Lauren Bacall

There was an age difference of 25 years between Lauren and her husband Humphrey Bogart, because of which she was nicknamed ‘baby’. They were happily married until his death in 1957.

Lauren socialized a lot and mixed with personalities from non-film background, and was a close friend to historian Arthur Scleshinger Jr., and Alistair Cookie who was a journalist.

She dabbled in politics and rendered campaign speeches for Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic Presidential candidate in 1957.

Lauren Bacall was born on September 16, 1924 in The Bronx, New York to Weinstein-Bacal and William Perske. Her father was addicted to alcohol, and deserted the family when Bacall was just six.

Soon after her birth, her family moved to Brooklyn's Ocean Parkway. She received education at a private boarding school ‘The Highland Manor Boarding School for Girls’ in Tarrytown, New York, and at ‘Julia Richman High School’ in Manhattan.

Her parents divorced when she was just 5. Thereafter, she no longer saw her father and formed a very close bond with her mother, who remarried to lee Goldberg.

Her obsession with theater led her to work as an usher at St. James Theater. She also worked as a fashion model.

While working as a model she featured in the cover of ‘Harper’s Bazaar’ in 1942 and got noticed by ace director Howard Hawks’ wife Nancy Hawkes who encouraged her to take a screen test for ‘To Have and Have Not’ and the rest is history.

She was nineteen when she co-starred with Humphrey Bogart in ‘To Have and Have Not’ in 1944. She first displayed her famous gesture of keeping her chin pressed against her chest while on the sets of this movie, which remained a trademark throughout her career.

Although Nancy Hawks spotted her, she was discovered by Diana Vreeland who met her through Nicholas de Gunzburg and persuaded her to model for Harper’s Bazaar.

Soon after the thumping success of ‘To Have and Have Not’ she starred opposite Charles Boyer in ‘Confidential Agent’ in 1945. While visiting the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on February 10, 1945, her agent Charlie Enfield asked her to sit on the piano, while the then U.S. Vice President Harry S Truman played.

Bacall was an instant hit because of her graceful demeanor, cat-like movements, twinkling blue-green eyes and light-brown blonde hair.

In 1946 her stunning performance in Howard Hawks’ ‘The Big Sleep’ alongside Humphrey Bogart established her firmly in Hollywood. By this time Lauren was an iconic star who was much sought after for specific femme fatale roles that she enacted with consummate ease.

She wrote three books, an autobiography entitled ‘Lauren Bacall by Myself’ in 1978, followed by ‘Now’ in 1994, and ‘By Myself Then Some’ in 2005 when she was an octogenarian.

Lauren won ‘The Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year’ award in 1967, which is an annual bestowment by Hasty Pudding Theatricals at Harvard.

She won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress for her role as Margo Channing in the Musical Applause.

Bacall won the Sarah Siddons Actress of the Year Award in 1972, and had to wait 8 years for her next award, which was the National Book Award for her autobiography that she wrote in 1978.

Lauren won yet another Tony Award for Best Actress for her role in the Musical ‘Woman of the Year’ in 1981. It was followed by a second Sarah Siddons Actress of the Year award in 1984