-three the next year. The 2008 compilation Jackpot! The Best of Bette attained platinum status in the United Kingdom, peaking at number six.

Subsequent screen projects encompassed Parental Guidance (2012) and voice roles in Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore and The Addams Family. It’s the Girls! (2014), saluting acts from the Ronettes to TLC, achieved a career-best number three on the Billboard 200. A deluxe reissue of The Divine Miss M arrived in 2016 with rare material and new annotations by Midler. Hello, Dolly! earned her a second Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 2017, and the cast album generated a fifteenth Grammy nomination.

In 2019 she performed the nominated song “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from Mary Poppins Returns at the Academy Awards; an Emmy nomination followed in 2020 for a guest turn on The Politician. Further sequels included The Addams Family 2 (2021) and Hocus Pocus 2 (2022), the latter accompanied by a soundtrack featuring Midler alongside Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy.