Barbara Bates
Film actress Barbara Bates (
August 6,
1925-
March 18,
1969) was a film actress of the 1940s and 1950s. The former ballet dancer and teen model won a trip to Hollywood and ended up meeting her publicist husband and starting an acting career while there. Bates spent several years as a stock actress at
20th Century-Fox but it wasn't until
Warner Bros. signed her up in 1947 and highlighted her "girl-next-door" image that got her acting career going. She appeared with some of the biggest stars of the day; including
Bette Davis in
June Bride (1948) and
Danny Kaye in
The Inspector General (1949). Her best-known role may have been in
All About Eve, when she played the scheming and manipulative Phoebe. In 1954, Bates was a regular on the TV sitcom
It's a Great Life. She became a victim of extreme mood swings, and chronic depression to the point of being fired from a few films in the 1950s. By 1958, after a short stint trying to re-establish her career in Europe, Bates left show biz and moved back to her home town of
Denver. She was found dead in her garage in 1969 from
carbon monoxide poisoning, suicide just four months after the beginning of her second marriage.
