Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall (born
Betty Joan Perske on
September 16,
1924) is an
American film and
stage actress. Known for her husky voice and sultry looks, she has become a fashion icon and role model for modern-day women. Today, she is considered a legendary actress, partly due to the longevity of her career.
She is best known for being a
film noir leading lady in films such as
The Big Sleep (1946) and
Dark Passage (1947), as well as a sassy comedienne, as seen in 1953's
How to Marry a Millionaire.
Early Stages
Born in
New York City as
Betty Joan Perske, she was the only child of
Jewish immigrants, William Perske (a relative of former Israeli Prime Minister
Shimon Peres, born in
Poland with ancestors from
France, in an area which is now part of
Belarus) and Natalie Weinstein-Bacal (born in
Romania with ancestors from
Germany).[
1] Her father was a salesman and her mother was a secretary. They were divorced when she was six years old.
As a result, she no longer saw her father, and she formed a strong bond with her mother whom she took with her to
California once she had become a movie star.
Bacall studied
dancing for 13 years. She then took acting lessons at the
American Academy of Dramatic Arts. During this time, she became a
theater usher and worked as a
fashion model.
As Betty Bacall, she made her acting debut on
Broadway in 1942, in
Johnny Two by Four. At that time her idol was
Bette Davis. According to her autobiography, she got the chance to meet Davis at her hotel. Years later, Davis would visit Bacall backstage to congratulate her on her performance of Margo Channing in
Applause, a musical based on Davis's turn in
All About Eve.
Bacall began to model part-time. This was when she experienced
anti-Semitism for the first time. Later, when she went to Hollywood,
director Howard Hawks would make anti-Semitic remarks. This made her nervous of revealing her identity and she did not let Hawks know that she was Jewish.
Bacall had envisaged a career on stage for herself, but by chance, she entered the world of movies. Howard Hawks' wife Slim spotted Bacall on the cover of
Harper's Bazaar, showed the photo to her husband, and he then made a phone call to
New York to bring her to
Hollywood for a screen test. Hawks would use the nickname
"Slim" for Bacall's character in her first movie.
The Breakthrough
Not liking the name Betty, Hawks gave her the first name Lauren. He gave her several screen tests and then cast her in his next project,
To Have and Have Not (1944). She was nervous in front of the camera, so Hawks suggested that she tilt her head and pull her hair over one side of her face. She pressed her chin against her chest, then tilted her eyes upward to face the camera. This effect became known as The Look, Bacall's trademark.
She met
Humphrey Bogart on the set of
To Have and Have Not. Bogart, who was married to
Mayo Methot, initiated a relationship with Bacall some weeks into shooting and they began to see each other off set.
To Have and Have Not catapulted Bacall to instant stardom. Her turn in the film has later been acknowledged as one of the most powerful on-screen debuts in film history.
The 20-year old Bacall made worldwide headlines on a visit to the
National Press Club in
Washington D.C. on (
10 February 1945). Her press agent (Charlie Enfield, chief of publicity at
Warner Bros.) asked her to sit on the
piano which was being played by the
Vice-President of the United States Harry S. Truman. The photos of the incident (see [
2]) caused a scandal.
After
To Have and Have Not, she appeared with Bogart in the
film noir The Big Sleep (1946), the thriller
Dark Passage (1947), and
John Huston's melodramatic suspense film
Key Largo (1948).
The 1950s to the 1980s
Bacall was known to turn down scripts she didn't find interesting. This earned her a reputation among studio executives for being difficult to deal with. Yet, she continued to get favorable reviews for her leads in a string of significant films.
1950's
Young Man with a Horn, co-starring
Doris Day and
Kirk Douglas, is often considered the first big-budget
jazz film. Bacall played a two-faced
femme fatale, with more than a hint of
lesbianism to her character.
1953's colorful comedy
How to Marry a Millionaire was a runaway hit that saw Bacall teaming up with
Marilyn Monroe and
Betty Grable. Bacall garnered positive notes for her turn as the witty gold-digger, Schatze Page.
