Movie stars I loved as a kid - Joan Crawford and Bette Davis

Okay, so I was never "in love" with either of them but they were fascinating. They were both lookers in the 1930s but, by the time I began to see them in movies in the 1950s, they were already horror-film harridans. I was going to skip both of them but I found some pics of them when they were still babes so here goes.

Joan Crawford (March 23, 1905 – May 10, 1977):

Crawford was born Lucille Fay LeSueur in San Antonio, Texas.
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In the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Crawford often played hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well-received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. Crawford became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States.
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She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Mildred Pierce in 1945.
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In 1955, she became involved with the Pepsi-Cola Company, through her marriage to company president Alfred Steele. After his death in 1959, Crawford was elected to fill his vacancy on the board of directors but was forcibly retired in 1973.
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She adopted five children, one of whom was reclaimed by his birth mother. Crawford's relationships with her two older children, Christina and Christopher, were acrimonious. Crawford disinherited the two and, after Crawford's death, Christina wrote a "tell-all" memoir, Mommie Dearest, in which she alleged a lifelong pattern of physical and emotional abuse perpetrated by Crawford.
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Stories have persisted that Crawford further supplemented her income in her early 20s before fame by appearing in stag pornographic films.
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Crawford starred as Blanche Hudson, a physically disabled woman and former A-list movie star in conflict with her psychotic sister in the highly successful thriller What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962). Despite the actresses' earlier tensions, Crawford suggested Bette Davis for the role of Jane. The two stars maintained publicly that there was no feud between them. However, Crawford accused Davis of kicking her during the filming of a scene in which Jane attacks Blanche, and reportedly retaliated by wearing weights under her clothes in a scene in which Davis had to carry her. The director, Robert Aldrich, explained that Davis and Crawford were each aware of how important the film was to their respective careers and commented, "It's proper to say that they really detested each other, but they behaved absolutely perfectly." After filming was completed, their public comments against each other allowed the tension to develop into a lifelong feud. Crawford then starred in horror movies throughout the 1960s.
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Upon hearing of the death of her long time rival, Bette Davis is said to have remarked "My mother told me never to speak badly of the dead. Joan's dead....Good".

Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989):

Ruth Elizabeth Davis, known from early childhood as "Betty", was born in Lowell, Massachusetts.
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In 1939 she acted opposite Ronald Reagan in the film Dark Victory.
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Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Davis spent the early months of 1942 selling war bonds. After Jack Warner criticized her tendency to cajole crowds into buying, she reminded him that her audiences responded most strongly to her "bitch" performances. She sold two million dollars of bonds in two days, as well as a picture of herself in Jezebel for $250,000. She also performed for black regiments as the only white member of an acting troupe formed by Hattie McDaniel, that also included Lena Horne and Ethel Waters.
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Davis refused the title role in Mildred Pierce in 1945 (because she did not want to play the part of the mother of a 17 year old) a role for which Joan Crawford ultimately won an Academy Award.
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Davis also refused the role of Rose Sayer in The African Queen (1951). When informed that the film was to be made in Africa, Davis told Jack Warner, "If you can't shoot the picture in a boat on the back lot, then I'm not interested." Katharine Hepburn played the role.
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The producer Darryl F. Zanuck offered her the role of the aging theatrical actress Margo Channing in All About Eve (1950). Davis read the script, described it as the best she had ever read, and accepted the role. Critics responded positively to Davis's performance and several of her lines became well-known, particularly, "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night." She was nominated for an Academy Award.
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She accepted her role in the Grand Guignol horror film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) after reading the script and believing it could appeal to the same audience that had recently made Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) a success. She negotiated a deal that would pay her 10 percent of the worldwide gross profits, in addition to her salary. The film became one of the year's biggest successes. When Davis was nominated for an Academy Award, Crawford campaigned against her. Davis then acted in horror movies throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
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Davis' daughter published a memoir, My Mother's Keeper, in which she chronicled a difficult mother-daughter relationship and depicted scenes of Davis's overbearing and drunken behavior.
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In 1964, Jack Warner spoke of the "magic quality that transformed this sometimes bland and not beautiful little girl into a great artist", and in a 1988 interview, Davis remarked that, unlike many of her contemporaries, she had forged a career without the benefit of beauty. She admitted she was terrified during the making of her earliest films and that she became tough by necessity. "Until you're known in my profession as a monster, you are not a star", she said.