Lauren Bacall Dead at 89

Star of stage and screen died of a massive stroke
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 12, 2014 7:28 PM CDT

Actress Lauren Bacall, who shot to fame in the 1940s and remained a cultural icon, died at home today in New York City of a massive stroke, a family member tells TMZ. She was 89. The co-star of classic films like To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), and Key Largo (1948), she was also known for her "low, provocative voice" and famous marriages to Humphrey Bogart and Jason Robards, Entertainment Weekly reports. On stage, she won Tony Awards for her roles in Applause (1970) and Woman of the Year (1981), then garnered an Academy Award nod in Barbra Streisand's The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996) and won an honorary Oscar in 2010, says the Hollywood Reporter.

Born Betty Joan Perske to a Jewish family in the Bronx in 1924, Bacall saw her film career launched by a Harper's Bazaar magazine cover at age 19. Told by director Howard Hawks that she would star alongside the likes of Bogart or Cary Grant, "I thought Cary Grant, great," she said later. "Humphrey Bogart‚ yuck." But her 11-year marriage to Bogart was one of Hollywood's most celebrated, ending with his death to esophageal cancer in 1957. Her stormy marriage to heavy-drinking Robards lasted from 1961 to 1969. In later years, she continued acting in films, used her voice for TV commercials, and even played herself in an episode of The Sopranos. "She never got locked in any time warp," said director Robert Altman. "Think about how many social and attitudinal changes that have occurred, and yet Bacall has always remained unique." (More Lauren Bacall stories.)

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