
Barbara Bates
Biography
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.
Personal Info
Gender
Female
Birthday
1925-08-06
Place of Birth
Denver, Colorado, USA
Images



Cast
All About Eve
19508.1 / 10
Let's Make It Legal
19516.3 / 10
Quicksand
19506.0 / 10
The Outcasts of Poker Flat
19525.9 / 10
The House Across the Street
19494.5 / 10
The Inspector General
19496.5 / 10
The Secret of Convict Lake
19516.6 / 10
The Caddy
19536.4 / 10
I'd Climb the Highest Mountain
19516.6 / 10
Belles on Their Toes
19526.8 / 10
All Ashore
19536.0 / 10
Town on Trial
19576.5 / 10
June Bride
19487.2 / 10
Rhapsody
19546.7 / 10
Strange Holiday
19456.4 / 10
House of Secrets
19565.9 / 10
Apache Territory
19586.4 / 10
One Last Fling
19494.0 / 10
Cheaper by the Dozen
19506.3 / 10
Johnny Belinda
19486.8 / 10
April Showers
19486.0 / 10
Salome, Where She Danced
19453.7 / 10
A Scandal in Paris
19466.3 / 10
Lady on a Train
19456.6 / 10
Always Together
19476.7 / 10
Romance on the High Seas
19486.8 / 10
The Fabulous Joe
19475.8 / 10
Night in Paradise
19464.0 / 10
Adventures of Don Juan
19486.4 / 10