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 "With deep sorrow, yet with great gratitude for her amazing
life, we confirm the passing of Lauren Bacall," the estate of
the Bogart family said on a verified Twitter account.
Bacall was married to Bogart from 1945 until his death in 1957.
They had two children.
The public knew her as Lauren, the screen name hung on her by
director Howard Hawks, while friends used her given name, Betty.
Bogart simply called her "Baby" in a love story that ended
prematurely with his cancer death in 1957.
She was born Betty Joan Perske on Sept. 16, 1924, in New York
City, the only child of immigrant parents. After her parents'
divorce, she adopted a variation of her mother's maiden name,
Bacal.
Bacall had set out to be a Broadway star. She played small roles
on stage and modeled for Harper's Bazaar magazine, which
published a photograph of her that was spotted by Hawks' wife.
Bacall was only 19 when Hawks cast her in her first movie,
1944's "To Have and Have Not," as an American girl who shows up
at a seedy hotel in Martinique. She won a place in Hollywood
history with her sexy query to Bogart, "You know how to whistle,
don't you? You just put your lips together - and blow."
Bacall and Bogart were married the next year after he ended his
turbulent third marriage to actress Mayo Methot. Bacall and
Bogart went on to star together in "The Big Sleep" (1946), "Dark
Passage" (1947) and "Key Largo" (1948).
She appeared in more than 30 other movies, including "Young Man
With a Horn" (1950), "How to Marry a Millionaire" (1953) and
"Murder on the Orient Express" (1974).
Still, Bacall's movie career was rocky. In such films as
"Confidential Agent" (1945) and "Bright Leaf" (1950), she
essentially played the same role as in "To Have and Have Not."
A comic turn in "How to Marry a Millionaire" earned applause but
few of her other films were memorable and she became the
self-proclaimed "den mother" to her two children, Stephen, and
Leslie, and a regular crowd of Bogart's drinking buddies.
Much of Bacall's allure came from what was known as "The Look,"
a sexy but soft glance. She explained it by saying: "I used to
tremble from nerves so badly that the only way I could hold my
head steady was to lower my chin practically to my chest and
look up at Bogie. That was the beginning of 'The Look.'"
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After Bogart's death in 1957 at age 57, Bacall had a well-publicized
affair with Frank Sinatra and a stormy eight-year marriage to actor
Jason Robards that produced a son, Sam, who would become an actor.
Bacall worked occasionally in films in the 1960s and '70s, notably
in "Harper" (1966) opposite Paul Newman, the all-star Agatha
Christie hit "Murder on the Orient Express" (1974) and "The Shootist"
(1976), which was John Wayne's last film.
Her career revived in fits and starts through the 1980s and 1990s,
culminating in her first Oscar nomination for her supporting role as
Barbra Streisand's domineering mother in "The Mirror Has Two Faces."
Bacall won the Golden Globe and several other honors for the role
but the Oscar continued to elude her.
After her film career cooled, Bacall returned to the stage. She won
best actress Tony Awards for "Applause" in 1970 and "Woman of the
Year" in 1981. Over the years she had transformed her persona from a
willowy temptress with a come-hither look to a shrewd and worldly
woman.
Of her career and life, Bacall once said, "I traveled by roller
coaster, a roller coaster on which the highs were as high as anyone
could ever hope to go. And the lows! Oh, those lows were lower than
anyone should ever have to go - 10 degrees below hell."
She published two volumes of memoirs, "Lauren Bacall by Myself" in
1979 and "By Myself and Then Some" in 1996.
In 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded her
an honorary Oscar "in recognition of her central place in the Golden
Age of motion pictures."
(Reporting by Mary Milliken and Piya Sinha Roy; Writing by Bill
Trott; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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