Killer Chicks

NOMINEE Bette Davis

UP FOR... Best Actress, ''What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?'' (1962)

KILLER ROLE Davis (left) picked up her 10th nomination when she teamed with Joan Crawford (right) to play batty, battling former-child-star sisters. Chewing up the scenery in garish makeup, Davis' Jane kills a nosy old housekeeper but never quite finishes off her sister (though not for lack of trying).

THE BACKSTORY Well before this film, Davis had established herself as Oscar's preeminent lethal lady in films such as ''The Letter'' and ''The Little Foxes'' (in which she played a calculating matriarch who declines to assist her dying husband). The actress considered Baby Jane ''truly the most difficult part I've ever done,'' though she was nominated largely because the film was seen as a career revival. The industry response to her ''comeback'' was so positive that by Oscar night, Davis was certain she would win.

AND THE OSCAR WENT TO... Anne Bancroft, who accepted the statuette for ''The Miracle Worker.''