Editing Bette Davis (section)

=== 1986-1989: Final works and awards ===
[[File:BetteDavisTheWhalesofAugust.jpg|thumb|right|Davis (aged 79) completed her penultimate role in ''[[The Whales of August]]'' (1987), which brought her acclaim during a period in which she was beset with failing health and personal trauma.]]
Davis appeared in the television film ''[[As Summers Die]]'' (1986), and in [[Lindsay Anderson]]'s film ''[[The Whales of August]]'' (1987), in which she played the blind sister of [[Lillian Gish]]. Though in poor health at the time, Davis memorized her own and everyone else's lines as she always had.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/22/movies/placating-the-stars-of-whales.html|title=Placating the Stars of 'Whales'|date=October 22, 1987|work=The New York Times}}</ref> The film earned good reviews, with one critic writing: "Bette crawls across the screen like a testy old hornet on a windowpane, snarling, staggering, twitching – a symphony of misfired synapses."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20097815,00.html|title=Grand Old Lillian Gish Makes a Big Splash in the Whales of August|access-date=October 25, 2015|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304095527/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20097815,00.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Davis became an honoree of the [[Kennedy Center Honors]] for her contribution to films in 1987.

Her last performance was the title role in [[Larry Cohen]]'s ''[[Wicked Stepmother]]'' (1989). By this time, her health was failing, and after disagreements with Cohen, she walked off the set. The script was rewritten to place more emphasis on [[Barbara Carrera]]'s character, and the reworked version was released after Davis's death.<ref name="filmcomment" />

After abandoning ''Wicked Stepmother'', and with no further film offers (though she was keen to play the [[centenarian]] in Craig Calman's ''The Turn of the Century'', and worked with him on adapting the stage play to a feature-length screenplay), Davis appeared on several talk shows, and was interviewed by [[Johnny Carson]], [[Joan Rivers]], [[Larry King]], and [[David Letterman]], discussing her career, but refusing to discuss her daughter. Her appearances were popular; Lindsay Anderson observed that the public enjoyed seeing her behaving "so bitchy": "I always disliked that because she was encouraged to behave badly. And I'd always hear her described by that awful word, feisty."<ref>Spada (1993), p. 472</ref>

During 1988 and 1989, Davis was honored for her career achievements, receiving the [[Legion of Honor]] from France, the [[Campione d'Italia]] from Italy, and the [[Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts|Film Society of Lincoln Center Lifetime Achievement Award]]. She appeared on British television in a special broadcast from the [[Southbank Centre|South Bank Centre]], discussing film and her career.