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Lauren Bacall (/ˌlɔrən bəˈkɔːl/, born Betty Joan Perske; September 16, 1924)[2] is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her distinctive husky voice and sultry looks.

She first emerged as a leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film To Have and Have Not (1944) and continued on in the film noir genre, with appearances in Bogart movies The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), and Key Largo (1948), as well as comedic roles in How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) with Marilyn Monroe and Designing Woman (1957) with Gregory Peck. Bacall has worked on Broadway in musicals, gaining Tony Awards for Applause in 1970 andWoman of the Year in 1981. Her performance in the movie The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996) earned her a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Awardnomination.

In 1999, Bacall was ranked #20 of the 25 actresses on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars list by the American Film Institute. In 2009, she was selected by theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to receive an Academy Honorary Award "in recognition of her central place in the Golden Age of motion pictures."

Contents[]

 [hide*1 Youth

Youth[edit][]

Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske in the Bronx, New York, the only child of Natalie Weinstein-Bacal, a secretary who later legally changed her surname to Bacall, and William Perske, who worked in sales;[3] both of her parents were Jewish. Her mother emigrated from Romania through Ellis Island, and her father was born in New Jersey, to Polish parents.[4][5]

She is a first cousin to Shimon Peresthe ninth President of Israel, whose term expired on July 24, 2014.[6][7] Her parents divorced when she was five, and she took the Romanian form of her mother's last name, Bacall.[8] Bacall no longer saw her father and formed an extremely close bond with her mother. Her mother came to live in California after Bacall became a movie star.[9][10]

Career[edit][]

[1][2]Howard Hawks and Bacall in 1943

Bacall took lessons at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. During this time, she became a theatre usher and worked as a fashion model. As Betty Bacall, she made her acting debut, at age 17, on Broadway in 1942, as a walk-on in Johnny 2 X 4. According to her autobiography, she and a girlfriend won an opportunity in 1940 to meet her idol Bette Davis at Davis's hotel. Years later, Davis visited Bacall backstage to congratulate her on her performance in Applause, a musical based on the film All About Eve which had starred Davis. According to Bacall's autobiography, Davis told her "You know you're the only one who can play this role."

Bacall became a part-time fashion modelHoward Hawks' wife Nancy spotted her "in a very small picture in Vogue"[11][12] and urged Hawks to have her take ascreen test for To Have and Have Not. Hawks had asked his secretary to find out more about her, but the secretary misunderstood and sent her a ticket toHollywood [12] for the audition. He signed her up to a seven-year personal contract, brought her to Hollywood, gave her $100 a week, and began to manage her career. Hawks changed her name to Lauren Bacall. Nancy Hawks took Bacall under her wing.[13] She dressed the newcomer stylishly, and guided her in matters of elegance, manners and taste. Bacall's voice was trained to be lower, more masculine and sexier, which resulted in one of the most distinctive voices in Hollywood.[14] In the movie, Bacall takes on Nancy's nickname “Slim” and Bogart takes on Howard's nickname “Steve.”[11]

Breakthrough[edit][]

[3][4]Bacall in her first movie, To Have and Have Not with Humphrey Bogart, 1944

During screen tests for To Have and Have Not (1944), Bacall was nervous. To minimize her quivering, she pressed her chin against her chest and to face the camera, tilted her eyes upward.[15] This effect became known as "The Look", Bacall's trademark.[16]

On the set, Humphrey Bogart, who was married to Mayo Methot, initiated a relationship with Bacall several weeks into shooting and they began seeing each other.

On a visit to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on February 10, 1945, Bacall's press agent, chief of publicity at Warner Bros. Charlie Enfield, asked the 20-year-old Bacall to sit on the piano which was being played by Vice-President of the United States Harry S. Truman. The photos caused controversy and made worldwide headlines.

