Bette Midler

Bette Midler ( ; born December 1, 1945) is an American actress, comedian, singer, and author. Throughout her six-decade career Midler has received numerous accolades, including four Golden Globe Awards, three Grammy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and a Kennedy Center Honor, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and a British Academy Film Award.

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Midler began her professional career in several off-off-Broadway plays, prior to her engagements in Fiddler on the Roof and Salvation on Broadway in the late 1960s. She came to prominence in 1970 when she began singing in the Continental Baths, a local gay bathhouse where she managed to build up a core following. Since 1970, Midler has released 14 studio albums as a solo artist, selling over 30 million records worldwide, and has received four Gold, three Platinum, and three Multiplatinum albums by RIAA. Many of her songs became chart hits, including her renditions of "The Rose", "Wind Beneath My Wings", "Do You Want to Dance?", "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy", and "From a Distance". She won Grammy Awards for Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "The Rose", and Record of the Year for "Wind Beneath My Wings".

Midler made her starring film debut with the musical drama The Rose (1979), which won her the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, as well as nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress, and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress. She went on to star in numerous films, including Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), Ruthless People (1986), Outrageous Fortune (1987), Big Business (1988), Beaches (1988), Stella (1990), Hocus Pocus (1993) and its sequel (2022), The First Wives Club (1996), The Stepford Wives (2004), Parental Guidance (2012), and The Addams Family (2019) and its sequel (2021). Midler also had starring roles in For the Boys (1991) and Gypsy (1993), winning two additional Golden Globe Awards for these films and receiving a second Academy Award nomination for the former.

Midler held a residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas with the show Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On from 2008 to 2010. She starred in the Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!, which began previews in March 2017 and premiered at the Shubert Theatre in April 2017. The show was her first leading role in a Broadway musical. Midler received the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance.

Early life Bette Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. She was the third of four children born to Ruth (née Schindel; 1911–1979) and Fred Midler (1908–1986). Midler's family was one of the few Jewish families that lived in a mostly Asian neighborhood. Her mother was a seamstress and housewife, and her father worked at a U.S. Navy base in Hawaii as a painter and also painted houses. Both parents were born in New Jersey. She was named after actress Bette Davis, although Davis pronounced her first name in two syllables (phonetically like "Betty") and Midler uses one syllable (phonetically like "bet"). She was voted "Most Talkative" in the 1961 school Hoss Election and "Most Dramatic" in her senior year (class of 1963).

Midler majored in drama at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, but she dropped out after three semesters. She performed as an extra in the 1966 film Hawaii, under Uta Hagen. She landed her first professional onstage role in Tom Eyen's off-off-Broadway plays in 1965, Miss Nefertiti Regrets and Cinderella Revisited, a children's play by day and an adult show by night. In October 1966, she joined the Broadway company of Fiddler on the Roof, playing the ensemble role of Rivka and understudying the oldest daughter Tzeitel. She assumed the role of Tzeitel in February 1967 and played the role until February 1970. After Fiddler, she joined the original cast of Salvation in 1969.

In the summer of 1970, Midler began singing at the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse in the basement of the Ansonia Hotel.

Midler starred in the first professional production of the Who's rock opera Tommy in 1971, with director Richard Pearlman and the Seattle Opera. It was during the run of Tommy that Midler first appeared on The Tonight Show.

1972–1980: The Divine Miss M and success

Midler released her debut album, The Divine Miss M, on Atlantic Records in December 1972. The album was co-produced by Barry Manilow, who was Bette's arranger and music conductor at the time. It reached Billboard's Top 10 and became a million-selling Platinum-certified album, earning Midler the 1973 Grammy Award for Best New Artist. It featured three hit singles—"Do You Wanna Dance?", "Friends", and "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy"—the third of which became Midler's first No. 1 Adult Contemporary hit. "Bugle Boy" became a successful cover of the classic swing tune originally introduced and popularized in 1941 by the Andrews Sisters, to whom Midler has repeatedly referred as her idols and inspiration, as far back as her first appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Midler told Carson in an interview that she always wanted to move like the sisters, and Patty Andrews remembered: "When I first heard the introduction on the radio, I thought it was our old record. When Bette opened at the Amphitheater in Los Angeles, Maxene and I went backstage to see her. Her first words were, 'What else did you record? During another Midler concert, Maxene went on stage and presented her with an honorary bugle. Bette recorded other Andrews Sisters hits, including "In the Mood" and "Lullaby of Broadway". Midler returned to recording with the 1976 and 1977 albums Songs for the New Depression and Broken Blossom. In 1974, she received a Special Tony Award for her contribution to Broadway, with Clams on the Half Shell Revue playing at the Minskoff Theater. left Midler at the premiere of her feature-film starring debut, The Rose, in 1979From 1975 to 1978, she also provided the voice of Woody the Spoon on the PBS educational series Vegetable Soup. In 1977, Midler's first television special, whose title, Ol' Red Hair is Back, was a takeoff on Frank Sinatra's Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back, premiered, featuring guest stars Dustin Hoffman and Emmett Kelly. It went on to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Special – Comedy-Variety or Music. In 1977 she also released her first live album, Live at Last, a double album taken from concert performances in Cleveland, Ohio.

