{"id":85683,"date":"2014-08-13T14:34:27","date_gmt":"2014-08-13T21:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/?p=85683"},"modified":"2014-08-13T14:34:27","modified_gmt":"2014-08-13T21:34:27","slug":"remembering-a-hollywood-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/remembering-a-hollywood-legend-85683.html","title":{"rendered":"Remembering a Hollywood Legend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, Hollywood lost yet another iconic figure, actress Lauren Bacall<\/a>, who passed away at the age of 89. The husky-voiced actress was considered one of the greatest\u00a0actresses from Hollywood’s Golden Age.<\/p>\n

\"Bacall,<\/a><\/p>\n

Lauren Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske on September 16, 1924 in the Bronx, New York. She was the only child of Natalie Weinstein-Bacal, who later legally changed her surname to Bacall, and William Perske. Both of her parents were Jewish. Her mother emigrated from Romania through Ellis Island and her father was born in New Jersey to Polish-born parents.\u00a0She was also a first cousin to Shimon Peres<\/a>, the ninth President of Israel.<\/p>\n

\"Bacall_USCensus_1930<\/a><\/p>\n

The Perske (Persky)\u00a0family in the 1930 U.S. census in New York (click to view full record)<\/em><\/p>\n

After her parents divorced, Lauren\u00a0took her mother’s last name, Bacal. Here she is in the 1940 U.S. Census under the name Betty Bacal.<\/p>\n

\"Bacall_USCensus_1940\"<\/a><\/p>\n

1940 U.S. census record (click to view full record)<\/em><\/p>\n

She was 15 and living with her mother, Natalie, and her grandmother Sophia. Note her grandmother is marked as the head of the household, and she is incorrectly listed\u00a0as “daughter.”<\/p>\n

A teen model, Bacall’s appearance on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar<\/em>\u00a0caught the eye of director\/producer Howard Hawks’s wife, Nancy. After some persuading from his wife,\u00a0Hawks\u00a0signed Bacall\u00a0to a seven-year personal contract and changed her first name to “Lauren.” She\u00a0took the Romanian form of her mother’s last name, “Bacall.” At 19, she made her big screen debut\u00a0in the film\u00a0To Have and Have Not<\/em> opposite star\u00a0Humphrey Bogart<\/a>. It was on the set of\u00a0To Have and Have Not<\/em> that she developed her signature gesture, dubbed “The Look.” To minimize her nervousness and calm her quivering, Bacall\u00a0would begin each take with her chin pressed against her chest, and tilt\u00a0her eyes upward at the beginning of the shot.\u00a0The sultry look would become her trademark and launch her reputation as one of the most sought after leading ladies in film noir.<\/p>\n

\"Bogart_Bacall_marriage_cert\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Marriage certificate for Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Although Bogart was still married to Mayo Methot<\/a>, the couple began seeing each other offscreen. Despite their 25-year age difference, the pair married on May 21, 1945 at Malabar Farm, the country home of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louis Bromfield<\/a>, in Lucas, Ohio.<\/p>\n

Check out this archival clip from Paramount of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall’s wedding.<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object>\n

The couple had two children, a son, Stephen, and a daughter, Leslie. They remained married until Bogart’s death from esophageal cancer in 1957.<\/p>\n

In 1961, she married actor Jason Robards, Jr<\/a>., however the marriage ended in divorce in 1969 largely due to Robards’ alcoholism. They had one son.<\/p>\n

As her movie career waned in the 1960s, Bacall starred in several Broadway shows, winning two Tony Awards for her performances. She\u00a0continued to work later in life and earned her first Academy Award\u00a0nomination in 1997 for her role in\u00a0The Mirror Has Two Faces<\/em>.<\/p>\n

On August 12, 2014, Bacall died in her longtime home in New York after suffering a stroke.<\/p>\n

Ranked one of the top actresses of all time, Bacall made a number of notable films throughout her career, including\u00a0How to Marry a\u00a0Millionaire,\u00a0The Big Sleep\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Key Largo<\/em>. What was your favorite film?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, Hollywood lost yet another iconic figure, actress Lauren Bacall, who passed away at the age of 89. The husky-voiced actress was considered one of the greatest\u00a0actresses from Hollywood’s Golden Age. Lauren Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske on September 16, 1924 in the Bronx, New York. She was the only child of Natalie Weinstein-Bacal, who later legally changed her surname to Bacall, and William Perske. Both of her parents were Jewish. Her mother emigrated… Read the full story<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":85687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[5901,4542],"class_list":["post-85683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genealogy-research","tag-humphrey-bogart","tag-lauren-bacall"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85683"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85725,"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85683\/revisions\/85725"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}