Lauren Bacall
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 and received an Academy Honorary Award in 2009 in recognition of her contribution to the Golden Age of motion pictures.[2] She was known for her alluring, sultry presence and her distinctive, husky voice. Bacall was one of the last surviving major stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.
"Bacall" redirects here. For the surname, see Bacall (surname).
Lauren Bacall
September 16, 1924
August 12, 2014 (aged 89)
Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California, U.S.
Betty Bogart[1]
- Actress
- model
- spokeswoman
1942–2014
3, including Stephen Humphrey Bogart and Sam Robards
Shimon Peres (cousin)
Bacall began a career as a model[3] for the Walter Thornton Model Agency[4] before making her film debut at the age of 20 as the leading lady opposite her future husband Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not (1944). She continued in the film noir genre with appearances alongside her new husband in The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), and Key Largo (1948), and she starred in the romantic comedies How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) and Designing Woman (1957). She portrayed the female lead in Written on the Wind (1956) which is considered one of Douglas Sirk's seminal films. She later acted in Harper (1966), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), and The Shootist (1976).
She found a career resurgence for her role in the romantic comedy The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996) for which she earned the Golden Globe Award and the Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for the Academy Award and the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress. During the final stage of her career, she gained newfound success with a younger audience for major supporting roles in the films Misery (1990), Dogville (2003), Birth (2004), and the English dubs of the animated films Howl's Moving Castle (2004) and Ernest & Celestine (2012).
For her work on theatre, she made her Broadway debut in Johnny 2x4 (1942). She went on to win two Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Musical for her performances in Applause (1970) and Woman of the Year (1981). She also acted in the play Goodbye Charlie (1959), the farce Cactus Flower (1965), and Wonderful Town (1977). She made her West End debut in The Applause (1970) followed by Sweet Bird of Youth (1985).
Early life and education[edit]
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, 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]
Film
Television
Theatre
Animation
Marshall Islands namesake