Midler made her first motion picture in 1979, starring in the 1960s-era rock and roll tragedy The Rose, as a drug-addicted rock star modeled after Janis Joplin. Soon afterward, she began a world concert tour, with one of her shows in Pasadena being filmed and released as the concert film Divine Madness (1980).

Her performance in The Rose earned her a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actress, a role for which she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress (Comedy or Musical). Midler did not appear in any other films until 1986; however, she was an early choice for Miss Hannigan in the 1982 film Annie. During those four years, she concentrated 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 single releases: the ballad "All I Need to Know", a cover of Detroit native Marshall Crenshaw's "You're My Favorite Waste of Time"—which Midler fell in love with after flipping his 45 of "Someday Someway"—and Midler's take on the Rolling Stones' "Beast of Burden". She also released an all-comedy album (with a few songs tied into the comedy) called Mud Will Be Flung Tonight in 1985.

Midler performed on USA for Africa's 1985 fund-raising single "We Are the World", and participated at the Live Aid event at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. Also in 1985, she signed a multi-picture deal with the Walt Disney Studios, where she starred in a string of successful films produced by the studio's newly formed Touchstone Pictures division. She also produced them through her production banner, All Girl Productions with producing partner Bonnie Bruckheimer. She was subsequently cast by director Paul Mazursky in Down and Out in Beverly Hills, beginning a successful comedic acting career. while Midler received her first Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress.

She co-starred with Woody Allen in the 1991 film Scenes from a Mall, again for Paul Mazursky. In the film, Allen's character reveals to his author wife Deborah, played by Midler, after years of a happy marriage, that he has had an affair, resulting in her request for divorce. The movie performed poorly, and received a mixed reception by critics. Midler fared somewhat better with her other 1991 project For the Boys, on which she reteamed with The Rose director Mark Rydell. A historical musical drama, it tells the story of 1940s actress and singer Dixie Leonard, played by Midler, who teams up with Eddie Sparks, a famous performer, to entertain American troops. While the film received a mixed reception from critics, Midler earned rave reviews for her portrayal. The following year she was awarded her second Golden Globe and received her second Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

Midler turned down the lead role in the musical comedy Sister Act in 1992, which instead went to Whoopi Goldberg. Midler won an Emmy Award in 1992 for her performance on the penultimate episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in May 1992, during which she sang an emotion-laden "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)" to Johnny Carson. During the show, Midler began singing "Here's That Rainy Day", Carson's favorite song; Carson joined in a few lyrics later. In 1993, she starred with Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy in the Walt Disney Halloween comedy fantasy film, Hocus Pocus. Midler played the lead role of Winifred ‘Winnie’ Sanderson, the head witch and eldest of the fictional Sanderson Sisters; the sisters are a trio of convicted colonial-era witches who were executed by hanging during the Salem Witch Trials, and then magically brought back to life in the 1990s by a teenager who lights a magic candle. In relation to Hocus Pocus, every year Midler hosts her annual Hulaween costume party, which benefits the New York Restoration Project. Her television work includes an Emmy-nominated version of the stage musical Gypsy and a guest appearance as herself in Fran Drescher's The Nanny.

Midler appeared on Seinfeld in "The Understudy" episode, that show's sixth-season finale in May 1995. That same year, she had a supporting role in Get Shorty. Her 1997 HBO special Diva Las Vegas earned her a third Emmy Award, for Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Music Program. Midler's other 1990s films include The First Wives Club (1996).

In 1998, Midler released her ninth studio album, Bathhouse Betty, named after the nickname she was given for performing at bathhouses early in her career. In 1999, she appeared in an episode of the CBS sitcom Murphy Brown and was featured in the animated musical film Fantasia 2000.

