“You realize yourself when you start reflecting - because I don’t live in the past, although your past is so much a part of who you are - that you can’t ignore it. But I don’t look at scrapbooks. I could show you some, but I’d have to climb ladders, and I don’t climb.” - Lauren Bacall

Known for her distinctive, husky voice and sultry presence on the silver screen, Lauren Bacall will always be considered as one of the most recognizable stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. In 1944, Bacall made her film debut at 19 as the leading lady opposite film-noir legacy and future husband Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not. She continued to star alongside Bogart in the film noirs The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, and Key Largo. Bacall then tried her hand at romantic comedies in 1953’s How to Marry a Millionaire with Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable as well as in Designing Women alongside Gregory Peck. She went on to win a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and a SAG by 1996. Her 68-year career covered everything from English dubs of animated films to Broadway musicals for which she earned two Tony awards. 

Beyond her remarkable acting career, Bacall was a force to be reckoned with in the world of beauty and fashion. She quickly established herself as a fiery femme fatale by stepping into each role with an air of confidence, effortless sensuousness, and femininity. An undeniable natural beauty, Bacall was also credited with popularizing bold eyebrows and blood-red lips on the screen. In her early films, the actress developed a signature: “The Gaze.” During the film’s climax (usually a tense moment between Bacall’s character and her love interest) she would tilt her chin down and peer upwards through her luscious lashes and offer a witty remark or two. “If you want me just whistle. You know how to whistle, don’t you Steve?” Bacall says to Humphrey Bogart’s detective character in 1944’s To Have and Have Not, “Just put your lips together and blow.”

The Hollywood starlet was also very politically active. She and her first husband, Humphrey Bogart, were among 80 individuals in Hollywood to send a telegram protesting the House Un-American Activities Committee’s investigations of Americans who were under suspicion of communist beliefs. In 1947, the two traveled to Washington D.C. as part of the Committee for the First Amendment with a number of other well-known celebrities of the time including Danny Kaye, Groucho Marx, Olivia De Havilland, and Gene Kelly. Bacall also campaigned with Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 presidential election and later, Robert F. Kennedy in his 1964 run for the U.S. Senate.

Lauren Bacall was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute and, in 2009, also received an Academy Honorary Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize her legacy. We’ve fallen in love with everything about her: from her immediately recognizable speaking style to her iconic gaze. Lauren Bacall, you will always be an inspiration!

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