Actors - Lauren Bacall

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	Actors - Lauren Bacall

Lauren Bacall (born 16 September 1924) is an American film and stage actress and a former model. Known for her husky voice and sultry looks, early in her career Bacall became a fashion icon and role model for modern-day women. She was married to and appeared in movies with Humphrey Bogart. Today, she is considered a legendary actress, partly due to the longevity of her career.

Career

Early Stages

Born in New York City as Betty Joan Perske, she was the only child of Jewish immigrants, William Perske (born in Poland, in an area which is now part of Belarus) and Natalie Weinstein-Bacal (born in Romania). Her father was a salesman and her mother was a secretary. Her parents were divorced when she was six years old. As a result, she no longer saw her father, and she formed a strong bond with her mother whom she took with her to California once she had become a movie star.

Bacall first studied dancing for 13 years. She then studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. During this time she became a theater usher.

As Betty Bacall, she made her acting debut on Broadway in 1942, in Johnny Two by Four (her stage name is derived from her mother's Romanian maiden name (Bacal)). At that time her idol was the actress Bette Davis. Later on, she recalled that she had wanted to be "the Bette Davis of the theater". Bacall, then a young Betty, got the chance to meet Davis at her hotel. Years later, Davis would visit Bacall backstage to congratulate her on her triumphant performance of Margo Channing in Applause, a musical based on Davis's successful turn in All About Eve
.

Bacall began to model part-time. This was when she experienced anti-semitism for the first time. Later, when she first went to Hollywood, she noticed that director Howard Hawks would make anti-semitic remarks. This made her nervous of revealing her identity and she did not let Hawks know at the time that she was Jewish, a decision she now regrets.

A career on the stage was what Bacall had envisaged for herself, but she entered the world of movies almost by chance. After Howard Hawks' wife (nicknamed "Slim") spotted Bacall on the cover of Harper's Bazaar, she showed the photo to her husband, and he then made a phone call to New York to bring her to Hollywood for a screen test. Hawks would use the nickname "Slim" for Bacall's character in her first movie To Have and Have Not.

The Breakthrough

Hawks gave her several screen tests, teaching her to speak in a lower tone. Not liking the name Betty, he gave her the first name Lauren. She was nervous in front of the camera, so Hawks suggested that she tilt her head a little and pull her hair over one side of her face. This became known as The Look, Bacall's sensual trademark.

She met Humphrey Bogart on the set of her first film, To Have and Have Not
(1944). Bogart (who was married to Mayo Methot) initiated a relationship with Bacall some weeks into shooting and they began to see each other off set.

To Have and Have Not catapulted Bacall to instant stardom. Her turn in the film has later been acknowledged as one of the most powerful on-screen debuts in film history. She would later recall that because of the overnight success she got, the triumphs of her career from then on didn't feel like triumphs.

Bacall contacted Hal Wallis to ask him to go and see Kirk Douglas who then had a small part in a Broadway play. Wallis then brought Douglas to Hollywood. As a result, Douglas made his film debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
(1946, opposite Barbara Stanwyck).

The 20-year old Bacall made worldwide headlines, and created a sensation, on a visit to the National Press Club in Washington D.C. on (10 February 1945). Her press agent (Charlie Enfield, chief of publicity at Warner Bros.) asked her to sit on the piano which was being played by the Vice-President of the United States Harry S. Truman as a publicity stunt. The photos of the incident caused somewhat of a scandal, and even Truman’s wife Bess was upset about it. Bacall has said that she still gets sent picture postcards of this event to this day.

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Actors - Lauren Bacall

Career

Early Stages

The Breakthrough

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