Sarah Siddons painting. The film opens with a close-up of the statuette, and ends with a character holding it. Actress Bette Davis, who played Margo Channing in the film, posed as Siddons in a 1957 re-creation of the Reynolds portrait staged as part of the Pageant of the Masters. In April 2010, BBC Radio 4's "Woman's Hour Drama" presented "Sarah Siddons: Life in Five Sittings", a radio drama by David Pownall about the long relationship between Siddons and artist Thomas Lawrence, in five 15-minute parts. When the film "All About Eve" was released in 1950, the "Sarah Siddons Award for Distinguished Achievement"
All About Eve for the aging diva role, before giving it to Bette Davis. Davis, who had recently ended an 18-year association with Warner Bros. after several poorly received films, immediately accepted the role after realizing it was one of the best she had ever read. Channing had originally been conceived as genteel and knowingly humorous, but with the casting of Davis, Mankiewicz revised the character to be more abrasive. Mankiewicz praised Davis both for her professionalism and for the caliber of her performance. Anne Baxter had spent a decade in supporting roles and had won the 1946 Academy Award for Best Supporting