The Awards

Academy Awards and nominations


Bette Davis became the first woman to secure 10 nominations for the Best Actress Oscar, and in the intervening years, only Katharine Hepburn and Meryl Streep have surpassed this figure.
Steven Spielberg purchased Davis's Oscars for Dangerous (1935) and Jezebel (1938) when they were offered for auction, and returned them to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.


1962: Nominated for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
1952: Nominated for The Star
1950: Nominated for All About Eve
1944: Nominated for Mr. Skeffington
1942: Nominated for Now, Voyager
1941: Nominated for The Little Foxes
1940: Nominated for The Letter
1939: Nominated for Dark Victory
1938: Won for Jezebel
1935: Won for Dangerous

1934: Davis's performance in Of Human Bondage (1934) was widely acclaimed and when she was not nominated for an Academy Award, several influential people mounted a campaign to have her name included. The Academy relaxed its rules for that year only to allow for the consideration of any performer nominated in a write-in vote. Therefore any performance of the year was technically eligible for consideration. Though some sources incorrectly attribute this as a nomination for Davis, it is not considered to be a nomination by the Academy.