Hollywood’s been hit by a bad spell lately. First, entertainment industry was robbed of comedic legend Robin Williams and before the world can recover, a silver screen great passed on the very next day.
Lauren Bacall, movie heroine and one of the first screen sex symbols, passed away at 89 of a stroke on August 12. Today, everyone and their baby is a celebrity - yes we are talking about you baby Zed– and Jusin Bieber and Rihanna are on front-page rotation for their madcap antics. During Hollywood’s golden age, it was the likes of Bacall, Marilyn Monroe and Katharine Hepburn that brought the glamour to celebrity, both on and off screen.
If you are going Lauren who, let me bring you up to speed with one of the icons of the golden age who rocked the silver screen and kept the paparazzi hot on her heels in private – Lauren Bacall.
Hollywood was in love with Lauren Bacall. © CinemaPhoto/CORBIS
She hit the big time with her first movie role
The 19-year-old model was plucked from the cover of a magazine to star opposite Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not. She won over both critics and audiences with her plucky character and also Bogart’s heart.
She was married to Humphrey Bogart
The To Have and Have Not’s leading man was so taken by the ingénue that he left his third wife for Bacall. Bogart, who was 44, would soon marry the very much younger Bacall to become one of Hollywood’s power couples, like today’s Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
She was once engaged to Frank Sinatra
Bacall stayed married to Bogart, even starring in a few more movies alongside her husband, until his death in 1957. A certain Frank Sinatra started wooing the new widow and the pair was engaged until the singer called it off a year later.
She’s known for “The Look”
Sultry current-day celebs like Scarlett Johansson can’t beat the original. Bacall perfected the art of holding her chin down and looking up to her co-stars and the camera. Together with what would be called “The Look” and her husky voice, Bacall’s sex appeal was unbeatable even when she revealed nothing more than a bit of décolletage.
She’s not afraid to speak her mind
But unlike modern A-listers who usually have to be censored for what they say, Bacall played independent women in movies and was very much her own woman off screen and had many memorable quotes. She famously said, “A woman isn't complete without a man. But where do you find a man - a real man - these days?” Don’t we agree!