Bette Davis

I agree.

She was gorgeous thru 1950, with Margot Channing. Google for pix of her in A Stolen Life, Deception, and Winter Meeting. But the hairstyles of the 50s were so unflattering and so matronly that most 30+ women didn't fare too well after that. (Only one year later, in Payment on Demand, BD -- with bad hair -- looks matronly, looks 10-15 years older.) And, look for pix of her in 1970, when she was on Cavett -- looks great, at 62, with a smooth, silky, flattering bob.

Also just saw the gorgeous Barbara Stanwyck in BF's Daughter (1948), matronly with awful hair; contrast that with how gorgeous she looked only 2 years earlier, with great hair, in My Reputation.

The '50s have a lot to answer for.

"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."

I didn't even recognize her at first. She looked absolutely amazing! I always thought what made Bette Davis look so 'different' were her eyes. Earlier in her career her eyes were very different. They looked normal but as she got older something seemed to cause them to get weird; maybe out of alignment and wrinkly. I can't even put my finger on what it was but something was very different.

That said, I think her look really helped her career. She played a lot of roles that called for a certain severity or tone that her face seemed to relay very well. If not liking her appearance made her a better actress, that's a good thing. By contrast, some of the actresses considered extremely beautiful were often typecast. Many never got to do more than strut around on screen in revealing clothes delivering suggestive but meaningless lines.

She was certainly better looking here than in her later movies, but she still pales in comparison to the beautiful Ms. Stanwyck.

Poorly Lived and Poorly Died, Poorly Buried and No One Cried