Gary Merrill on July 28, 1950. That same day, he married Bette Davis, his co-star from "All About Eve", and adopted her daughter Barbara from a previous marriage. He and Davis adopted two more children, Margo and Michael, but they had a bitter divorce in 1960. Often politically active, he campaigned in 1958 to elect the Democrat, Edmund Sixtus Muskie, as governor of Maine. Merrill also took part in the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 to promote Black voter registration. In response to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's Vietnam War policy, he unsuccessfully sought nomination to the Maine legislature as an
Bette Davis then I'm not interested." Katharine Hepburn played the role, and was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress. Davis was offered a role in a film version of the Virginia Kellogg prison drama "Women Without Men". Originally intended to pair Davis with Joan Crawford, Davis made it clear that she would not appear in any "dyke movie". It was filmed as "Caged" (1950), and the lead roles were played by Eleanor Parker (who was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress) and Agnes Moorehead. In 1948, Davis was cast in the melodrama "Winter Meeting". Although she initially was