Career Highlights |
||
Actor Credits
FilmographyActor CreditsDay and Night [1997] The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story (herself) [1996] Prêt-à-Porter [1994] HealtH [1982] North West Frontier [1960] Woman`s World [1954] |
||
Lauren Bacall Biography |
||
|
Betty Joan Perske (born September 16, 1924), better known as Lauren Bacall, is a Golden Globe– and Tony Award–winning, as well as Academy Award–nominated, American film and stage actress. Known for her husky voice and sultry looks, she became a fashion model and role model for women in the late 1940s. Today, she is famous as an actress, partly due to the longevity of her career.
She is perhaps 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 comedienne, as seen in 1953`s How to Marry a Millionaire. Bacall also enjoyed success starring in the Broadway musicals Applause in 1970 and Woman of the Year in 1981. |
||
Trivia |
||
BiographyDistinctive Featuresdeep husky voiceMeasurementsBust: 34" - Waist: 6-" Hips: 34"Trivia and QuotesQuotes I`m a total Democrat. I`m anti-Republican. And it`s only fair that you know it . . . I`m liberal. The L word! [on Humphrey Bogart] Was he tough? In a word, no. Bogey was truly a gentle soul. [on John Huston] He was about something. A legend involves the past. I don`t like categories. This one is great and that one is great. The word "great" stands for something. 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. Actors today go into TV, which I don`t consider has a lot to do with acting. They only think of stardom. If you photograph well, that`s enough. I have a terrible time distinguishing one from another. Girls wear their hair the same, and are much too anorexic-looking. I am still working, I`ve never stopped and, while my health holds out, I won`t stop. I don`t think being the only child of a single parent helped. I was always a little unsteady in my self-belief. Then there was the Jewish thing. I love being Jewish, I have no problem with it at all. But it did become like a scar, with all these people saying you don`t look it I never believed marriage was a lasting institution . . . I thought that to be married for five years was to be married forever. I put my career in second place throughout both my marriages and it suffered. I don`t regret it. You make choices. If you want a good marriage, you must pay attention to that. If you want to be independent, go ahead. You can`t have it all. I remember my oldest son, Steve, saying to me once, "I don`t ever remember seeing you with an apron on". And I thought, "That`s right, honey, you did not". That was his concept of what a mother should be. I was this flat-chested, big-footed, lanky thing. I would hate now [2005] to be married. It does occur to me on occasion that, if I fall and hit my head, there will be no one to make the phone call. But who wants to think about that disaster? I`d prefer not to. We live in an age of mediocrity. Stars today are not the same stature as Bogie [Humphrey Bogart], James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart [James Stewart].Trivia According to her autobiography, "By Myself and Then Some," she was always very self-conscious about the size of her feet, which she describes as big even for a woman of her exceptional height. At the funeral for her husband, Humphrey Bogart, she put a whistle in his coffin. It was a reference to the famous line she says to him in their first film together "To Have And Have Not": "You know how to whistle, don`t you? You just put your lips together and blow.". Campaigned for Harry S. Truman in the 1948 presidential election. Daughter Leslie Bogart was born August 23, 1952. She was named after actor Leslie Howard, who helped Humphrey Bogart get his breakthrough role in the play, The Petrified Forest (1936). Quit smoking cigarettes in the mid-1980s. She made two movies with John Wayne, Blood Alley (1955) and The Shootist (1976). In the earlier film, during production, Bacall`s husband at the time, Humphrey Bogart, was dying of throat cancer. When she made the latter film with Wayne, he had lost a lung to cancer twelve years earlier, which mirrored the fate of his character in the story. She was 17 when she met and became a close friend of Gregory Peck. She was an usherette at the time. They remained close until his death. She was a close friend of Dirk Bogarde. Bacall had visited him at his home in London the day before he died in May 1999. She was dismissed by Howard Hawks because she had a high nasal voice, but she spent two weeks developing her voice and, when she came back to visit Hawks two weeks later, she had a deep husky voice. When Howard Hawks discovered her, he gave her the choice to work with either Cary Grant or Humphrey Bogart. Bacall was very tempted to work with Grant, but Hawks ended up casting her with Bogart in To Have and Have Not (1944), and one of Hollywood`s greatest romances was started. 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." As of 2005 she is the only surviving legend mentioned in a popular phrase from Madonna`s 1990 #1 hit song "Vogue". Other legends mentioned: Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Grace Kelly, Jean Harlow, Fred Astaire, Rita Hayworth and Bette Davis, who all died before the release of the song. Marlene Dietrich, Joe DiMaggio, Marlon Brando, Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn and Lana Turner all died in following years. Has won two Tony Awards as Best Actress (Musical): in 1970, for her role as Margo Channing in "Applause", a musical based on the movie, All About Eve (1950); and in 1981, for "Woman of the Year," also based on a movie of the same name, Woman of the Year (1942). Her Tony for "Applause" was presented by Walter Matthau. Her marriage to Humphrey Bogart occured at the Pleasant Valley area of Richland County, Ohio home of Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Louis Bromfield, Malabar Farm (now within the township of Lucas, Ohio). The home is now an Ohio State Park. Is mentioned along with late husband Humphrey Bogart in the 1980s song "Key Largo" ("We had it all, just like Bogie and Bacall"). Katharine Hepburn, her long-time friend, is the godmother of her son, Sam Robards. One of the initial "Rat Pack" with Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra, Irving Paul Lazar (aka "Swifty" Lazar) and their close friends. Starred, with her husband Humphrey Bogart, on the syndicated radio program "Bold Venture" (1951-1952). Her character`s name was Sailor Duval. With late husband Humphrey Bogart, has a kind of vocal disorder named after her. "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 "social pressure on professional women to compete with men in the business arena". Won a Tony for her role as Margo Channing in the Broadway production of "Applause", a musical based on the movie, All About Eve (1950). It was presented by Walter Matthau. An only child. Bacall was staying in the same New York apartment building (The Dakota) as Beatle John Lennon when he was shot and later died on 8th December 1980. When interviewed on the subject in a recent UK TV program hosted by former model Twiggy, Bacall said she had heard the gunshot but assumed that it was a car tire bursting or a vehicle backfiring. Chosen by "People" magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World. [1997] Her screen personna was totally based and modeled after Howard Hawks`s wife, Slim. She even uses her name in To Have and Have Not (1944). She and former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres (as of 2007, the President of Israel) are cousins. Both have the same original last name -- Perske. Shortly after Humphrey Bogart`s death, she announced her engagement to Frank Sinatra to the press. Sinatra promptly backed out Still undiscovered, Bacall volunteered as a hostess at the New York chapter of the Stage Door Canteen, working Monday nights when theaters were closed. Those close to her call her by her real first name, "Betty". Used her mother`s maiden name of Bacal, but added an extra "L" when she entered the cinema. Was crowned "Miss Greenwich Village" in 1942. | ||
Contributors |
||
|
This page was last updated by:
|
||
Related Profiles |
||
Comments
Submit a Comment