Bette Davis writing the outline for her new short story.
Bette Davis at home in Beverly Hills, 1939. Unpublished. Alfred Eisenstaedt. TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images.
By the time LIFE magazine put Bette Davis on its cover in January 1939, the 30-year old actress had already appeared, as a star and in supporting roles, in more than two dozen films and had won two Oscars (for 1935′s Dangerous and 1938′s Jezebel).