2000–2005: Bette sitcom, tribute albums, and Kiss My Brass tour Midler starred in her own sitcom in 2000, Bette, which featured Midler playing a version of herself, a divine celebrity who is adored by her fans. Airing on CBS, initial ratings were high, marking the best sitcom debut for the network in more than five years, but viewers percentage soon declined, resulting in the show's cancellation in early 2001. Midler openly griped about the show's demanding shooting schedule, while the show itself was also reportedly rocked by backstage turmoil, involving the replacement of co-star Kevin Dunn whose departure was attributed by the media to his behind-the scenes bickering with Midler. Also in 2000, Midler made an uncredited cameo appearance in Nancy Meyers' fantasy rom–com What Women Want, starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. Released to generally mixed reviews, it became the then-most successful film ever directed by a woman, taking in $183 million in the United States, and grossing upward of $370 million worldwide.

The same year Midler starred in Isn't She Great and Drowning Mona. In Andrew Bergman's Isn't She Great, a highly fictionalized account of the life and career of author Jacqueline Susann, she played alongside Nathan Lane and Stockard Channing, portraying Susann with her early struggles as an aspiring actress relentlessly hungry for fame, her relationship with press agent Irving Mansfield, her success as the author of Valley of the Dolls, and her battle with and subsequent death from breast cancer. The dramedy garnered largely negative reviews by critics, who dismissed it as "bland material [that] produces entirely forgettable comic performances." For her performance in the film, Midler received her second Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Actress at the 21st ceremony. In Nick Gomez's dark comedy Drowning Mona, Midler appeared along with Danny DeVito and Jamie Lee Curtis, playing title character Mona Dearly, a spiteful, loud-mouthed, cruel and highly unpopular woman, whose mysterious death is investigated. Another critical fiasco, reviewers noted that the film "drowns itself in humor that never rises above sitcom level."

After nearly three decades of erratic record sales, Midler was dropped from the Warner Music Group in 2001. Following a reported long-standing feud with Barry Manilow, the two joined forces after many years in 2003 to record Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook. Now signed to Columbia Records, the album was an instant success, being certified gold by RIAA. One of the Clooney Songbook selections, "This Ole House", became Midler's first Christian radio single shipped by Rick Hendrix and his positive music movement. The album was nominated for a Grammy the following year.

Throughout 2003 and 2004, Midler toured the United States in her new show, Kiss My Brass, to sell-out audiences. Also in 2004, she appeared in a supporting role in Frank Oz' science fiction satire The Stepford Wives, a remake of the 1975 film of the same name also based on the Ira Levin novel. Also starring Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Christopher Walken and Glenn Close, Midler played Bobbie Markowitz, a writer and recovering alcoholic. The project underwent numerous production problems that occurred throughout its shooting schedule, with reports of problems on-set between director Oz and the actors being rampant in the press. Oz later blamed Midler—who was amid recording her next album and rehearsing for her tour—for being under a lot of stress by other projects and making "the mistake of bringing her stress on the set." While the original book and film had tremendous cultural impact, the remake was marked by poor reviews by many critics, and a financial loss of approximately $40 million at the box office.

Midler joined forces again with Manilow for another tribute album, Bette Midler Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook. Released in October 2005, the album sold 55,000 copies the first week of release, returned Midler to the top ten of US Billboard 200, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.

2006–2011: Albums, Vegas show and appearances Midler released a new Christmas album titled Cool Yule in 2006, which featured a duet of Christmastime pop standards "Winter Wonderland"/"Let It Snow" with Johnny Mathis. Well-received, the album garnered a Grammy Award nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album in 2007. The same year, Midler returned to the big screen, appearing in Then She Found Me, Helen Hunt's feature film directorial debut. Also starring Hunt along with Matthew Broderick and Colin Firth, the comedy-drama film tells the story of a 39-year-old Brooklyn elementary school teacher, who after years is contacted by the flamboyant host of a local talk show, played by Midler, who introduces herself as her biological mother. Critical response to the film was mixed; whereas some critics praised the film for having strong performances, others felt the film was bogged down by a weak script and technical issues.

