Hollywood icon Lauren Bacall defined sex appeal with a single look and became an instant movie legend. As a starstruck New York teenager, Bacall was discovered by Harper's Bazaar editor Diana Vreeland and featured on the cover at nineteen. When she was brought out to Hollywood to star opposite Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not, the twenty-year-old was so nervous while filming that she physically shook. She found that the only way to hold her head still was to tuck her chin down almost to her chest and then look up at her co-star. "The Look" became Bacall's trademark, and Bogie and Bacall became Hollywood's quintessential couple, both on and off the screen. The pair filmed two more classics, Key Largo and The Big Sleep, and also raised a family. After Bogart died of cancer in 1957, Bacall was linked with Frank Sinatra before marrying actor Jason Robards. In the 1960s and 1970s, Bacall returned to her Broadway roots, and won two Tony awards. The personification of Hollywood glamour and New York guts, Lauren Bacall remains a peerless pop culture heroine.

Lauren Bacall

Further Reading:

Bacall, Lauren. Lauren Bacall: By Myself. New York, Ballantine Books, 1978.

——. Now. New York, Del Rey, 1996.

Bogart, Stephen Humphrey. Bogart: In Search of My Father. New York, Plume, 1996.

Quirk, Lawrence J. Lauren Bacall: Her Films and Career. Secaucus, New Jersey, Citadel Press, 1990.