Bette Davis adopted a five-day-old baby girl they named Margot Mosher Merrill (born January 6, 1951), after the character Margo Channing. Davis and Merrill lived with their three children - in 1952, they adopted a baby boy, Michael (born January 5, 1952) - on an estate on the coast of Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Davis, after semi-retirement in the mid-1950s, again starred in several movies during her time in Maine, including "The Virgin Queen" (1955), in which she played Queen Elizabeth I. The family traveled to England, where Davis and Merrill starred in a murder-mystery film, "Another Man's Poison" (1951). When it received
Bette Davis that she was 'Larger Than Life', a tough broad who had survived? Probably some of both." Her film choices were often unconventional: Davis sought roles as manipulators and killers in an era when actresses usually preferred to play sympathetic characters, and she excelled in them. She favored authenticity over glamour, and was willing to change her own appearance if it suited the character. As she entered old age, Davis was acknowledged for her achievements. John Springer, who had arranged her speaking tours of the early 1970s, wrote that despite the accomplishments of many of her contemporaries, Davis was ""the" star