Midler debuted her Vegas show titled Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on February 20, 2008. It comprised The Staggering Harlettes, 20 female dancers called The Caesar Salad Girls and a 13-piece band. The show played its final performance on January 31, 2010, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Special in 2011. Also in 2008, another compilation album by Midler, Jackpot: The Best Bette, was released. It reached number 66 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, and number six in the United Kingdom, where it was certified platinum for sales of over 300,000 copies. As her only film appearance that year, Midler had a small role in Diane English's comedy film The Women, starring Meg Ryan, Annette Bening and Eva Mendes among others. An updated version of the George Cukor-directed 1939 film of the same name based on a 1936 play by Clare Boothe Luce, the film was widely panned by critics, who found it "...a toothless remake of the 1939 classic, lacking the charm, wit and compelling protagonists of the original."

Midler appeared on the Bravo TV show My Life on the D-List with Kathy Griffin in an episode that aired in June 2009. In December of the same year, she appeared in the Royal Variety Performance, an annual British charity event attended by Queen Elizabeth II. Midler performed "In My Life" and "Wind Beneath My Wings" as the closing act. In 2010, Midler voiced the character Kitty Galore in the animated film Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore. The film was a success, grossing $112 million worldwide. In November 2010, Midler released Memories of You, another compilation of lesser known tracks from her catalog. Midler was one of the producers of the Broadway production of the musical Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, which opened in February 2011.

2012–present: Return to Broadway

Midler received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award at the Songwriters Hall of Fame in June 2012, recognizing how she "captivated the world" with her "stylish presentation and unmistakable voice." The same year, she co-starred alongside Billy Crystal in the family film Parental Guidance, playing a couple of old school grandparents trying to adapt to their daughter's 21st-century parenting style. Despite generally negative reviews by critics, who felt the film was "sweet but milquetoast", box office totals for the movie were higher than initially expected.

Midler portrayed Hollywood super-agent Sue Mengers in the play I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers, dramatized by John Logan, opening April 24, 2013, at the Booth Theatre, her first time on Broadway in three decades. After the show's success in New York, recouping its initial $2.4 million investment, the play transferred to Los Angeles at the Geffen Playhouse. A December 2013 announcement cast Midler as actress Mae West in an HBO biopic written by Harvey Fierstein and directed by William Friedkin. (The project remains unproduced, and Friedkin passed away in 2023.)

She performed at the 2014 Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre, singing "Wind Beneath My Wings" during the in memoriam tribute. In November the same year, Midler released It's the Girls! through Warner Bros. Records, her 25th album. The album spans seven decades of famous girl groups, from 1930s trios The Boswell Sisters and The Andrews Sisters to 1990s R&B legends such as TLC and their single "Waterfalls".

She returned to the stage in the titular role of Hello, Dolly! for the 2017 Broadway revival, earning her a Tony Award. In 2017, she also appeared in the role of Muv in the 2017 film Freak Show. Midler continued in Hello, Dolly! through January 2018, then returned in July to close out the run of the successful revival.

Midler performed the song "The Place Where Lost Things Go" from Mary Poppins Returns at the 91st Annual Academy Awards ceremony on February 24, 2019. Midler voiced the character of Grandmama, Gomez and Fester's mother, in the animated film version of The Addams Family released in October 2019. She reprised the role in the 2021 sequel The Addams Family 2. Midler portrayed Bella Abzug in The Glorias, a 2020 biographical film revolving around the life of Gloria Steinem, directed by Julie Taymor. She also starred in the second season of The Politician after previously guest starring in the first.

Midler has written several books, including The Saga of Baby Divine and A View from a Broad. She published the children's book The Tale of the Mandarin Duck in 2020, based on the 2018 story of a rare duck spotted in Central Park. She played Miriam Nessler, a retired teacher from New York, in HBO's Coastal Elites by Paul Rudnick.

Midler received the Kennedy Center Honor for a lifetime of achievement in the performing arts, with the medallion ceremony held at the Library of Congress on December 4, 2021. She attended the gala performance at the Kennedy Center the following day. Later that month, Midler came under fire when criticizing Joe Manchin for not supporting Joe Biden's Build Back Better Plan. While criticizing Manchin, Midler also criticized the State of West Virginia with a tweet where Midler stated, "What #JoeManchin, who represents a population smaller than Brooklyn, has done to the rest of America, who wants to move forward, not backward, like his state, is horrible. He sold us out. He wants us all to be just like his state, West Virginia. Poor, illiterate and strung out." She later apologized for the remarks.

Midler reprised her role as Winifred Sanderson in Hocus Pocus 2 for Disney+ in October 2022. In 2023, she starred in the comedy-drama film Sitting in Bars with Cake.

