Lauren Bacall

American actress (1924–2014)

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Lived 1924–2014, aged 90United States

United States ActorsActor

Wikipedia
89 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1924–2014
Aged 90
Known for
Misery
1990

Summary

Updated 2026-08-31

She walked into her first film at nineteen opposite Humphrey Bogart, married him, and spent the next seven decades refusing to disappear — noir siren to Broadway double-Tony winner to the voice in Howl's Moving Castle.

Biography

About

Betty Joan Perske became Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not (1944), playing the leading lady opposite Humphrey Bogart, whom she later married. She followed with a run of noir — The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, Key Largo — before pivoting to romantic comedy in How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) and Designing Woman (1957), and melodrama in Written on the Wind (1956). Broadway gave her two Tonys, for Applause (1970) and Woman of Year (1981). Decades later she found a second wind: a Golden Globe and SAG Award for The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996), and a late-career stretch that brought her Misery, Dog…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Lauren Bacall

Lauren Bacall

said8 Aug 2005

When you talk about a great actor, you're not talking about Tom Cruise. His whole behavior is so shocking.

— On Tom Cruise, Time magazine (August 8, 2005)

Lauren Bacall

said6 May 2005

The people I've known I must say are extraordinary. When I think about some of them, I can't believe that I knew them all.

— Interview with Larry King on CNN (May 6, 2005)

Lauren Bacall

said6 May 2005

I was Betty Bacall always. And Lauren was Howard Hawks... he felt that Lauren Bacall was better sounding than Betty Bacall. He had a vision of his own. He was a Svengali.

— Interview with Larry King on CNN (May 6, 2005)

Lauren Bacall

said2005

Imagination is the highest kite that can fly.

— Lauren Bacall By Myself and Then Some (2005); also widely misquoted as "Imagination is the highest kite that one can fly."

Lauren Bacall

said8 Sep 2004

Nicole and I worked together on Dogville and we were friends when we started this. That laid the groundwork for our fabulous relationship on screen and off.

— Interview at Venice Film Festival (September 8, 2004)

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

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