[5][6]Bacall and Bogart in Dark Passage

After To Have and Have Not, Bacall was seen opposite Charles Boyer in the critically panned Confidential Agent(1945).[17] Bacall would state in her autobiography that her career never fully recovered from this film, and that studio boss Jack Warner did not care about quality. She then appeared with Bogart in the films noir The Big Sleep (1946) andDark Passage (1947) and John Huston's melodramatic suspense film Key Largo (1948) with Bogart and Edward G. Robinson. She was cast with Gary Cooper in the period drama Bright Leaf (1950).

1950s[edit][]

[7][8]With Kirk Douglas in Young Man with a Horn (1950)

Bacall turned down scripts she did not find interesting and thereby earned a reputation for being difficult. Yet, for her leads in a string of films, she received favorable reviews. In Young Man with a Horn (1950), co-starring Kirk DouglasDoris Day, and Hoagy Carmichael, Bacall played a two-faced femme fatale. This movie is often considered the first big-budget jazzfilm.[18]

During 1951-52, Bacall co-starred with Bogart in the syndicated action-adventure radio series Bold Venture.

In 1953, Bacall starred in the CinemaScope comedy How to Marry a Millionaire, a runaway hit that saw her teaming up with Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable.[19]Billed third under Monroe and Grable, Bacall got positive notices for her turn as the witty gold-digger, Schatze Page.[20] According to her autobiography, Bacall refused the coveted invitation from Grauman's Chinese Theatre to press her hand- and footprints in the theatre's cemented forecourt at the Los Angeles premiere of the film.

[9][10]Bacall, Bogart and Henry Fonda in the television version of The Petrified Forest

In 1955, a live television version of Bogart's own breakthrough, The Petrified Forest, was performed as a live installment ofProducers' Showcase, a weekly dramatic anthology, featuring Bogart (now top-billed) as Duke Mantee, Henry Fonda as Alan, and Bacall as Gabrielle, the part originally played in the 1936 movie by Bette Davis. Jack KlugmanRichard Jaeckel, and Jack Warden played supporting roles. Bogart had no problem performing his role live since he had originally played the part on Broadway with the subsequent movie's star Leslie Howard, who had secured a film career for Bogart by insisting that Warner Bros. cast him in the movie instead of Edward G. Robinson; Bogart and Bacall named their daughter "Leslie Howard Bogart" in gratitude. In the late 1990s, Bacall donated the only known kinescope of the 1955 performance to The Museum Of Television & Radio (now the Paley Center for Media), where it remains archived for viewing in New York City and Los Angeles.[citation needed]

Written on the Wind, directed by Douglas Sirk in 1956, is now considered a classic tear-jerker.[21] Appearing with Rock HudsonDorothy Malone and Robert Stack, Bacall played a career woman whose life is unexpectedly turned around by a family of oil magnates. Bacall states in her autobiography that she did not think much of the role. While struggling at home with Bogart's severe illness (cancer of the esophagus), Bacall starred with Gregory Peck in the screwball comedy Designing Woman and gained rave reviews.[22] It was directed by Vincente Minnelli and released in New York City on May 16, 1957, four months after Bogart succumbed to cancer on January 14.

Bacall was seen in two more films in the 1950s; the Jean Negulesco-directed melodrama The Gift of Love (1958), in which her co star was Robert Stack, and the adventure film North West Frontier (1959), which was an immediate box office hit.[23]

1960s and 1970s[edit][]

Bacall's movie career waned in the 1960s, and she was seen in only a handful of films. On Broadway she starred in Goodbye, Charlie (1959), Cactus Flower (1965), Applause (1970) and Woman of the Year(1981). She won Tony Awards for her performances in the latter two. The few movies Bacall shot during this period were all-star vehicles such as Sex and the Single Girl (1964) with Henry Fonda, Tony Curtis and Natalie WoodHarper (1966) with Paul NewmanShelley WintersJulie HarrisRobert Wagner and Janet Leigh, and Murder on the Orient Express (1974), with Ingrid BergmanAlbert Finney andSean Connery. In 1964, she appeared in two acclaimed episodes of Craig Stevens's CBS dramaMr. Broadway: first in "Take a Walk Through a Cemetery", with then husband Jason Robards, Jr. and Jill St. John, and then as Barbara Lake in "Something to Sing About", with Martin Balsam as Nate Bannerman.

