Lauren Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske on September 16, 1924, in the Bronx, New York, and have died after a massive stroke, on August 12, 2014. Almost 90, the poor gal. She was fine, she was famous, she was married with two famous Hollywood actors, and she was beautiful. Her mother, Natalie Weinstein-Bacal was a secretary and her father, William Perske, was a salesman. They were both Jewish, her mother of Romanian origins (actually she was born in Romania) and her father of Polish origins, born in New Jersey. Other sources say she was German, or from Alsace. I tend to believe she was Romanian, even if Bacal has Turkish resonance for me, bakkal meaning “grocer”.
It is said that she was related with Shimon Peres, the former President of Israel. He is quoted to have said: “In 1952 or 1953 I came to New York… Lauren Bacall called me, said that she wanted to meet, and we did. We sat and talked about where our families came from, and discovered that we were from the same family… but I’m not exactly sure what our relation is… It was she who later said that she was my cousin, I didn’t say that”. – cf. Wikipedia
Her parents divorced when she was five, and she took the Romanian form of her mother’s last name, Bacall. She no longer saw her father and formed a very close bond with her mother, who came to live in California after Bacall became a movie star.
Lauren Bacall
[source]
She had been educated with help from other wealthy relatives, and she started in life modeling. At 17, she took lessons at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she was classmates with Kirk Douglas. She worked as a model and a theater usher.
On May 21, 1945, Bacall married actor Humphrey Bogart. After his death in 1957, she became involved with Frank Sinatra. Between 1961 and 1969, she was married with Jason Robards whom she left because of his alcoholism. She had a son and a daughter with Bogart, and a son with Robards. She proclaimed herself a liberal democrat.
Lauren Bacall with the talented child Cameron Bright in “Birth”
[source – imdb]
She made her fame in the fifties, but she has appeared also in more recent movies. Her movie career saw a renaissance and she attracted respectful notices for her performances in high-profile projects such as Dogville (2003) and Birth (2004), both with Nicole Kidman, Manderlay (2005), another Lars von Trier movie, this time near Bryce Dallas Howard. She was a leading actor in Paul Schrader’s The Walker, and the voice of the Witch of the Waste, in the English version of Hayao Miyazaki‘s jewel, Howl’s Moving Castle (2004).
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