Kathy Bates was standing between Dustin Hoffman and an unhinged screen door when she booked her first speaking part in a film,
It was the late 1970s and Bates, who was making a name for herself in theatre, had been invited to Hoffman’s house with a couple of acting friends. It would trigger her big break.
Fast forward almost 50 years and Bates, an Oscarmultiple Golden Globes and Emmys winner, has called time on her stellar career,
Here is a look back at how she paved a path as one of the best actors of a generation.
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‘He cast me in the role right then and there’
Hoffman had heard about Bates from friend and fellow Hollywood star, Warren Beatty.
He was looking to cast for his new project, Straight Timea film based on an Edward Bunker novel about a career thief in Los Angeles who struggles with life on the outside.
“There was a scene where we were supposed to talk through a screen door. I don’t know where he got the screen door but he was holding this screen door in between us,” Bates told. Vanity Fair in 2019.
“We did the scene together and he really liked some of the things that I did and he cast me in the role right then and there.”
The role in Straight Time was Bates’ first credited film role.
She had a small role in director Milos Forman’s 1971 project, Taking Offwhere she played the role as audition singer. She was credited as Bobo Bates, and paid $5 a day.
after her time on Straight TimeBates filled her days with stage and TV roles in LA.
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She had got her start on the stage, leaving her small-town life in Memphis, Tennessee for the bright lights of New York City and the theatre.
One of her stage roles paved the way to her most iconic film role.
From Misery to Oscar joy
It was 1987 and Bates was now living in LA and starring alongside Elizabeth McGovern in the Wallace Shawn’s play Aunt Dan and Lemon,
Bates played the role of Aunt Dan, an eccentric and ruthless figure.
At the time of the play, McGovern was dating US film director Rob Reiner. He was at the theater often and saw something in Bates.
“I don’t know how many times Rob came to see that play, but it was a lot. He’d seen my work in New York, but I think this is where he got the idea to use me in Misery, Bates told Variety in 2016.
In MiseryBates’ talent was elevated. The role won her an Oscar at the 1991 awards.
“I arrived home two days before the ceremony. Literally only had enough time to put on the dress. Thank God it fit. The night was a dream come true,” Bates told. The Guardian in 2020.
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“My fiance was worried I would lose, but when Daniel Day-Lewis had the envelope in his hands, in my mind I saw my name in it. Heard him say it. Sailed up the steps and forgot to thank my fiance and my mother , who deserved all my thanks sitting at home.”
Over the years, Bates continued to add to her incredible resume of work, with more than 100 film and TV projects to her name.
She has worked with the upper echelon of directors including James Cameron in Titanicwise-pioneering female actors like Jessica Tandy in Fried Green Tomatoes and Angela Bassett and Jessica Lange in Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story anthologies.
Among her fondest professional memories, working with Hoffman is a standout.
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She holds the memory of Hoffman walking her around an empty soundstage ahead of filming to show her the camera, and lay of the land, among her dearest work memories.
“I feel so fortunate that that was my first speaking role, working with someone as talented and as committed as Dustin,” she said.
Off camera, Bates has also faced personal battles.
She successfully fought ovarian cancer in 2003, only to discover nine years later that she had breast cancer. She has a clean bill of health and renewed gratitude.
“It’s really good, so I’m grateful,” she said in 2019.
“I mean, you never know when the shoe is going to drop again, but I’m just totally enjoying being lucky and alive and enjoying life and working.”
End of an era
Then, this week, after five decades dominating Hollywood, the 76-year-old revealed in an interview with The New York Timesshe decided to call time on her career.
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“Everything I’ve prayed for, worked for, clawed my way up for, I am suddenly able to be asked to use all of it,” she said. “And it’s exhausting.”
Her latest TV work, a 2024 reboot of the original US legal drama starring Andy Griffith, will be her “last dance”.
Bates told the publication she had reached the point of seeking to quit while shooting a film. She declined to reveal which film.
She was sobbing on a coach, the work becoming all-consuming.
“It becomes my life,” she said.
“Sometimes I get jealous of having this talent. Because I can’t hold it back, and I just want my life.”
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