
Hollywood Yesterday was created for this very reason – to keep the stars alive and shining brightly… the way they’re meant to.
Lauren Bacall should always be remembered for more than just her extraordinary beauty. She was as talented as any actress or actor of her time or any other time. She was also exceptionally smart and colorful. She paved the way for actresses to be as strong as they were beautiful – to more or less identify themselves, rather than allowing a studio or “boss” to carve out an identity for them.
10 Facts About Lauren Bacall
- Lauren Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske on September 16, 1924, in New York City. She originally wanted to be a dancer, but decided on acting.
- She lived in the same New York apartment building as John Lennon and actually heard the shot that killed him in December, 1980. She told Twiggy in a UK television interview that she assumed the gunshot was a car tire bursting or a vehicle backfiring.
- Bacall is from her mother’s maiden name, Bacal. She simply added an extra l.
- Those close to her called her by her given name, Betty.
- She was an only child.
- Katharine Hepburn was a long-time friend of Lauren Bacall’s and is even the godmother of her son, Sam Robards.
- She was married to Humphrey Bogart from 1945 to his death in 1957.
- Bacall made two movies with John Wayne, Blood Alley (1955) and The Shootist (1976). During production of Blood Alley, her husband (Humphrey Bogart) was dying of throat cancer.
- At Humphrey Bogart’s funeral, she put a whistle in his coffin. It was a sweet reference to her famous line to him in their first film together (To Have and Have Not) in 1944: “You know how to whistle, don’t you? You just put your lips together and blow.”.
- Along with Veronica Lake, Julie London, and Rita Hayworth, Bacall was one of the four inspirations that helped shape the Jessica Rabbit character.
May she forever rest in peace with her beloved Humphrey Bogart.