Hollywood screen icon Bacall dies at age 89
Lauren Bacall was a movie star from almost her first moment on the silver screen.
Bacall achieved immediate fame in 1944 with one scene in her first film, To Have and Have Not. Leaving Humphrey Bogart's hotel room, Bacall - a lanky figure with flowing blond hair and a stunning face - murmured:
"You don't have to say anything, and you don't have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow."
Bacall died on Tuesday at the age of 89 in New York.
The Academy-Award-nominated actress received two Tonys, an honorary Oscar and scores of film and TV roles. But, to her occasional frustration, she was remembered for her years with Bogart and treated more as a star by the film industry than as an actress. Bacall would outlive her husband by more than 50 years, but never outlive their iconic status.
Not until 1996 did she receive an Academy Award nomination - as supporting actress for her role as Barbra Streisand's mother in The Mirror Has Two Faces. Although a sentimental favorite, she was beaten by Juliette Binoche for her performance in The English Patient.
She finally got a statuette in November 2009 at the movie academy's Governors Awards gala.
Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske in the Bronx borough of New York City on Sept 16, 1924, and was raised by her Romanian immigrant mother after her parents split when she was a child. Her mother took part of her family name, Bacal; Betty added the extra "L" when she became an actress.
As a young woman, Diana Vreeland, the famed editor of Harper's Bazaar, thought she was ideal for fashion modeling, and Bacall appeared regularly in the magazine. The wife of film director Howard Hawks saw her on a magazine cover and recommended her as film material, and Bacall went to Hollywood under a contract.
Work led to a romance with Bogart. The 23-year age difference - he called her "Baby" - failed to deter them, but they faced a serious obstacle: Bogart was still married to the mercurial actress Mayo Methot, with whom he engaged in much-publicized alcoholic battles. She was persuaded to divorce him, and Bogart and Bacall married on May 21, 1945.
In March 1956 Bogart was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus. He died in the early morning of Jan 14, 1957, at the age of 57.
Bacall left Hollywood in October 1958. She made a film in England, and did a critically panned play that was significant because she would meet her second husband during her time on Broadway, Jason Robards Jr.
(China Daily 08/14/2014 page10)
