Boogie woogie movie parents guide Continue American singer, actress and comedian for Midler's 1973 album, see Bette Midler (album). Bette MidlerMler backstage at the Grammy Awards in February 1990 (1945-12-01) December 1, 1945 (age 74)Honolulu, HawaiiThis names God's Miss Home Singer Actress Actress Wife (s) Martin von Haselberg (m. 1984) ChildrenSophie von HaselbergMusical CareerGenres Traditional Pop Vocal Pop Music Tools Vocal Ukulele Years active1965-presentLabels Atlantic Warner Bros. Columbia Warner Music Group Associated actsBarry ManilowWebsitebettemidler.com Bette Midler (/bɛt/; December 1, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, writer and comedian. In his more than half-century career, Midler has won four Golden Globe Awards, three Grammy Awards, three Emmy Awards and a Tony Award. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Midler began her professional career in several off-off-Broadway plays, before her commitment to Fiddler on the Roof and Rescue on Broadway in the late 1960s. She gained notoriety in 1970 when she began singing at Continental Baths, a local gay bath where she managed to create a core. Since 1970, Midler has released 14 studio albums as a solo artist, selling more than 30 million records worldwide, and has received four gold, three platinum and three Multiplatinum albums from the RIAA. Many of her songs hit the charts, including her performance of The Rose, Wind Beneath My Wings, Do You Want to Dance, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy and From a Distance. She won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist, Best Female Vocal Performance for Rose and Record of the Year for The Wind Under My Wings. Midler made her film debut in 1979 with Rosa, which earned her a Golden Globe for Best Actress, as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She went on to star in many hit films, including Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), Ruthless People (1986), Outrageous Fortune (1987), Big Business (1988), Beaches (1988), Hocus Pocus (1993), The First Wives Club (1996), The Stepford Wives (2004), Parental Guidance (2012) and The Addsam Family (2019). Midler also starred in The Boys (1991) and Gypsy (1993), receiving two additional Golden Globe Awards for these films and receiving a second Academy Award nomination. In 2008, Midler signed a contract with Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for residency, Bette Midler: Showgirl Must Go On, which ended in 2010. She starred in the Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!, which began in March 2017 and premiered at the Schubert Theatre in April 2017. The show was her first major role in a Broadway musical. Midler won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role. Bette Midler's Early Life Was Born Honolulu, where her family was one of the few Jewish families in the predominantly Asian neighborhood. Her mother, Ruth (Shindel), was a seamstress and housewife, and her father, Fred Midler, worked at a naval base in Hawaii as an artist and was also a housewife. Both parents were born in New Jersey. It was named after actress Bette Davis, although Davis uttered her name in two syllables, while Midler uses one. She grew up in Ayea and attended Radford High School in Honolulu. She was voted The Most Talkative in the 1961 school elections and The Most Dramatic in the graduating class (class 1963). Midler majored in drama at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, but left after three semesters. She earned money in the 1966 film Hawaii as an extra, playing an unregistered marine passenger named Miss David Buff. Career 1965-1971: Midler moved to New York in the summer of 1965, using money from his work in the film Hawaii. She studied theater at STUDIO HB under the direction of Tta Hagen. She landed her first professional role on stage in Tom Eyen's Off-Off-Broadway plays in 1965, Miss Nefertiti Regrets and Cinderella Revisited, a children's play by day and adult show night. From 1966 to 1969, she played the role of Ceytel in the film Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway. After Fiddler, she joined the original cast of Salvation in 1969. In the summer of 1970, she began singing at Continental Baths, a gay bath at the Ansonia Hotel. During this time, she became close to her piano accompanist Barry Manilow, who produced her first album in 1972, The Divine Miss M. In the late 1990s, during the release of her Bathhouse Betty album, Midler commented on her performance there: Despite the way things turned out to be an AIDS crisis, I'm still happy with those days. I feel like I've been at the forefront of the gay liberation movement and I hope I've done my part to help it move forward. So, I kind of