Busch called Davis’ turn as the rough, vulgar London waitress Mildred Rogers in the 1934 version of Somerset Maugham’s classic, Of Human Bondage, “probably the best performance ever recorded on the screen by a U.S. In fact, in its 1939 article, LIFE’s writer Noel F. What many fans and most critics (even those who dislike her) consider Davis’ signature work in movies like Dark Victory, The Little Foxes and Now, Voyager was still ahead of her, but there was no question that the Massachusetts native was one of the most electrifying movie stars of any era.
By the time LIFE magazine put Bette Davis on its cover in January 1939, the 30-year-old actress had already appeared, as a star and in supporting roles, in more than two dozen films and won two Oscars (for 1935’s Dangerous and 1938’s Jezebel).