For her work in the Chicago theatre, Bacall won the Sarah Siddons Award in 1972 and again in 1984. In 1976, she co-starred with John Wayne in his last picture, The Shootist. The two became friends, despite significant political differences between them. They had previously been cast together in 1955's Blood Alley.

Later career[edit][]

During the 1980s, Bacall appeared in the poorly received star vehicle The Fan (1981), as well as some star-studded features such as Robert Altman's Health (1980) and Michael Winner's Appointment with Death (1988). In 1990, she had a small role in Misery, which starred Kathy Bates and James Caan. In 1997, Bacall was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her role in The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996), her first nomination after a career span of more than fifty years. She had already won a Golden Globe and was widely expected to win the Oscar, but it went instead to Juliette Binochefor The English Patient.

Bacall received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1997. In 1999, she was voted one of the 25 most significant female movie stars in history by the American Film Institute. Her movie career saw something of arenaissance and she attracted respectful notices for her performances in high-profile projects such as Dogville (2003) and Birth (2004), both with Nicole Kidman. She was also one of the leading actors in Paul Schrader's 2007 movie The Walker.

Her commercial ventures in the 2000s included being a spokesperson for the Tuesday Morning discount chain (commercials showed her in a limousine waiting for the store to open at the beginning of one of their sales events) and producing a jewelry line with the Weinman Brothers company. She previously was a celebrity spokesperson for High Point (coffee) and Fancy Feast cat food. In March 2006, Bacall was seen at the 78th Annual Academy Awards introducing a film montage dedicated to film noir. She made a cameo appearance as herself on The Sopranos, in the April 2006 episode, "Luxury Lounge", during which she was punched and robbed by a masked hoodlum played by Michael Imperioli.

In September 2006, Bacall was awarded the first Katharine Hepburn Medal, which recognizes "women whose lives, work and contributions embody the intelligence, drive and independence of the four-time-Oscar-winning actress", by Bryn Mawr College's Katharine Houghton Hepburn Center.[24] She gave an address at the memorial service of Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. at the Reform Club in London in June 2007. She finished her role in The Forger in 2009.[25]

Bacall was selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to receive an Honorary Academy Award. The award was presented at the inaugural Governors Awards on November 14, 2009.[26]

In July 2013, Bacall expressed interest to star in the film Trouble Is My Business.[27] In November, it was announced that she had joined the English dub voice cast for Studio Canal's animated film Ernest & Celestine[28] She guest starred on the twelfth season of Family Guy episode "Mom's the Word".[29]

Personal life[edit][]

Relationships and family[edit][]

[11][12]Lauren Bacall (1989)

On May 21, 1945, Bacall married actor Humphrey Bogart. Their wedding and honeymoon took place at Malabar FarmLucas, Ohio. It was the country home ofPulitzer Prize-winning author Louis Bromfield, a close friend of Bogart. The wedding was held in the Big House. Bacall was 20 and Bogart was 45. They remained married until Bogart's death from esophageal cancer in 1957. During the filming of The African Queen (1951), Bacall and Bogart became friends of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. She began to mix in non-acting circles, becoming friends with the historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and the journalist Alistair Cooke. In 1952, she gave campaign speeches for Democratic Presidential contender Adlai Stevenson. Along with other Hollywood figures, Bacall was a staunch opponent ofMcCarthyism.[citation needed]

Shortly after Bogart's death in 1957, Bacall had a relationship with singer and actor Frank Sinatra. She told Robert Osborne, of Turner Classic Movies (TCM), in an interview, that she had ended the romance. However, in her autobiography, she wrote that Sinatra abruptly ended the relationship, having become angry that the story of his proposal to Bacall had reached the press. Bacall and her friend Swifty Lazar had run into the gossip columnist Louella Parsons, to whom Lazar had spilled the beans. Sinatra then cut Bacall off and went to Las Vegas.

