Inside Bette Davis's Fortune: Bette Davis & Career Highlights Net Worth 2026: Career Earnings & Assets

As one of the most talked-about figures, Bette Davis has built a significant fortune. Our team analyzed the latest data to provide a clear picture of their income.

What Was Bette Davis's Net Worth and Salary?

Davis appeared in "Marked Woman," "Jezebel," "Dark Victory," and "The Old Maid." She became the studio's most profitable actress and continued to earn the best roles, including parts in "All This and Heaven Too" and "The Letter." Other film credits include "Beyond the Forest," "All About Eve," and "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?," a role that revitalized her dwindling career in the early 1960s. She was the 1977 AFI winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award, the first woman to receive the honor.

Her inspiration to become an actress came from Rudolph Valentino's performance in the 1921 film "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." She got her acting start in plays and eventually debuted on Broadway in the 1929 production of "Broken Dishes." She was invited to come to Hollywood after a talent scout noticed her in a stage performance of "Solid South."

Bette Davis was an actress of Hollywood's Golden Age whose career spanned over 50 years. After having her critical breakthrough with "Of Human Bondage" in 1934, she went on to star in such films as "Dangerous," "Jezebel," "Dark Victory," "The Letter," "Now, Voyager," and "All About Eve," among many others, earning 10 Academy Award nominations in the process. Additionally, Davis co-founded the Hollywood Canteen for servicemen during World War II and served as the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Bette signed a contract with Warner Bros. in 1932. Through Warner Bros., she appeared in the 1935 film "Dangerous", for which she won her first Academy Award for Best Actress. In 1936, she breached her contract with Warner Bros. when she agreed to roles in two English films. Davis left the U.S. for Canada to avoid the legal ramifications. Eventually, she lost her bid in an English court to get out of her contract with Warner Bros., and she went back to Hollywood, where she continued to work with the film studio.

Davis had her first paid acting gig playing a chorus girl in the play "Broadway." In 1929, she had a bigger role in the play "The Wild Duck" and made her Broadway debut in "Broken Dishes." The following year, Bette moved to Hollywood to pursue her screen-acting career. She subsequently made her film debut in the 1931 Universal Studios film "Bad Sister." Davis followed this with appearances in two more Universal films: "Seed" and "Waterloo Bridge." Next, she appeared in RKO's "Way Back Home," Columbia's "The Menace," and Capital Films' "Hell's House." Bette followed these with several films for Warner Bros., including "The Dark Horse," "Three on a Match," "20,000 Years in Sing Sing," "Parachute Jumper," and "Jimmy the Gent." She was also in such First National pictures as "The Cabin in the Cotton" and "The Big Shakedown."

Bette Davis was born Ruth Elizabeth Davis on April 5, 1908, in Lowell, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of Harlow and Ruth, and she had a younger sister named Barbara Harriet. In 1915, Davis's parents separated; subsequently, Bette went to the Crestalban boarding school in Lanesborough, Massachusetts, for three years. With her mother, she then moved to New York City, where she became a Girl Scout patrol leader. Back in Massachusetts, Davis went to Cushing Academy.

After filming a TV pilot, Davis was diagnosed with breast cancer and suffered four strokes, leaving her partially paralyzed. She died of cancer on October 6, 1989. The ten-time Academy Award nominee had four husbands during her 81-year life: Harmon Nelson, whom she divorced in 1938; Arthur Farnsworth, who died in 1943; William Grant Sherry, whom she divorced in 1950 after five years of marriage; and Gary Merrill, whom she also divorced after ten years of marriage in 1960.

Bette Davis was an American actress who had a net worth of $1 million at the time of her death in 1989. After adjusting for inflation, that's the same as around $2.5 million in today's dollars. The bulk of her estate was left to an adopted son and a close friend. She did not leave any money to her daughters or grandchildren.

Ultimately, Bette Davis's financial journey is a testament to their success.

Disclaimer: All net worth figures are estimates based on public data.