It's official...Bette wins the crown for Favorite Classic Movie Actress of 2014

Bette beams proudly as she is named Favorite Classic Movie

Actress of 2014

Wow! What a match! Bette Davis and Barbara Stanwyck battled back and forth for the past 6 days and when it was all said and done, Bette emerged victorious with a 49-47 win. It gives Bette her 18th tourney win and places her 2nd all time, behind only Grace Kelly's whopping 20 wins. It also ends the 30's era actresses domination in the tourney. All three previous tourney winners (Irene Dunne, Ginger Rogers and Carole Lombard) came from that respective era. And Barbara Stanwyck was close to joining that exclusive club. She held the lead of 3 votes over Bette early yesterday morning but Bette stormed back to tie and then eventually take the lead. Today Bette led by as many as 5 votes before Babs made a late rally to tie the match again until Bette picked up two more votes to secure a victory. 

Asked what she will do after her loss to Bette, Babs replied

"Oh I think I will go play a little tennis! But I'll be back and ready

for next year!" That's our Missy!

It was a momentous occasion for Bette in several ways. Me and Desiree had recently given her a two week tribute on our facebook pages and of course April 5th marked Bette's birthday. So the final piece to this wondrous month was winning the crown as favorite classic movie actress of 2014. Well done Bette! Well done! Thanks to my good friends Desiree, Kristen and John for helping me once again for putting on this event and to all those fans and friends that voted and had a good time! 

We'll do it all again next year but for now let Bette have her moment. She deserves it!

Championship Match Update: Barbara and Bette are in a close one...

We begin day 3 of our championship match to see who is the favorite classic movie actress of 2014 between Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Davis...and boy is it a good one. Bette currently leads Babs by only three votes, 20-17. But we have 3 and a half more days of voting so you know this match is going down to the wire. And given the pedigree of these two women, that is all not that shocking.

The 2014 Favorite Classic Movie Actress Championship Match: Barbara Stanwyck vs Bette Davis

It all comes down to this...after 5 weeks and 132 actresses vying for favorite classic movie actress of 2014, we are down to the final two. Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Davis. The match begins tomorrow morning and will run through Wednesday evening. Here are the stats for our two finalists:

BARBARA STANWYCK

30'S ERA CHAMPION

Tourney record (12-3)

Number of final fours: 1st time

How she got here:

defeated Thelma Todd 38-4

defeated Marlene Dietrich 49-7

defeated Norma Shearer 40-19

defeated Greta Garbo 49-16

defeated Myrna Loy 51-43

defeated Audrey Hepburn 47-30

total votes accumulated so far 274

what's at stake for her: continuing the streak of 30's era actresses

being tourney champions....all three previous tourney

winners came from the 30's era

VS

BETTE DAVIS

40'S ERA CHAMPION

Tourney Record (17-3)
How she got here:

defeated Katharine Hepburn 50-25

defeated Rosalind Russell 40-36

defeated Judy Garland 53-16

defeated Rita Hayworth 50-7

defeated Olivia de Havilland 35-34

defeated Elizabeth Taylor 46-25

Total votes accumulated so far: 274 (the exact same number as Babs)

what's at stake for her: this is Bette's 2nd straight championship

match...I'm sure she doesn't want a 3rd

It will be BARBARA STANWYCK and BETTE DAVIS in the title match for Favorite Classic Movie Actress of 2014

Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Davis both faced tough competitors in their final four matches and came away with similar results. Barbara rocked Audrey Hepburn to the tune of 47-30 while Bette crushed Elizabeth Taylor by the count of 46-25. So the title match is now set..Stanwyck vs Davis! It marks Bette 2nd consecutive championship match. She lost to Carole Lombard last year. While this marks the first title match for Barbara, who was actually the pre-tourney pick to win it all.  I will do a post about this sure to be epic match tomorrow and then start it on Friday morning. 

Babs is supremely confident heading into the title match

But so is Bette....should be fun!

THE FINAL FOUR Update: Day 2

After a close first day, things have opened up on day 2 with Bette Davis and Barbara Stanwyck firmly in control of their matches. Bette leads Elizabeth Taylor 33-14 whille Barbara Stanwyck leads Audrey Hepburn 34-19. On day one, Bette and Liz was tied at 10 votes each and Babs was actually trailing Audrey 14-12. But things have turned around big time. Matches continue through Wednesday evening!

THE FINAL FOUR..Classic Movie Actress Style begins tomorrow

Last month we began with 132 actresses competing for the title of Favorite Classic Movie Actress. Well we have now made it to the final four and what a foursome we have. Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor. And it's notable as three of the women present are first time Final Four finalists. Bette Davis is the only returnee. Here are the breakdowns and match-ups that will begin tomorrow afternoon (3 pm EST). Note: tourney record is for all tourney appearances since inception.