Bacall was married to actor Jason Robards, Jr. from 1961 to 1969. According to Bacall's autobiography, she divorced Robards mainly because of his alcoholism.[30] In her autobiography Now, she recalls having a relationship with Len Cariou, her co-star in Applause.

Bacall had a son and daughter with Bogart and a son with Robards. Her children with Bogart are her son Stephen Humphrey Bogart (born January 6, 1949), a news producer, documentary film maker and author; and her daughter Leslie Bogart (born August 23, 1952), a yoga instructor. Sam Robards (born December 16, 1961), her son with Robards, is an actor.

Bacall is the only Academy Award winner to have been married to two other winners (Bogart, Robards). She has written two autobiographies, Lauren Bacall By Myself (1978) and Now (1994). In 2005, the first volume was updated with an extra chapter: "By Myself and Then Some".

Political views[edit][]

[13][14]Bacall sits atop the piano while Vice President Harry S Truman plays the piano at the National Press ClubCanteen. (February 10, 1945)

Bacall is a staunch liberal Democrat. She has proclaimed her political views on numerous occasions. In October 1947, Bacall and Bogart traveled to Washington, D.C., along with other Hollywood stars, in a group that called itself the Committee for the First Amendment (CFA). She subsequently appeared alongside Humphrey Bogart in a photograph printed at the end of an article he wrote, titled "I'm No Communist", in the May 1948 edition of Photoplay magazine,[31] written to counteract negative publicity resulting from his appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Bogart and Bacall specifically distanced themselves from theHollywood Ten and were quoted as saying: "We're about as much in favor of Communism as J. Edgar Hoover."[citation needed]

She campaigned for Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 Presidential election and for Robert Kennedy in his 1964 run for Senate. In a 2005 interview with Larry King, Bacall described herself as "anti-Republican... A liberal. The L-word." She went on to say that "being a liberal is the best thing on earth you can be. You are welcoming to everyone when you're a liberal. You do not have a small mind."[32]

Dramatization[edit][]

In 1980, Kathryn Harrold played Bacall in the TV movie Bogie, which was directed by Vincent Sherman and based on the novel by Joe Hyams. Kevin O'Connor played Bogart. The movie focused primarily upon the disintegration of Bogart's third marriage to Mayo Methot, played by Ann Wedgeworth, when Bogart met Bacall and began an affair with her.

Bacall is a character in the Charles Mee one-act play Hotel Cassiopeia.

Awards and nominations[edit][]

Nominations

In 1991, Bacall was honored with star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1724 Vine Street. In 1997, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, CaliforniaWalk of Stars was dedicated to her.[37] In 1998, Bacall was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.[38]

In popular culture[edit][]

In music[edit][]

In cartoons[edit][]

Works[edit][]

Filmography[edit][]

Features[edit][]

