‘All About Eve’: The career-defining Bette Davis role almost played by Claudette Colbert
The Golden Age of Hollywood was defined by various stars, and Bette Davis was one of the most iconic, typically playing complex and intense characters. It was her fearless approach to acting—throwing herself into demanding roles no matter how challenging—that cemented her status as an icon. With ten Oscar nominations and two wins, Davis secured her place in the industry; few can match her indomitable on-screen presence.
When Davis was a child, her interest in performance emerged early on. In her memoir, The Lonely Life, Davis recalled a disastrous school performance that led to her being set alight by a nearby candle. “Suddenly I was on fire,” she said. “I started screaming in terror. I heard voices, felt myself being wrapped in a rug—and then silence all around me. Everyone was quite naturally panicked.”
Yet, in the midst of this terror, she turned her attention towards theatrics. Davis added: “When the rug was taken off, I decided to keep my eyes closed. Ever the actress! I would make believe I was blind. ‘Her eyes!’ A shudder of delight went through me. I was in complete command of the moment. I had never known such power.”
This power allowed Davis to become one of the most invincible stars of the Golden Age, making her film debut in 1931’s Bad Sister. From there, she received her breakthrough with On Human Bondage three years later, quickly becoming a well-known face in the industry. Further building on the snowballing momentum, Davis won her first Oscar in 1936 for her role in Dangerous, directed by Alfred E Green, and continued to appear in many popular movies, like Marked Woman, Jezebel, The Letter, The Man Who Came To Dinner, and Now, Voyager.
Yet, there was a period in the late 1940s when Davis struggled to maintain the success she had built in previous years. Films like A Stolen Life, Winter Meeting, and Beyond the Forest were poorly received, and with motherhood consuming much of her time, Davis’ Hollywood career looked strikingly different from what it once was.
In 1950, however, Davis landed a role that would bring her back to the highest heights of Hollywood—All About Eve. Directed by Joseph L Mankiewicz, the film was a great success and remains iconic, with actors like Anne Baxter, Thelma Ritter, George Sanders, and a young Marilyn Monroe starring alongside Davis. Despite the fact that the movie earned considerable praise for Davis and re-established her dominance in Hollywood, she almost didn’t play the leading role of Margo Channing.
The part had originally been given to Claudette Colbert, known for movies like The Palm Beach Story and It Happened One Night, but after sustaining an injury, she had no choice but to drop out of the part. So, who better to offer the part to than Davis?
The actor quickly accepted the part, impressed by the script, and it proved to be the part she needed to prove that she hadn’t lost her talents. Davis was nominated for ‘Best Actress’ at the Academy Awards, although she lost out to Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday. Still, her performance was great, with Mankiewicz even adjusting the character to make Margo more Davis-adjacent.
