In over 100 years of filmmaking, Hollywood has seen a lot of stars come and go. A lot of them burst onto the scene, make a few films, and fade away as quickly as they appear. That's how celebrity works a lot of the time. We worship someone for a few years and replace them when someone more exciting comes along.

While male stars were certainly interchangeable, female stars often had an even shorter shelf life than their male counterparts. In the 1950's, male box office stars in their fifties and 60s — like Gary Cooper, John Wayne, and Cary Grant -- could still get leading roles in films, while actresses in their 40s were already expected to play mothers, grandmothers, or old maids.

Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis, who made over 85 theatrical films in a career that spanned almost 60 years, was an exception to the rule. Starting in 1931 with The Bad Sister and ending in 1989 with Wicked Stepmother, Davis was never stuck in a particular role. She played romantic leads, royalty, society ladies, working women, and horror queens.

In between her first and last film, there were many memorable ones, like Of Human Bondage (1934) for which she received her first Oscar nomination for Best Actress, Dangerous (1935) for which she won her for Best Actress Oscar, The Petrified Forest (1936), Jezebel which won her another Oscar, Dark Victory (1939), The Little Foxes (1941) Now, Voyager (1942), All About Eve (1950) Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962), Dead Ringer (1964), Hush ...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), Death on the Nile (1978) and The Whales of August (1987). Those are just some of my favorite films from Bette's illustrious career.

In honor of what would have been Miss Davis' 100th birthday earlier this month, Warner Brothers has released the Bette Davis Collection - Volume Three. Unlike the previous two collections, this six film collection doesn't contain titles the casual Davis fan will immediately recognize. Some titles are considered classics by devoted Davis fans and film historians alike.

Adapted by Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man) from a play by Lillian Hellman (The Little Foxes, Another Part of The Forest) Watch on the Rhine (1943) is probably the most celebrated film in the set.

Directed by Herman Shumlin (who directed several Lillian Hellman plays on Broadway) and produced by Hal B. Wallis (Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Rooster Cogburn), Watch on the Rhine garnered a Best Actor Oscar for its star Paul Lukas (who had also played the role on Broadway) and received three other Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Writing (Dashiell Hammett), and Best Supporting Actress (Lucile Watson).

Though Davis' role is very much a supporting one, she often said she took it because she believed in the project.