Year Title Role Notes
1944 To Have and Have Not Marie 'Slim' Browning Debut as not only an actress but also a singer; though Andy Williams, as a teenager, had recorded the songs she sang in the film, his recordings were never used.
1945 Confidential Agent Rose Cullen With Charles Boyer and Peter Lorre
1946 The Big Sleep Vivian Sternwood Rutledge With Humphrey Bogart
1946 Two Guys from Milwaukee Herself uncredited cameo
1947 Dark Passage Irene Jansen With Humphrey Bogart
1948 Key Largo Nora Temple With Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and Lionel Barrymore
1950 Young Man with a Horn Amy North With Kirk DouglasDoris Day and Hoagy Carmichael
1950 Bright Leaf Sonia Kovac With Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal
1953 How to Marry a Millionaire Schatze Page With Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable
1954 Woman's World Elizabeth Burns With Clifton WebbVan Heflin and Fred MacMurray
1955 The Cobweb Meg Faversen Rinehart With Richard WidmarkCharles Boyer and Gloria Grahame
1955 Blood Alley Cathy Grainger With John Wayne
1956 Patterns Lobby lady near elevators uncredited
1956 Written on the Wind Lucy Moore Hadley With Rock Hudson and Dorothy Malone
1957 Designing Woman Marilla Brown Hagen Golden Laurel Award for Top Female Comedy Performance (third place)
1958 The Gift of Love Julie Beck
1959 North West Frontier Catherine Wyatt
1964 Shock Treatment Dr. Edwina Beighley With Stuart Whitman
1964 Sex and the Single Girl Sylvia Broderick With Tony CurtisNatalie Wood and Henry Fonda
1966 Harper Elaine Sampson With Paul Newman
1973 Applause Margo Channing Reprised the role in All About Eve that Bette Davis had originated in the original film.
1974 Murder on the Orient Express Mrs. Harriet Belinda Hubbard
1976 The Shootist Bond Rogers Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1978 Perfect Gentleman Mrs. Lizzie Martin
1980 Health Esther Brill With James Garner
1981 The Fan Sally Ross With James Garner
1988 Appointment with Death Lady Westholme
1988 Mr. North Mrs. Cranston
1989 John Huston: The Man, the Movies, the Maverick documentary
1989 The Tree of Hands Marsha Archdale
1989 Dinner at Eight Carlotta Vance
1990 Misery Marcia Sindell
1991 A Star for Two
1991 All I Want for Christmas Lillian Brooks
1993 The Portrait Fanny Church
1993 The Parallax Garden
1993 A Foreign Field Lisa
1994 Prêt-à-Porter: Ready to Wear Slim Chrysler National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
1995 From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
1996 The Mirror Has Two Faces Hannah Morgan Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture

San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture

1996 My Fellow Americans Margaret Kramer With Jack Lemmon and James Garner
1997 Day and Night Sonia
1999 Get Bruce documentary
1999 Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke Doris Duke (elderly)
1999 Madeline: Lost in Paris Madame Lacroque voice
1999 The Venice Project Countess Camilla Volta
1999 Presence of Mind Mado Remei
1999 Diamonds Sin-Dee
1999 A Conversation with Gregory Peck documentary
2003 The Limit (aka. Gone Dark) May Markham
2003 Dogville Ma Ginger
2004 Howl's Moving Castle Witch of the Waste voice
2004 Birth Eleanor
2005 Manderlay Mam
2006 These Foolish Things Dame Lydia
2007 The Walker Natalie Van Miter
2008 Eve Grandma
2008 Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King The Grand Witch voice
2010 Wide Blue Yonder[47] May
2010 Firedog Posche voice
2012 The Forger Annemarie Sterling
2013 Trouble Is My Business Evelyn Montemar (rumored)
2014 Ernest & Celestine The Grey One's voice

Short subjects[edit][]

  • 1955 Motion Picture Theatre Celebration (1955)
  • Amália Traída (Amália Betrayed) (2004)

Stage appearances[edit][]

  • Johnny 2 x 4 (1942)
  • Franklin Street (1942)
  • Goodbye Charlie (1959)
  • Cactus Flower (1965)
  • Applause (1970)
  • Wonderful Town (1977)
  • V.I.P. Night on Broadway (1979) (benefit concert)
  • Woman of the Year (1981)
  • Sweet Bird of Youth (1985)
  • The Players Club Centennial Salute (1989) (benefit concert)
  • The Visit (1995)
  • Angela Lansbury: A Celebration (1996) (benefit concert)
  • Waiting in the Wings (1999)

Television work[edit][]

Radio[edit][]

  • Bold Venture (1951–52); with Humphrey Bogart. Exact number of episodes recorded is unknown, but upwards of 50.

Books[edit][]

  • By Myself (1978)
  • Now (1994)
  • By Myself and Then Some (2005)
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