Library of Congress Life · CC0

Bette Midler started singing at the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse in New York, where she built a devoted following before starring in Fiddler on the Roof and Salvation on Broadway in the late 1960s. Her film debut in The Rose (1979) won her a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination, and the ballad "Wind Beneath My Wings" later earned her a Grammy for Record of the Year. Across six decades she has amassed Grammys, Tonys, and Emmys as a singer, comedian, and actress, along with a Kennedy Center Honor.