wear the Bathouse label Betty with pride. Midler starred in the first professional production of the 1971 rock opera Tommy with director Richard Pearlman and the Seattle Opera. It was during Tommy's launch that Midler first appeared on The Tonight Show. 1972-1980: Divine Miss M and Midler's success with Dustin Hoffman on Bette Midler TV Special (1977) Midler released her debut album, Divine Miss M, on Atlantic Records in December 1972. The co-producer of the album was Barry Manilow, who at the time was Bette's arranger and musical conductor. It reached the Top 10 of Billboard and became a million-dollar platinum album, earning Midler the 1973 Grammy Award for Best New Artist. It had three hits: Do You Want to Dance?, Friends and Boogie Bugle Boy - the third of which was Midler's first hit No. 1 Adult Contemporary. Bugle Boy was a successful rock cover of the classic swing tune originally introduced and popularized in 1941 by the Andrews sisters, whom Midler repeatedly called her idols and inspiration, in his first appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in the title role. Midler told Carson in an interview that she always wanted to move like sisters, and Patty Andrews remembered: When I first heard the introduction on the radio, I thought it was our old record. When Bette opened up at the Amphitheater in Los Angeles, Maxen and I went backstage with her. Her first words were: What else do you write down? During another concert Midlera Maxen came on stage and gave her an honorary bug. Bette recorded other Andrews Sisters hits, including In the Mood and Lullaby of Broadway. Midler, at the premiere of her debut feature film, The Rose, in 1979, released her self-titled album in late 1973. Again, the album was co-produced by Manilow. It reached the Top 10 of Billboard and eventually sold about a million copies in the United States alone. Midler returned to recording with albums from 1976 and 1977, Songs for the New Depression and Broken Blossom. In 1974, she won a special Tony Award for her contribution to Broadway, with the Clams on Half Shell Revue, playing at the Minskoff Theatre. From 1975 to 1978, she also provided the voice of Woody Spoon on the PBS educational series Vegetable Soup. In 1977, Midler's first television special, the title of which, Ol' Red Hair Is Back, was taking off at Frank Sinatra's Ol' Blue Eyes Back, a premiere featuring guest stars Dustin Hoffman and Emmett Kelly. He won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Special - Comedy-Variety or Music. 1981, in Amsterdam promoting the film Divine Madness (1980) Midler made his first film in 1979, starring in the 1960s-era rock 'n' roll tragedy Rose as a drug-addicted rock star modeled on Janis Joplin. In the same year she released her fifth studio album Thighs and Whispers. Midler's first foray into disco was a commercial and critical failure and continued to be her lowest album on the chart, peaking at number 65 on the Billboard album chart. Soon after, she began a world concert tour, with one of her shows in Pasadena, shot and released as a concert film Divine Madness (1980). Her performance in Rose earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, for which she won a Golden Globe for Best Actress (comedy or musical). The famous soundtrack for the film has sold more than two million copies in the United States alone, receiving a Double Platinum certificate. The single version of the title song written and composed by Amanda McBroom, 1 spot on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart for five consecutive weeks and peaked at number three on the Billboard's Hot 100. She won Midler her first gold single and won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female. 1981-1989: The Wind Under My Wings, Beaches and Midler's Return worked on the troubled comedy project Jinxed! in 1981. However, during the production, there was friction with co-star Ken Wahl and the film's director, Don Siegel. Released in 1982, the film was a major failure. Midler did not appear in any other film until 1986; however, she was an early choice for Miss Hannigan in the 1982 film Annie. During these four years she focused on her music career and in 1983 released the album No Frills, produced by Chuck Plotkin, who was best known for his work with Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. The album included three singles: the ballad All I Need to Know, the cover cover of Detroit-born Marshall Crenshaw's You're My Favorite Waste of Time, which Midler fell in love with after turning his 45th Someday Someway (quote) - and taking Midler to the Rolling Stones' Beast of Burden. She also released an all-comedy album (with several songs related in the comedy) called Dirt Will Flung Tonight in 1985.