Bette Midler

Her television work includes a production of Gypsy and her sitcom Bette. (The second series used Nichols' own death as an excuse to kill off the character and dealt with Alf's experience of widowhood.). Other films include Scenes From a Mall, For the Boys (for which she was again nominated for an Academy Award), Hocus Pocus, The First Wives Club, and The Stepford Wives. She reprised her role as Else in the first series of the sequel, In Sickness and in Health. Her rendition of 1990's "From a Distance" also earned her a Grammy and is another of her most popular songs. Prior to the series, Dandy Nichols had been a minor comedy actress, appearing in many old British films. Midler sang several of the film's songs including "Wind Beneath My Wings," which became one of Midler's most popular hits, receiving multiple Grammy Awards. Alf often referred to Else as a "silly old moo" (the word "cow" would have been unacceptable to contemporary audiences).

In 1988 she starred in the film Beaches. Dandy Nichols (1907, London - February 6, 1986) was an actress most noted for her role as Else Garnett, the long-suffering wife of the racially bigoted and misogynistic character Alf Garnett in the BBC sitcom Till Death Us Do Part. She appeared in such other popular comedies as Ruthless People, Outrageous Fortune and Big Business. In 1986, director Paul Mazursky cast her in Down and Out in Beverly Hills, beginning a successful comedic acting career. In her first film role, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

She was tapped for the pseudobiographical role of the drug-addled rock music star in The Rose, modeled after Janis Joplin. Midler appeared in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway, but it was her singing that made her a star. He produced her first major album, The Divine Miss M (also the name by which she is known to her fans.). Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, she majored in drama at the University of Hawaii, but got her start singing in gay bathhouses in New York City where, among others, she became friends with Barry Manilow, who was her piano accompanist.

Bette Midler (born December 1, 1945) is a singer, actress and comedienne.