Betty Joan Perske (September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014), professionally known as Lauren Bacall (/bəˈkɔːl/bə-KAWL), was an American actress. She was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute. She received an Academy Honorary Award in 2009 in recognition of her contribution to the Golden Age of motion pictures.[2] Bacall was one of the last surviving major stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.[3]
Lauren Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske on September 16, 1924, in the Bronx, New York City,[a] the only child of Natalie (née Weinstein-Bacal; 1901–1969), a secretary who later legally changed her surname to Bacal, and William Perske (1889–1982), who worked in sales. Both of her parents were Jewish. Her mother emigrated from Iași, Romania, through Ellis Island. Her father was born in New Jersey to parents who were born in Valozhyn, at that time a predominantly Jewish community in present-day Belarus.[9]
Bacall's parents divorced when she was five, after which she no longer saw her father. She later took the Romanian form of her mother's last name, Bacall.[10] She was close to her mother, who remarried Lee Goldberg and moved to California after Bacall became a star.[11] Through her father, Bacall was related to Shimon Peres (born Szymon Perski), the eighth prime minister and ninth president of Israel.[12][13][14] Peres did not know about the relationship until Bacall told him.[12]
Bacall's family moved soon after her birth to Brooklyn's Ocean Parkway.[9][15] Money from a wealthy family allowed Bacall to attend school at the Highland Manor Boarding School for Girls in Tarrytown, New York, a private boarding school founded by philanthropist Eugene Heitler Lehman,[16] and Julia Richman High School in Manhattan.[17]
She made her acting debut on Broadway in 1942 at age 17 as a walk-on in Johnny 2 X 4. By then, she lived with her mother at 75 Bank Street, and in 1942, she was crowned Miss Greenwich Village.[19] As a teenage fashion model, Bacall appeared on the cover of Harper's Bazaar and in magazines such as Vogue.[11] A 1948 article in Life magazine referred to her "cat-like grace, tawny blonde hair, and blue-green eyes."[20]
Though Diana Vreeland is often credited with discovering Bacall for Harper's Bazaar, it was in fact Nicolas de Gunzburg who introduced Bacall to Vreeland. He had first met Bacall at a New York club called Tony's, where de Gunzburg suggested that Bacall visit his Harper's Bazaar office the next day. He then turned her over to Vreeland, who arranged for Louise Dahl-Wolfe to shoot Bacall in Kodachrome for the March 1943 cover.[21]
The Harper's Bazaar cover caught the attention of "Slim" Keith, the wife of Hollywood producer and director Howard Hawks.[22] Keith urged her husband to invite Bacall to take a screen test for his forthcoming film To Have and Have Not. Hawks asked his secretary to find more information about Bacall, but the secretary misunderstood and sent Bacall a ticket to travel to Hollywood for the audition.[23]
After meeting Bacall in Hollywood, Hawks immediately signed her to a seven-year contract with a weekly salary of $100 and personally began to manage her career. He changed her first name to Lauren, and she chose Bacall, a variant of her mother's maiden name, as her screen surname. Slim Hawks also took Bacall under her wing,[24] dressing Bacall stylishly and guiding her in matters of elegance, manners and taste. At Hawks's suggestion, Bacall was trained by a voice coach to speak with a lower and deeper voice instead of her normally high-pitched, nasal voice.[25] As part of her training, Bacall was required to shout verses of Shakespeare for hours every day.[24][26] Her voice was characterized as a "smoky, sexual growl" by most critics[27] and a "throaty purr".[25] Bacall stood 5 feet 8+1⁄2 inches (1.74 meters),[27] unusually tall for actresses of the era, and a half inch taller than Humphrey Bogart.
