Bette Midler, born in 1945, American actress and popular singer, known for her adaptable voice and her charismatic style of acting. Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and toured army bases in her home state as part of a folksinging trio when she was in high school. During her only year of study at the University of Hawaii, Midler won a small role in the motion picture Hawaii (1966). She then followed the film company when it returned to Los Angeles and then New York City.

In 1966 Midler sang a chorus part in the Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof, and later moved to a starring role. Her big break came in 1969, when—accompanied on piano by the then-unknown musician Barry Manilow—she premiered a cabaret act at the Continental Baths, where she sang a wide range of popular music, spicing the songs with outrageous, bawdy comedy.

Recognized almost immediately as a potential star, Midler began singing in clubs and concert halls. In 1972 Midler recorded her first album, The Divine Miss M, for which she won a Grammy Award (1973) as the year’s best new artist. Her next record, Bette Midler, was released in 1973. In 1979 she returned to the screen in The Rose, playing a rock-music singer resembling Janis Joplin (see Rock Music). She won a second Grammy Award, in 1980, for her performance of the movie’s title song, “The Rose.” The same year Midler published her biography, A View from a Broad. Roles in the films Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986) and Ruthless People (1986) made her a top-grossing female star in Hollywood. Midler topped the popular music charts in 1989 and 1990 with the ballads “Wind Beneath My Wings” and “From a Distance,” both of which won Grammy Awards, in 1990 and 1991 respectively. Her other motion pictures include Beaches (1988), For the Boys (1991), Hocus Pocus (1993), The First Wives Club (1996), and The Stepford Wives (2004). Her later albums include Bette of Roses (1995), Bathhouse Betty (1998), and Bette Midler Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook (2005).