Written on the Wind, directed by
Douglas Sirk in 1956, is now considered a classic tear-jerker. Teaming up with
Rock Hudson,
Dorothy Malone and
Robert Stack, Bacall delivered a perfomance as a determined and tough soap opera woman. Bacall states in her autobiography that she didn't think much of the role.
In the 1960s, Bacall´s movie career waned, and she was only seen in a handful of films. Her saving grace, however, was on
Broadway. Her Broadway roles included
Goodbye, Charlie (1959),
Cactus Flower (1965),
Applause (1970) and
Woman of the Year (1981). She won
Tony Awards for her performances in
Applause and
Woman of the Year.
For her work in the Chicago theatre, she won the
Sarah Siddons Award in 1972 and again in 1984. She also frequently appeared on London's
West End.
In 1976, Bacall co-starred with
John Wayne in his last picture,
The Shootist. During the filming, the two created a bond, even though Wayne was politically far to the right and Bacall was a liberal.
Later Stages
Bacall was nominated for a
Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her role in
The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996), for which she had already won a
Golden Globe.
She received the
Kennedy Center Honors in 1997. Since then, her movie career has seen a new
renaissance and she has attracted respectful notices for her performances in high-profile projects such as
Dogville (2003) with
Nicole Kidman,
The Limit (2003) with
Claire Forlani, and
Birth (2004), again with Kidman.
In 1999, she was voted one of the 25 most significant female movie stars in history by the
American Film Institute.
In 2004, she appeared in advertisements for the
Tuesday Morning discount store franchise.
In March 2006, she was seen at the 78th Annual
Academy Awards introducing a film montage dedicated to the
film noir genre. She also did a cameo appearance on
The Sopranos in April 2006.
Bacall has written two autobiographies,
Lauren Bacall By Myself (1978) and
Now (1994). In 2005, she updated and renamed them by the title
By Myself and Then Some.
On
May 21,
1945, Bacall married
Humphrey Bogart. Their wedding and honeymoon took place at Malabar Farm,
Mansfield, Ohio (the country home of
Pulitzer Prize-winning author
Louis Bromfield, a close friend of Bogart). Bacall was 20 and Bogart was 45. They remained married until Bogart's death from cancer in
1957. Bogart usually called Bacall "Baby", even when referring to her in conversations with other people.
After the filming of
The African Queen in 1951, Bacall and Bogart became great friends of Bogart's co-star
Katharine Hepburn and her partner
Spencer Tracy. Bacall also 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.
Shortly after Bogart's death in 1957, Bacall had a relationship with singer and actor
Frank Sinatra. In her autobiography, Bacall stated that the relationship began after Bogart's death; knowing of Sinatra's reputation as a womanizer, Bacall knew that he was unlikely to be a faithful husband.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.
She was later married to the actor
Jason Robards from 1961 to 1969. The divorce was mainly due to Robards' alcoholism, according to Bacall's autobiography. She is the mother of two sons: news producer,
documentary film maker and author
Stephen Bogart and actor
Sam Robards, and a daughter,
Leslie Bogart, a
nurse and
yoga therapist.
See also: the
Bogart and Bacall section in the Humphrey Bogart article.
*Bacall is a cousin of
Shimon Peres, the former
Prime Minister of
Israel.
*Contrary to some reports, Bacall does not have a vocal disorder. However, a type of one has been named after her and Humphrey Bogart.
Bogart-Bacall Syndrome (or BBS) is a form of muscle tension
dysphonia most common in professional voice users (actors, singers, TV/radio presenters, etc) who habitually use a very low speaking pitch. BBS is more common among women than men and has been blamed on the social pressure that professional women feel to compete with men in the business and professional arenas. The syndrome got its name from the low-pitch speaking tones that both actors used in their performances.
*In 1951, Bacall co-starred with Bogart in the radio drama
Bold Venture, playing the caustically affectionate "Sailor Duval".
*According to her autobiography, she refused to press her hand- and footprints in the cemented forecourt of
Grauman's Chinese Theatre at the
Los Angeles premiere of the 1953 film
How to Marry a Millionaire.
*Actress
Kathleen Turner has often been compared to Bacall. When Turner and Bacall met, Turner reportedly introduced herself to Bacall by saying "Hi, I'm the young you."