During her screen tests for To Have and Have Not (1944), Bacall was so nervous that, to minimize her quivering, she pressed her chin against her chest, faced the camera and tilted her eyes upward.[28] This effect, which came to be known as "The Look", became another Bacall trademark, along with her sultry voice.[29] Bacall's character in the film used Slim Hawks's nickname, "Slim", and Bogart used Howard Hawks's nickname "Steve". The on-set chemistry between the two was immediate, according to Bacall.[9] She and Bogart, who was unhappily married to Mayo Methot, began a romantic relationship several weeks into shooting.[22] Bacall's role in the script was originally much smaller, but during production, the part was revised and extended several times.[30]
After its release, To Have and Have Not catapulted Bacall into instant stardom, and her performance became the cornerstone of her star image that extended into popular culture at large, even influencing fashion[31] as well as filmmakers and other actors.[30]Warner Bros. launched an extensive marketing campaign to promote the picture and to establish Bacall as a movie star. As part of the public-relations push, Bacall visited the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on February 10, 1945, and sat on a piano as Vice President Harry S. Truman played it.[32][33]
20-year-old Bacall lounges on top of the piano while Vice President Harry S. Truman plays for servicemen at the National Press Club Canteen in Washington, D.C. (February 10, 1945)
After To Have and Have Not, Bacall appeared with Charles Boyer in Confidential Agent (1945), which was poorly received by critics. By her own estimation, she had been terribly miscast and the film could have caused considerable damage to her career, but her next performance as the mysterious, acid-tongued Vivian Rutledge in Hawks's film noirThe Big Sleep (1946), co-starring Bogart, provided a quick career resurgence.[34]The Big Sleep laid the foundation for Bacall's status as an icon of film noir, with which she would be strongly associated for the rest of her career.[35][36][37] She was often cast in roles that were variations of the independent and sultry femme fatale character of Vivian. As described by film scholar Joe McElhaney, "Vivian displays an almost total command of movement and gesture. She never crawls."[38]
Bacall was cast with Bogart in two more films. In the film noir Dark Passage (1947), she played an enigmatic San Francisco artist. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote: "Miss Bacall... generates quite a lot of pressure as a sharp-eyed, knows-what-she-wants girl."[39] Bacall appeared in John Huston's melodramatic suspense film Key Largo (1948) with Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and Lionel Barrymore. In the film, according to film critic Jessica Kiang, "Bacall brings an edge of ambivalence and independence to the role that makes her character much more interesting than was written."[40]
Bacall rejected scripts that she did not find interesting, and thereby earned a reputation of being difficult. However, she further solidified her star status in the 1950s by appearing as the leading lady in a string of films that won favorable reviews.[citation needed] Bacall was cast with Gary Cooper in Bright Leaf (1950) and as a two-faced femme fatale in Young Man with a Horn (1950), a jazz musical co-starring Kirk Douglas, Doris Day and Hoagy Carmichael.[41] From 1951 to 1952, Bacall costarred with Bogart in the syndicated action-adventure radio series Bold Venture.[42]
Bacall starred in the first CinemaScope comedy, How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), a runaway hit among critics and at the box office that was directed by Jean Negulesco.[43] She received positive notices for her turn as witty gold-digger Schatze Page.[44] "First honors in spreading mirth go to Miss Bacall," wrote Alton Cook in the New York World-Telegram & Sun, "The most intelligent and predatory of the trio, she takes complete control of every scene with her acid delivery of viciously witty lines."[45] After the success of How to Marry a Millionaire, Bacall declined the opportunity to press her handprints and footprints in the Grauman's Chinese Theatre's famed cement forecourt. She felt that "anyone with a picture opening could be represented there, standards had been so lowered" and did not feel that she had yet achieved the status of a major star, and was thereby unworthy of the honor:[46] "I want to feel I've earned my place with the best my business has produced."[9]: 236