BARBARA STANWYCK

30'S ERA CHAMPION

Tourney record (11-3)

Number of final fours: 1st time

How she got here:

defeated Thelma Todd 38-4

defeated Marlene Dietrich 49-7

defeated Norma Shearer 40-19

defeated Greta Garbo 49-16

defeated Myrna Loy 51-43

total votes accumulated so far 227

VS

AUDREY HEPBURN

50'S ERA CHAMPION

Tourney Record (13-4)

how she got here:

defeated Shirley Booth 40-4

defeated Eva Marie Saint 46-9

defeated Susan Hayward 51-23

defeated Grace Kelly 54-20

defeated Doris Day 65-60

total votes accumulated so far: 256

******************

BETTE DAVIS

40'S ERA CHAMPION

Tourney Record (16-3)
How she got here:

defeated Katharine Hepburn 50-25

defeated Rosalind Russell 40-36

defeated Judy Garland 53-16

defeated Rita Hayworth 50-7

defeated Olivia de Havilland 35-34

Total votes accumulated so far: 228

VS

ELIZABETH TAYLOR

60'S ERA CHAMPION

Tourney record (10-3)

How she got here:
defeated Vanessa Redgrave 41-17

defeated Julie Andrews 37-11

defeated Jean Simmons 46-26

defeated Lee Remick 45-17

defeated Natalie Wood 41-27

Total votes accumulated so far: 210

It's interesting to note that while Elizabeth Taylor has the smallest amount of accumulated votes out of all the finalists, she is the only one not to have a close match. Her smallest margin of victory was by a double digit win of 14 votes over Natalie Wood. All the other finalists had at least one close call. Bette Davis even had two, narrowly surviving Rosalind Russell in round 2 by four votes and then just the other day edging Olivia de Havilland by one vote. Audrey Hepburn has racked up the most votes in this year's tourney with a whopping 256 votes and racked up a tourney high 65 votes against Doris Day. Barbara Stanwyck has been quite consistent with averaging over 40 votes per match but topped 50 with a solid win over Myrna Loy in the previous round. So it looks like each actress brings an impressive resume to the table with some great wins in pivotal matches. Bette Davis is the only returning Final Four finalist and she looks to bring home a crown this time. But the other three ladies might have something to say about that. The matches begin tomorrow at 3 pm EST and will run through Wednesday evening! 

Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor...now that's a FINAL FOUR!

The Elite 8 matches just wrapped up and we now have our final four set. And what a final four it is. Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor. Wow! You couldn't have asked for a better foursome. But it wasn't easy, especially for Davis and Hepburn. Here's the complete wrap up of their stellar matches.

30'S ERA CHAMPION: Barbara Stanwyck

In the 30's era, it was Barbara Stanwyck (a pre-tourney number 1 seed) out-lasting Myrna Loy 51-43. Since the previous tourney champions have all come out of the 30's era and Babs made it all the way to the 30's era championship match last year  before losing to eventual champion Carole Lombard, she was a heavy favorite to win it all this year. But Myrna gave her some serious competition before Babs was finally able to pull away.

40'S ERA CHAMPION: Bette Davis

In the 40's era, Bette Davis stormed out of the gate and jumped out to big lead over Olivia de Havilland before Livvie made a charge. de Havilland was down by as many as 10 votes before she made a rally only to fall short by one vote, 35-34. Due to Kristen's class running late the poll remained up after the official cut off time and Livvie actually tied up the match. But we called the match over at 6 pm declaring Bette the winner. So Bette heads back to the final four for the second consecutive year. Great showing by Olivia though! Damn great showing!

50'S ERA CHAMPION: Audrey Hepburn

Doris Day was looking for a return trip to the final four as she and Audrey Hepburn had one of the best matches of the tourney. They had multiple lead changes before Audrey managed to pull away slightly on the last day to win 65-60. On Doris Day's birthday no less. Ouch! So Audrey earns her first trip to the final four!

60'S ERA CHAMPION: Elizabeth Taylor

And in the 60's era, it was fantastic news for Elizabeth Taylor. This was her first year competing in this era as she normally competes in the 50's era. But we decided to move her to the 60's due to her two Oscar wins during that decade. It paid off for Liz as she defeated Natalie Wood 41-27. It was a lopsided loss for Natalie as she normally dominates in her matches. In fact her 27 votes is the lowest amount out of these four matches. Seems her fans just disappeared when Natalie needed them the most.

So the final four is now set and as tradition, the 30's era champion will face the 50's era champion while the 40's era champion meets the 60's era champion. Which means Barbara Stanwyck vs Audrey Hepburn while Bette Davis will face Elizabeth Taylor. The matches will begin on Saturday right here on All Good Things and run through Wednesday evening. I will write a post tomorrow detailing these sure to be thrilling matches. Thanks to Desiree, Kristen and John for their help once again in helping me put together another great tourney!