Laughingly self-described as the “poor man’s Bette Davis,” London-born Ida Lupino (1918-1995) descended from a long line of entertainers, sailed just below super-stardom despite memorably tough roles at Warner Bros. – but then reinvented herself as a pioneer indie director, writer and producer, the first woman of the sound era to do so and the only woman director in Hollywood for decades, tackling once-taboo subject matter, under her company banner The Filmmakers.