Bacall was under contract to 20th Century-Fox.[45] Following How to Marry a Millionaire, she appeared in yet another CinemaScope comedy directed by Negulesco, Woman's World (1954), which failed to match its predecessor's success at the box office.[47][48] A television version of Bogart's early film success The Petrified Forest was performed as a 1955 live installment of the weekly dramatic anthology Producers' Showcase, featuring Bogart in his original role of Duke Mantee and starring Bacall and Henry Fonda. In the late 1990s, Bacall donated the only known kinescope of the 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.[49] Bacall starred in two feature films, The Cobweb and Blood Alley, both released in 1955. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, The Cobweb takes place at a mental institution where Bacall's character works as a therapist. It was her second collaboration with Charles Boyer, and the film also stars Richard Widmark and Lillian Gish. A New York Times critic wrote: "In the only two really sympathetic roles, Mr. Widmark is excellent and Miss Bacall shrewdly underplays."[50]
Many film scholars consider Written on the Wind (1956), directed by Douglas Sirk, a landmark melodrama.[51] Appearing with Rock Hudson, Dorothy Malone and Robert Stack, Bacall plays a career woman whose life is unexpectedly turned around by a family of oil magnates. Bacall wrote in her autobiography that she did not think much of her role, but reviews were favorable. Variety wrote: "Bacall registers strongly as a sensible girl swept into the madness of the oil family."[52] While supporting Bogart as he suffered from terminal esophageal cancer, Bacall starred with Gregory Peck in Designing Woman (1957) to solid reviews.[53] The comedy was her second feature directed by Minnelli and was released in New York on May 16, 1957, four months after Bogart's death on January 14.[9] Bacall appeared in two more films in the 1950s: the Negulesco-directed melodrama The Gift of Love (1958) with Robert Stack and the British adventure film North West Frontier (1959), which was a box-office hit.[54]
1960–1989: Return to Broadway and musicals
Bacall was seen in only a handful of films in the 1960s. She starred on Broadway in Goodbye, Charlie in 1959, and went on to a successful stage career. She played Stephanie in the farceCactus Flower (1965).[55] She won her first Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Margo Channing in Applause (1970).[56] The musical was written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. She performed the role both on Broadway and the West End. Walter Kerr of The New York Times praised her performance declaring, "Take your breath away? Indeed. What's more, she never gives it back."[57]Applause was a musical version of the film All About Eve (1950), starring Bette Davis, Bacall's idol as a child. A young and unknown Bacall had met Davis years earlier in New York.[9] After a performance of Applause, Davis visited Bacall backstage and told her, "You're the only one who could have played the part."[58] Bacall would later win the Sarah Siddons Award in 1972 and 1984, an award inspired by the fictional trophy in All About Eve.
Bacall c. 1979 with the manuscript for her book, Lauren Bacall, By Myself
She returned to Broadway in the musical Woman of the Year (1981) with book by Peter Stone and music and lyrics by Kander and Ebb. The musical is based on the 1944 film of the same name starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Frank Rich of The New York Times gave the production a mixed review but praised Bacall writing, "The people who concocted this musical know what their show is really about. Miss Bacall is on hand virtually the whole time, and she's vibrant whether no-nonsense or tipsy, domineering or moony, dry or wet. If Woman of the Year is tired around the edges, it is always smart enough to keep its live wire center stage."[59] She went on to win her second Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical.
Best man Louis Bromfield (center) at the wedding of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall at Malabar Farm (May 21, 1945)
On May 21, 1945, Bacall married Humphrey Bogart. She was 20 and Bogart was 25 years older.[81] Their wedding and honeymoon took place at Malabar Farm, Lucas, Ohio, the country home of Pulitzer Prize–winning author Louis Bromfield, a close friend of Bogart.[82][83] At the time of the 1950 United States census, the couple was living at 2707 Benedict Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills with their son and their nursemaid. Bacall is listed as Betty Bogart.[1] She was married to Bogart until he died in 1957.[84]
Bacall had a relationship with Frank Sinatra after Bogart's death. During an interview with Turner Classic Movies's Robert Osborne, Bacall stated that she had ended the romance, but, in her autobiography Lauren Bacall by Myself, she wrote that Sinatra ended the relationship abruptly after becoming upset that his marriage proposal had been leaked to the press, believing Bacall to be responsible. However, Bacall states in Lauren Bacall by Myself that when she was out with her friend Irving "Swifty" Lazar, they encountered the gossip columnist Louella Parsons, to whom Lazar revealed the news. Bacall wrote in By Myself that Sinatra only found out the truth years later.[citation needed]