*Bacall appears in an episode of
The Sopranos. After she is introduced to
Christopher Moltisanti and
Little Carmine Lupertazzi by
Sir Ben Kingsley, Christopher punches her and steals a gift basket she has received in exchange for presenting at an awards show.
*Bacall served as the voice-over for the
PBS idents from 1996-2002.
Bacall is known for speaking out her mind and her sarcastic remarks on her colleagues and peers. She has also delivered some of the most iconic lines in movie history.
=Famous Movie Quotes
=From
To Have and Have Not (1945):
"You know you don't have to act with me, Steve. You don't have to say anything and you don't have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow."From
The Big Sleep (1946): Humphrey Bogart: "What's wrong with you?"Lauren Bacall: "Nothing you can't fix."
From
How to Marry a Millionaire (1953): "Look at that old fellow, what's his name, in The African Queen."
(in reference to her then-husband, Bogart)From
Written on the Wind (1956): Bacall: "Just what do you do for the Hadley Oil Company?"
Robert Stack: "We're troubleshooters. Wherever they want trouble, they send for us."
=On Harry S. Truman's Piano-Playing
=From an interview with Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne:
*
"...badly, playing the Missouri Waltz, or something."=On Howard Hawks
=Of Mr. Hawks, Bacall told
Larry King on
CNN:
*
"He was a Svengali. He wanted to mold me. He wanted to control me. And he did until Mr. Bogart got involved."=On Frank Sinatra
=She told Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne:
*
"He was a womanizer, he wanted to be in the sack with everybody." She said of Sinatra to Larry King:
*
"Well, his attention span was not long, shall we say."=On Being a Democrat
=From the
Larry King interview:
* BACALL:
"I'm a total Democrat. I'm anti-Republican. And it's only fair that you know it. Even though..."* KING:
"Wait a minute. Are you a liberal?" * BACALL:
"I'm a liberal. The L word!" * KING:
"Egads!"=On Nicole Kidman
=From the
Associated Press on
Nicole Kidman:
*
"She's not a legend," Bacall said.
"She can't be a legend at whatever age she is...you have to be older."From the Larry King interview:
* KING:
"I'm told the media tried to stir up a fuss when you took issue with a reporter describing Nicole Kidman as a legend. You worked together in "Dogville" and the film "Birth," and the legend label was used by a British morning show hostess. And you said she's not a legend, she's a beginner."* BACALL:
"God, if the press ever quoted anyone correctly, it would be brilliant."* KING:
"Straighten it out."* BACALL:
"I love Nicole. Nicole and I happen to be very great friends. Besides that, the press never get it straight. They do not print what you say."* KING:
"You can't get it wrong here. What did you mean?"* BACALL:
"Well, number one, this is what happened. We were in Venice for "Birth" at the Venice Film Festival. And you know when you have a day when you go from one room to another with the roundtables with about five journalists sitting around at each table throwing questions at you all the time. So in one of these rooms, I'm sitting there. And one of the journalists said "you're an icon, and Nicole Kidman's an icon, and what do you think about that?". And I said: "Why do you have to burden her with the category? She's a young woman. She's got her whole career ahead of her. Why does she have to be pegged as an icon or as anything? Let her enjoy her time. Don't, you know, suddenly put her in a slot". And that was all I said. The word "legend" never came up. It was "icon" to begin with. And, of course, Nicole was there. And she says, you know the press. Because my only interest was that she was not hurt or that she did not misunderstand."=On Tom Cruise
=She slammed
Tom Cruise in the
8 August 2005 issue of
Time Magazine:
*
"When you talk about a great actor, you're not talking about Tom Cruise. His whole behavior is so shocking. It's inappropriate and vulgar and absolutely unacceptable to use your private life to sell anything commercially, but, I think it's kind of a sickness."*The
1981 romantic
ballad,
Key Largo (written and sang by
Bertie Higgins) referenced the Bogart/Bacall movie of the same name, and their relationship.
* In the song "Rainbow High" from
Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical
Evita, the main character
Eva Peron orders her stylist to "Lauren Bacall me!"
