Lauren Bacall, who passed away today at 89, was the real deal - a genuine glamor girl who could give as good as she got. Whether asking Bogart if he knew how to whistle, playing mean and low down with Kirk Douglas, or putting Gregory Peck through the hoops, Bacall was never less than glowing. From her screen debut 70 years ago(!) in the classic To Have and Have Not; to How to Marry a Millionaire with two other cinema queens, Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe; to Harper opposite Paul Newman; to the all-star whodunit, Murder on the Orient Express, Lauren Bacall was an always welcome sight and sound. With her deep, smoky voice and model-thin body, Bacall brought a sexy, seen-it-all, hard on the outside, soft on the inside quality to her best performances. Playing opposite the very best Hollywood had to offer (but Oscar nominated only once for The Mirror Has Two Faces as Barbra Streisand's domineering mother), Bacall made every film she was in special.
In the end, I suppose, Bacall will be remembered best as Humphrey Bogart's last wife, the one who finally made him happy and with whom he had his two children, Stephen and Leslie. They were nicknamed Bogie and Baby due to the extreme age difference (he was 45, she 20 when they met). She traveled to Africa when he made The African Queen and put her own career on hold to have their children in the early 1950s. She made him happy, which is saying a lot. And it wasn't all sunshine and roses (although, to be fair, what marriage is?). Bogie liked to drink and carouse and needle people. It took someone with plenty of fortitude to deal with it all, and Bacall grew up in a hurry. Yet Bogie gave her a life she couldn't imagine: meeting the biggies like Kate Hepburn and Spencer, Sinatra, John Huston, Peter Lorre, Richard Brooks, Howard Hawks, Ernest Hemingway. I suppose she could have met some of them without Bogie (in fact, Hawks discovered her), but Bogie's love and partnership gained her quick acceptance to that world. After he passed on, she always honored his spirit and work. When he died in 1957, Bacall was only 32 - a widow with two youngsters to raise. She was briefly engaged to Sinatra and married Jason Robards with whom she had a son - Sam - who would become an actor.
Never one to be idle for long, Bacall conquered Broadway in Goodbye Charlie, Cactus Flower, Applause, and Woman of the Year. She received Tony Awards for the latter two. While always politically progressive, Bacall was in John Wayne's last film, 1976's The Shootist, and the two became good friends on set. She was voted one of the 25 most significant female stars in film history by the AFI in 1999. I always thought of her as a tough broad, as they use to say, but according to her autobiography, nothing could have been further from the truth. In fact, she was so terrified during the making of To Have and Have Not that she had to keep her head down to stop it from shaking due to nerves, resulting in the famous Bacall "look."
I don't know how to end this because I really don't want to. If I put an amen to it, it will close a chapter I wish were still open. I don't want to say goodbye. I never met her of course, but I feel like I know her well from her movies, her writings, her television talk show appearances. The heavens are getting more crowded with each passing day. Maybe now she will be reunited with her first love. Godspeed, Ms. Bacall. We were lucky to have you as a part of our lives.
