Lauren Bacall Has Died at Age 89
Moviegoers fell in love with Lauren Bacall about the same time Humphrey Bogart did: during the scene in her first movie, 1944’s To Have and Have Not, when she said, “You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and … blow.” For the next seven decades, the actress continued to intrigue the world with her beauty and mystery, until her death on Tuesday, August 12, at age 89 of stroke-related issues.
Born Betty Joan Perske in the Bronx to Jewish parents from immigrant families (her Polish-born first cousin was Shimon Peres, future prime minister and president of Israel), Bacall took her mother’s maiden name, Bacal, after her father abandoned the family. She studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York (a classmate was Kirk Douglas, a lifelong friend and a co-star in two movies made 49 years apart, Young Man with a Horn and Diamonds.) She made her stage debut at 18 in George S. Kaufman’s Franklin Street, which closed before making it to Broadway, but her real big break came when, during her part-time job as a model, she landed the cover of Harper’s Bazaar. Nancy “Slim” Hawks (who later became better known as Manhattan socialite Slim Keith) saw the magazine and convinced her husband, A-list movie director Howard Hawks, to bring Bacall to Hollywood for a screen test. Once groomed for stardom by the Hawkses—who gave her the stage name Lauren (though her friends would always call her Betty), added a second “L” to her last name, bought her a new wardrobe, and taught her how to lower her vocal register (creating the famous deep and smoky growl known ever after simply as “The Voice”)—Bacall was ready for the lead role in To Have and Have Not, where her character even took Nancy’s nickname, Slim.