Her real name was Betty Jane Perske. However, everyone knew her as Lauren Bacall.



Had she not met Howard Hawks who gave her a role in his film To Have and Have Not and had she not become his protégée, who knows which direction her career would have taken. She was 19 at the time, but as we watched her in that sensual film seducing Humphrey Bogart on the exotic Martinique, she did not seem as a typical teenager. The rest of the work was carried out by the legendary Diana Vreeland when she offered her the cover of the Harper's Bazaar. And the rest is history.
It was Hawks who was most thankful for her transformation into the ultimate femme fatale. And three boxes of cigarettes a day helped her sensual baritone to become even more fatal. Hawks’ creation became the wet dream and erotic phantasy of an entire generation after giving a deadly look to Bogart and telling him that all he has to do is whistle ('You know how to whistle, don't you? You just put your lips together and blow'). That became one of the most sensual one-liners in the history of Hollywood. Thanks to Hawks and his adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s The Deep Sleep, she became the great dame of Hollywood noire. When Bogart was replaced by Boyer (code: Confidential Agent), she was more cold than cool. However, chemistry with Bogart (Key Largo, Dark Passage) was what she remained famous for. Nevertheless, Jean Negulesco (How to Marry A Millionaire) proved that she functioned well in comedies as well.

In the later phase, she acted in theatre more than on the big screen, with occasional trips to Hollywood, for example when in the 1960’s Jack Smigth (Harper) tried to reinvent her noire lady spirit now with Paul Newman as the private eye. However, it all turned somehow into a minor version of The Deep Sleep. Bacall continued to act even at her older age in some great films, such as Von Trier’s Dogville and Mandarlay and Paul Schrader’s The Walker, whose director were very well aware of the fact that they are working with a Hollywood icon and thus treated her that way. All they had to do is whistle for her. (Dragan Rubeša)