Bacall with Humphrey Bogart and their two children, Stephen Humphrey Bogart and Leslie, 1956
Bacall then met and began a relationship with Jason Robards. Their wedding was originally scheduled to take place in Vienna, Austria, on June 16, 1961.[87] The wedding plans were shelved after Austrian authorities refused to grant the couple a marriage license, due to Robards being unable to produce divorce documents from his previous marriage, and Bacall being unable to produce Humphrey Bogart's death certificate.[88] They were also refused a marriage in Las Vegas, Nevada, due to similar documentation issues.[89] On July 4, 1961, the couple drove to Ensenada, Mexico, where they wed.[89][90] The couple divorced in 1969. According to Bacall's autobiography, she divorced Robards mainly because of his alcoholism.[91][92]
Bacall had a romantic relationship with her Woman of the Year costar Harry Guardino in the early 1980s.[93]
Bacall had two children with Bogart and one with Robards. Son Stephen Humphrey Bogart (born January 6, 1949) is a news producer, documentary film maker, and author who is named after Bogart's character in To Have and Have Not.[82] Their daughter Leslie Howard Bogart (born August 23, 1952) is named after the actor Leslie Howard. A nurse and yoga instructor, she is married to Erich Schiffmann.[82] In his 1995 memoir, Stephen Bogart wrote, "My mother was a lapsed Jew, and my father was a lapsed Episcopalian", and that he and his sister were raised Episcopalian "because my mother felt that would make life easier for Leslie and me during those post-World War II years".[82]Sam Robards (born December 16, 1961), Bacall's son with Robards, is an actor.
Bacall wrote two autobiographies, Lauren Bacall by Myself (1978) and Now (1994).[94][95] In 2006, the first volume of Lauren Bacall by Myself was reprinted as By Myself and Then Some with an extra chapter.[96]
In a 1996 interview, Bacall, reflecting on her life, told the interviewer Jeremy Isaacs that she had been lucky:
I had one great marriage, I have three great children and four grandchildren. I am still alive. I still can function. I still can work ... You just learn to cope with whatever you have to cope with. I spent my childhood in New York, riding on subways and buses. And you know what you learn if you're a New Yorker? The world doesn't owe you a damn thing.[82][97]
Political views
Bacall with Hillary and Bill Clinton in a event in the White House, January 1993
She 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,[98] written to counteract negative publicity resulting from his appearance before the House Committee. Bogart and Bacall distanced themselves from the Hollywood Ten, and said: "We're about as much in favor of Communism as J. Edgar Hoover."[99][100]
Bacall campaigned for Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 presidential election, accompanying him on motorcades along with Bogart, and flying east to help in the final laps of Stevenson's campaign in New York and Chicago.[82] She campaigned for Robert F. Kennedy in his 1964 run for the U.S. Senate and was part of a Hollywood committee that endorsed his presidential campaign.[101][102]
In a 2005 interview with Larry King, Bacall described herself as "anti-Republican... A liberal. The L-word". She added 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."[103]
Bacall was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.[106] At the time of her death, Bacall had an estimated $26.6 million estate. The bulk of her estate was divided among her three children: Leslie Bogart, Stephen Humphrey Bogart, and Sam Robards. Additionally, Bacall left $250,000 each to her youngest grandsons, the sons of Sam Robards, for college.[107]
The 1978 musical Evita, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice, tells the story of Argentina's infamous first lady Eva Peron. In the song "Rainbow High", Eva sings the lyrics "I'm their savior. That's what they call me. So, Lauren Bacall me. Anything goes."
Bacall is the namesake of the town of Laura, on the island of Majuro in the Marshall Islands. It is one of several island towns code-named after the U.S. World War II troops' favorite actresses.[111][better source needed]
^In a 1995 interview with Jeremy Isaacs, Bacall claimed to have never lived in the Bronx,[5] though numerous sources state that she was born in the borough.[6][7][8]
^"Marshall Islands". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved December 31, 2015. The inhabited islands along the southern side of Majuro Atoll have been joined over time by landfill and a bridge to form a 30-mile road from Rita, on the extreme eastern end, to Laura, at the western end. Both villages were so code-named by U.S. forces in World War II after favorite pinups Rita Hayworth and Lauren Bacall.
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