Personal life Midler's eldest sibling, Judith (1942–1968), died on December 22, 1968, when a car struck her while she was walking along West 44th Street in New York City. Midler married artist Martin von Haselberg on December 16, 1984. Their daughter, actress Sophie von Haselberg, was born November 14, 1986.

Charitable work In 1991, Midler was an early sponsor of the Adopt-a-Highway, paying $2,000 a month for a crew to clean up a section of the Ventura Freeway in Burbank, California. Signs at both ends of the section read "Litter Removal Next 2 Miles, Bette Midler." The location was so prominent that it became fodder for her 1993 guest appearance on the Simpsons episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled", where she is seen picking up trash along a stretch of highway she has adopted and causes car crashes for drivers who deliberately litter. In 1995, she carried the same idea to the east coast, adopting a section of the Long Island Expressway and Bronx River Parkway.

Midler founded the New York Restoration Project (NYRP) in 1995, a non-profit organization with the goal of revitalizing neglected neighborhood parks in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods of New York City.

When the city planned in 1991 to auction 114 community gardens for commercial development, Midler led a coalition of green organizations to save them. NYRP took ownership of 60 of the most neglected plots. Since then, Midler and her organization have worked with local volunteers and community groups to ensure that these gardens are kept safe, clean and vibrant. In 2003, Midler opened Swindler Cove Park, a new public park on the Harlem River shore featuring specially designed educational facilities and the Peter Jay Sharp Boathouse, the first community rowing facility to be built on the Harlem River in more than 100 years. The organization offers free in-school and after-school environmental education programming to students from high-poverty Title I schools.

Bette Midler pledged to match Pink with a donation of $500,000 to help Australia during the wildfires in 2020.

In 2026, Midler was awarded the Woody Guthrie Prize for her "advocacy work for causes like environmental conservation, public spaces, LGBTQ+ rights, public health initiatives and a number of humanitarian causes."

Filmography Film

Year Title Role Notes 1966 Hawaii Passenger Uncredited 1968 The Detective Girl at Party 1969 Goodbye, Columbus Wedding Guest 1971 Virgin Mary Also known as The Divine Mr. J 1972 Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers Lullabye Singer (voice) 1979 Mary Rose Foster 1980 Divine Madness Herself / Divine Miss M. Concert film 1982 Jinxed! Bonita Friml 1986 Women in Rock Herself Documentary Down and Out in Beverly Hills Barbara Whiteman Ruthless People Barbara Stone 1987 Outrageous Fortune Sandy Brozinsky 1988 Big Business Sadie Shelton / Sadie Ratliff Oliver & Company Georgette (voice) Beaches C. C. Bloom Also producer 1989 Music Teacher Short subject 1990 Stella Stella Claire 1991 Scenes from a Mall Deborah Fifer For the Boys Dixie Leonard Also producer 1992 Earth and the American Dream Reader (voice) Documentary 1993 Hocus Pocus Winifred 'Winnie' Sanderson 1994 A Century of Cinema Herself Documentary 1995 Get Shorty Doris Saphron Uncredited 1996 Brenda Cushman 1997 That Old Feeling Lilly Leonard 1999Get Bruce Herself Documentary Fantasia 2000 Herself / hostess Segment: "Piano Concerto No. 2, Allegro, Opus 102" 2000 Drowning Mona Mona Dearly Isn't She Great Jacqueline Susann What Women Want Dr. J.M. Perkins Uncredited 2002 Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood Producer only 2004 Bobbie Markowitz 2005 The Divine Bette Midler Herself Documentary 2007 Then She Found Me Bernice Graves 2008 Leah Miller 2010 Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore Kitty Galore (voice) 2012 Casting By Herself Documentary Parental Guidance Diane Decker 2013 20 Feet from Stardom Herself Documentary 2017 Freak Show Muv 2019 The Addams Family Grandmama (voice) 2020 The Glorias Bella Abzug 2021 The Addams Family 2 Grandmama (voice) 2022 Lucy and Desi Herself Documentary Hocus Pocus 2 Winifred 'Winnie' Sanderson 2023 Sitting in Bars with Cake Benita 2024 The Fabulous Four Marilyn 2026 Steps Fairy Godmother (voice) Post-production TBA Cut Off

