Happy 65th Birthday to the Divine Bette Midler!

She’s been doing it all for more than 40 years and Bette Midler is still the wind beneath our wings.

She got her start on Broadway in the late 60s in Fiddler on the Roof then developed a huge gay fan base when she began performing at Continental Bath, a gay bath house in NYC, in 1970. She began working with Barry Manilow as her accompanist and he ended up producing her landmark 1972 album The Divine Miss M. It was a smash and won Bette the Grammy for best new artist.

More Grammys were to follow as did Emmys, Golden Globes and two Oscar nominations.

Thank God this huge talent also made it big in movies starting with 1979′s The Rose. Other films have included Beaches, For the Boys, The First Wives Club, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Big Business, Hocus Pocus, Stella, Ruthless People and Outrageous Fortune.

And she’s still going strong. Happy birthday Bette!