Bette Davis’s magnetism onscreen was irrefutable, but off-camera, she was a force to be reckoned with. The two-time Academy Award winner famously sued Warner Bros., her contracted studio, in 1936, claiming that she had been saddled with inferior roles. Though she lost the legal battle, the Dark Victory star continued pushing fiercely against Hollywood’s rigid expectations of its leading ladies. She embraced complicated, unsympathetic, and decidedly unglamorous women onscreen, becoming a true trailblazer as her career progressed.
“I do not regret one professional enemy I have made,” Davis reflected in her first memoir, The Lonely Life. “I suppose I’m larger than life. That’s my problem. Created in a fury, I’m at home in a tempest.”
Given the remarkable estimation of at least 75 residences she called home throughout her lifetime, it certainly tracks that the big-screen legend was comfortable with a healthy amount of chaos.
“Playing house is a childhood game I’ve never put away,” the Marked Woman star, whose youth was spent constantly on the move, once observed. “My home has always meant so much to me.”
Demonstrating just how deeply she valued domestic life, Davis once stepped away from her flourishing career for three full years during her fourth and final marriage. She devoted herself entirely to being a wife and a mother—and loved every minute of it, according to her autobiography.
“I wanted to be married. I wanted a home,” she wrote. “Small wonder that when I could, I acquired houses as other women acquire jewels.”
Looking across her extraordinary life reveals just a small fraction of the diverse places this Golden Age luminary chose to nest, each chapter of her nomadic domestic life reflecting the turbulent and passionate spirit that defined her legendary career.
Early Life in Massachusetts
Davis’s complex relationship with domesticity began in her earliest years. An undated photograph captures a toddler Bette Davis and her sister, Bobby, standing next to a dog in Massachusetts, offering a quiet glimpse into an era before their family unit fractured. When Davis was just seven years old, the family patriarch abruptly left the girls to be with his mistress.
“My father’s cavalier disappearance from our home when I was a small child certainly has significance. Consider my quartette of marriages,” she wrote in The Lonely Life. “My sister Bobby’s world went up in smoke. Mine shifted on its axis. It’s as simple as that.”
That early disruption left an indelible mark on the actor, setting the stage for a lifetime of seeking stability, shifting locales, and building—then dismantling—homes across the country.
The Rolling New Englanders
Throughout 1932, a pivotal year that saw her career ascending rapidly, Davis lived a profoundly nomadic lifestyle. Alongside her first husband, Harmond Nelson, her mother, Ruthie, and her sister, Bobby, the actor occupied at least four different houses within a span of twelve months. In one surviving photograph from that year, Davis stands before a stately, oversized brick fireplace in one of her temporary abodes.
When the actor and Nelson married in August of that year, the extended family initially lived in a dwelling near the ocean at Zuma Beach in Malibu, breathing in the sea air and adjusting to the pressures of early Hollywood stardom.
By the end of that same year, the restless group had relocated once again, settling into what Davis described in her memoir as a "white, ivy-covered English house" located at 1217 Horn Avenue in West Hollywood. The property featured an accessory dwelling unit in the back, where Davis’s mother and sister could stay. The Little Foxes actor affectionately remembered the location as a "dream cottage," offering a temporary oasis amidst the whirlwind of her early studio years.
Bette’s Best Friends
Throughout her many moves, constants remained in Davis’s life, chief among them her profound love for dogs. Animals occupied a deeply sacred place in her heart, leading her to serve as the president of Tailwaggers, a prominent organization dedicated to caring for abandoned and lost pups.
“I’ve always loved dogs—my own, all dogs,” she once said. “And it broke my heart to think of them homeless, unwanted, held as prisoners, under inhumane conditions, when some of them are more human than we are.”
A classic 1933 photograph captures Davis in the backyard of her Brentwood Heights home, accompanied by her white Sealyham terrier, Sir Cedric Wogs, and her Scottish terrier, Tibby. In the sprawling yard, the actor found peace away from the studio lights, surrounded by the loyal companions who anchored her through her shifting addresses.
1700 Coldwater Canyon Drive
By 1937, Davis had moved into 1700 Coldwater Canyon Drive, establishing a more permanent footprint in Southern California. Biographer Ed Sikov, in his definitive book Dark Victory: The Life of Bette Davis, described the expansive abode as a hacienda-style house complete with a swimming pool, a tennis court, and a full acre of land.