* Bacall is mentioned among some other Hollywood icons in the lyrics for
Madonna's
1990 hit single "
Vogue".
*Bacall is mentioned in
The Clash song "Car Jamming" from
Combat Rock: "I thought I saw Lauren Bacall/I swear/Hey fellas/Lauren Bacall/In a car jam".
*In
1980 Kathryn Harrold played Bacall in the TV movie
Bogie that was directed by
Vincent Sherman and was based on the
novel by Joe Hymans.
Kevin O'Connor played Bogart, and 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.
To Have and Have Not (
1944)
Confidential Agent (
1945)
Two Guys from Milwaukee (
1946) (Cameo)
The Big Sleep (1946) (filmed in 1944, but actors were brought back for additional filming in 1945)
Dark Passage (
1947)
Key Largo (
1948)
Young Man with a Horn (
1950)
Bright Leaf (1950)
How to Marry a Millionaire (
1953)
Woman's World (
1954)
1955 Motion Picture Theatre Celebration (
1955) (short subject)
The Cobweb (1955)
Blood Alley (1955)
Written on the Wind (
1956)
Designing Woman (
1957)
The Gift of Love (
1958)
North West Frontier (
1959)
Shock Treatment (
1964)
Sex and the Single Girl (1964)
Harper (
1966)
Murder on the Orient Express (
1974)
The Shootist (
1976)
HealtH (
1980)
The Fan (
1981)
Appointment with Death (
1988)
Mr. North (1988)
John Huston: The Man, the Movies, the Maverick (
1989) (documentary)
Tree of Hands (
1989)
Misery (
1990)
A Star for Two (
1991)
All I Want for Christmas (1991)
A Foreign Field (
1993)
Ready to Wear (Prêt-à-Porter) (
1994)
The Mirror Has Two Faces (
1996)
My Fellow Americans (1996)
Day and Night (
1997)
Diamonds (
1999)
The Venice Project (1999)
Presence of Mind (1999)
A Conversation with Gregory Peck (1999) (documentary)
The Limit (
2003)
Dogville (2003)
Amália Traïda (
2004) (short subject) (voice only)
Howl's Moving Castle (2004) (voice in English dubbed version)
Birth (2004)
Firedog (
2005) (voice)
Manderlay (2005)
These Foolish Things (
2006)
Johnny Two by Four (
1942)
Goodbye Charlie (
1959)
Cactus Flower (
1965)
Applause (
1970)
V.I.P. Night on Broadway (
1979) (benefit concert)
Woman of the Year (
1981)
Angela Lansbury: A Celebration (
1996) (benefit concert)
Waiting in the Wings (
1999)
Applause (
1973)
Perfect Gentlemen (
1978)
Dinner at Eight (
1989)
A Little Piece of Sunshine (
1990)
The Portrait (
1993)
The Parallax Garden (1993)
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (
1995)
Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke (
1999)
The Sopranos (
2006)
By Myself (
1978)
Now (
1994)
By Myself and Then Some (
2004)
*
1970 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role,
Applause*
1972 &
1984 Sarah Siddons Award*
1977 BAFTA Award Nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role,
The Shootist*
1980 National Book Award for Best Non-Fiction Book,
By Myself*
1981 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role,
Woman of the Year*
1993 Golden Globe,
Cecil B. DeMille Award
*
1997 Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role,
The Mirror Has Two Faces*
1997 BAFTA Award Nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role,
The Mirror Has Two Faces*
1997 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role,
The Mirror Has Two Faces*
1997 Academy Award Nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role,
The Mirror Has Two Faces*
1997 Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime achievement
*
2000 Stockholm Film Festival, Lifetime Achievement Award
She has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame (At 1724 Vine Street)
*
Bogart-Bacall Syndrome*
Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Lauren Bacall*
Lauren Bacall - A Timeline
*
*
Idol Chatter: Lauren Bacall*
Interview with Larry King on CNN*
Article about the "origin" of the "Rat Pack" taken mainly from her book
"Lauren Bacall, By Myself", (New York: Knopf, 1978)