Television

Year Title Role Notes 1970–1992 The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson Herself 11 episodes 1975 Cher Episode: "#1.1" 1976 Vegetable Soup Woody the Spoon (voice) Unknown episodes The Bette Midler Show Herself Television special 1977 Ol' Red Hair is Back Bing! A 50th Anniversary Gala Rolling Stone Magazine: The 10th Anniversary 1979 Saturday Night Live Herself Episode: "Buck Henry/Bette Midler" Sings "Married Men" / "My Knight In Black Leather" 1984 A Celebration of Life: A Tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. Herself Television special Superstars of Comedy Salute the Improv Art or Bust Herself / Divine Miss M. MTV Video Music Awards Herself / co-host 1988 The Mondo Beyondo Show Mondo Beyondo Mickey's 60th Birthday Herself 1990 Sinatra 75: The Best Is Yet to Come The Earth Day Special Mother Nature 1991 Walt Disney World's 20th Anniversary Celebration Herself 1992 Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories Narrator (voice) Episode: "Weird Parents" 1993 Gypsy Rose Hovick Television film Herself (voice) Episode: "Krusty Gets Kancelled" 1995 Seinfeld Herself Episode: "The Understudy" 1997 Diva Las Vegas Herself / Divine Miss M. Television special; also executive producer The Nanny Herself Episode: "You Bette Your Life" 1998, 2018 Murphy Brown Caprice Morton (née Feldman) 2 episodes 1999 Jackie's Back Herself Television film 2000–2001 Bette Bette 18 episodes; also executive producer 2001 Crossover Herself Television special 2003 A Barry Manilow Christmas: Live by Request Herself Television special 2006–2007 American Masters Herself / narrator 2 episodes 2009 The Magic 7 Herself Television film Loose Women Herself / Guest Host Episode: "#13.107" Herself Television special Episode: "Episode Eleven" Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List Episode: "Place Your Bette" 2010 Herself Television special; also director and producer Paul O'Grady's Christmas Television special 2013 Project Runway Herself / Guest Judge Episode: "The Ultimate Hard and Soft" 2014 Inside Comedy Herself Episode: "Bette Midler & Richard Belzer" Bette Midler: One Night Only Television special 2016 The Voice Herself / Adviser 6 episodes 2018 The Hocus Pocus 25th Anniversary Halloween Bash Herself / Winifred Sanderson Television special 2019–2020 The Politician Hadassah Gold 8 episodes 2020 Saturday Night Seder Herself Television special Coastal Elites Miriam Nessler Television film

Stage Year Title Role Notes 1967 Fiddler on the Roof Tzeitel Broadway 1970 Salvation Betty Lou Off-Broadway 1973 Bette Midler Herself Concerts 1975 Bette Midler's Clams on the Half Shell Revue Herself Revue 1979 Bette! Divine Madness Herself Concerts 2002 Short Talks on the Universe Nora Special event 2011 Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Broadway 2013 I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers Sue Mengers Broadway 2017–2018 Hello, Dolly! Dolly Gallagher Levi Broadway

Discography

The Divine Miss M (1972) Bette Midler (1973) Songs for the New Depression (1976) Broken Blossom (1977) Thighs and Whispers (1979) No Frills (1983) Some People's Lives (1990) Bette of Roses (1995) Bathhouse Betty (1998) Bette (2000) Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook (2003) Bette Midler Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook (2005) Cool Yule (2006) It's the Girls! (2014)

Tours

1970–1972: Continental Baths Tour 1972: Cross Country Tour 1973: The Divine Miss M Tour 1975: Clams on the Half Shell Revue 1975–1976: The Depression Tour 1977–1978: An Intimate Evening with Bette 1978: The Rose Live in Concert 1978: World Tour 1979–1980: Bette! Divine Madness 1980: Divine Madness: Pasadena 1982–1983: De Tour 1993: Experience the Divine 1994: Experience the Divine Again! 1997: Diva Las Vegas 1999: Bathhouse Betty Club Tour 1999–2000: The Divine Miss Millennium Tour 2003–2004: Kiss My Brass 2005: Kiss My Brass Down Under 2008–2010: The Showgirl Must Go On 2015: Divine Intervention Tour

Awards and nominations

Midler has received numerous accolades throughout her career. She is one of few artists to have been nominated for an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony (EGOT), of which she has won all but the Oscar. Her wins include three Emmys, three Grammys, two Tonys, a Drama Desk Award, four Golden Globe Awards, and a National Board of Review Award.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) has honored Midler twice with Academy Award nominations, for the following performances

52nd Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, for The Rose (1979) 64th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, for For the Boys (1991)

Both of the above performances also won her the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, while the first also earned her a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Her other two Golden Globes were for Best New Female Star of the Year for The Rose and Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film for Gypsy (1993).