In a charming photograph from her time at the Coldwater Canyon estate, the Of Human Bondage star is captured almost disappearing into the oversized cushions of her sprawling living room sofa, embodying a rare moment of domestic relaxation.
Hollywood’s Croquet Champ
During the 1930s and 1940s, a passionate croquet craze swept through the highest echelons of Hollywood. Top-billed luminaries like Shirley Temple and Orson Welles, alongside powerful studio executives, were reportedly entirely caught up in the competitive backyard mania.
Contemporary publications frequently noted that Davis was reputed to be the entire film colony’s undisputed champion croquet player. Embracing the sport with the same intensity she brought to her film roles, she was frequently photographed meticulously setting up her croquet court on the sprawling, manicured lawn of her Coldwater Canyon property, ready to challenge any visiting colleague.
Books Over Everything
Despite her immense fame and the social expectations placed on top box-office draws, Davis preferred quiet nights at home with literature over hobnobbing with Hollywood’s glamorous crowds. According to Sikov, the actor cherished her time spent reading to such an extreme degree that her first husband, Harmond Nelson, actually cited her reading habits as one of the primary reasons for their eventual split.
Nelson reportedly claimed during divorce proceedings that Davis read to an "unnecessary degree," noting that she even insisted on reading books or manuscripts when they had guests over.
"It was all very upsetting," Nelson was quoted as saying.
Unbothered by external criticism, Davis is pictured at home in 1941, deeply absorbed in the manuscript for a forthcoming CBS radio program, prioritizing the written word above all social obligations.
On a Ranch Out West
By 1942, Davis had expanded her real estate portfolio to include 1705 Rancho Avenue in Glendale, California. A profile of the actor published in The New Yorker in 1943 noted that the property was likely "probably the only two-bedroom, two-acre estate in the film colony."
The relatively modest Tudor-style home offered a rustic retreat, complete with a swimming pool, private stables, and direct access to local equestrian trails, allowing the star to indulge her love for the outdoors.
Beach House
Shortly after marrying her fourth husband, Gary Merrill—with whom she costarred in the classic film All About Eve—Davis lived for a brief period at a Malibu rental home she personally scouted and secured. The couple had mutually determined that Merrill’s existing Malibu house was simply too small for their growing family. Davis had given birth to a daughter with her previous husband, William Grant Sherry, in 1947, and she and Merrill subsequently welcomed two more children via adoption in 1951.
While Merrill was away in Germany filming Decision Before Dawn, Davis efficiently managed the logistics of relocating the family to the spacious oceanfront property.
“We found a house near the one Gary had at Malibu,” Davis wrote in her memoir. “Moved him out of his house—his antiques, and I did not pitch them in the ocean—moved all of my belongings in.”
A 1951 photograph captures the couple relaxing together on the sandy beach, leaning comfortably against the exterior of their shared coastal dwelling.
Cape Elizabeth
For the majority of the 1950s, Davis resided primarily in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. The family’s initial discovery of the white, three-story clapboard house occurred almost by accident after taking a wrong turn down a long, tree-lined lane.
“We called our house Witch-way because we didn’t know which way we were going and a witch lived there—guess who,” Davis joked in her memoir, playfully referring to her own formidable reputation.
The Atlantic Ocean-facing manse sat on an expansive eight-acre property, which featured a private pond where the family would ice skate during harsh New England winters. An undated photograph captures the actor alongside her mother on the sprawling Maine grounds, enjoying a rare chapter of quiet East Coast living.
Flower Girl
“I always like men who sent me flowers,” Davis was quoted as saying in Charlotte Chandler’s biographical work, The Girl Who Walked Home Alone. “But I have to admit most of the flowers I’ve enjoyed in my life, I’ve bought for myself. A great many of them I grew. I’m a country mouse, you see.”
Though she was far from the rural countryside in a 1967 photograph, Davis stood radiant on the front porch of the final Los Angeles house she occupied before eventually relocating to Westport, Connecticut. The historic outdoor space was heavily draped with vibrant red bougainvillea, framing the legendary actor as she paused, cigarette in hand, surrounded by the living mementos of her lifelong pursuit of home.
