Bette Davis Knew Her Hollywood ‘Era’ Was Over Amid Michael Keaton’s ‘Batman’: ‘Here to Pass the Torch’

Hollywood legend Bette Davis realized her era had passed her by just days before her death — and the realization came after she spotted a massive advertisement for Batman.

Davis, then 81, was in Spain for the 37th San Sebastián International Film Festival, held Sept. 15-23, 1989, where she received its honorary Donostia Award.

While there, she spotted a banner for Batman, starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson, “that was so huge it took up most of the front of the building,” according to her longtime assistant Kathryn Sermak‘s book Miss D and Me: Life With the Invincible Bette Davis, per a Tuesday, October 6 report in Entertainment Weekly.

At the time, Batman had already been a major success in the U.S. that summer and was preparing for its September 29 release in Spain, with the movie also screening at the film festival.

“She chuckled to herself as she regarded this cartoon figure with his face obscured and his body swallowed by a floor-length black cape,” Sermak wrote.

“Would you look at that, Kath?” Davis said. “My era of Hollywood is over. I’ve come here to pass the torch.”

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Sermak added, “That’s not her world. She doesn’t know that world of Batman.”

At the time, the All About Eve star was in ill health after her breast cancer, which she had previously battled in 1983, returned. However, Davis was determined to attend what would become her final public appearance.

EW also viewed a rarely seen 2014 documentary chronicling Davis’ appearance at San Sebastián, which showed the actress still displaying her famously sharp wit during her final press junket.

Asked whether she was naughtier in cinema or in life, Davis quipped, “Fifty-fifty.”

The Jezebel star was also asked about her love life, which included four marriages and three divorces. “Well, I have to admit, that was not my most successful area,” she joked, per the outlet.

Most notably, in her memoir, Sermak recalled that Davis seemed to address her earlier reaction to the Batman poster during the press conference. “I have no era. I was acting back then, and I am still acting,” Davis said. “My era will end the day they put me in my grave.”

Following the festival, Davis was transferred to an American hospital in France, where she died on October 6, 1989, at age 81.