Bette Davis 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. Within days, she joined the cast in San Francisco to begin filming. During production, she established what would become a life-long friendship with her co-star Anne Baxter and a romantic relationship with her leading man Gary Merrill, which led to marriage. The film's director, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, later remarked: "Bette was letter perfect. She was syllable-perfect. The director's dream: the prepared actress." Critics responded positively to Davis' performance, and several of her lines became
Bette Davis after Honoré de Balzac's "La Cousine Bette". During their time in New York, Davis became a Girl Scout who proved so successful she later ranked as a Patrol Leader. Davis attended Cushing Academy, a boarding school in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, where she met her future husband, Harmon O. Nelson, known as "Ham". In 1926, a then 18-year-old Davis saw a production of Henrik Ibsen's "The Wild Duck" with Blanche Yurka and Peg Entwistle. Davis later recalled for Al Cohn of "Newsday", "The reason I wanted to go into theater was because of an actress named Peg Entwistle." She auditioned for admission