Legendary film and stage actress Lauren Bacall died of stroke in her home on Tuesday at the age of 89. MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts first reported the star’s passing; the Bogart estate confirmed the news. Bacall made her Hollywood debut in 1944 starring opposite Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not. The role propelled Bacall to a career as a leading lady of Hollywood’s golden age and a 12-year marriage to Bogart until he died in 1956. Here’s more Bacall’s life and career from Variety:
Born Betty Joan Perske, “a nice Jewish girl from the Bronx,” she stunned audiences in the forever-after-famous “you know how to whistle” scene in the 1944 romance “To Have and Have Not,” in which she was as flirtatious as possible within the parameters of the Hays Code… It wasn’t until almost 20 years later that Bacall would emerge from the shadow of being Bogart’s wife/widow and hit her stride, this time onstage, where she scored successes in the comedy “Cactus Flower” and then won two Tonys in musicals “Applause” and, later, “Woman of the Year.”
Her gravel-voiced, sultry persona, however, immediately transformed her into a celebrity. The voice was said to have come from a year shouting into a canyon. Regardless, “the Look,” her slinky, pouty-lipped head-lowered stare, influenced a generation of actresses.
