---
name: "Lauren Bacall"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/lauren-bacall"
fi1m_id: "lauren-bacall"
imdb_id: "nm0000002"
tmdb_id: 7570
wikidata_id: "Q104000"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "16 September 1924"
died: "12 August 2014"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 6
average_fi1m_score: 84
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 6
updated: "2026-09-25T07:32:54.811202+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Lauren Bacall

## Identity

Lauren Bacall

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/lauren-bacall
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** lauren-bacall
- **IMDb ID:** nm0000002
- **TMDB ID:** 7570
- **Wikidata ID:** Q104000
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauren_Bacall, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q104000, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000002/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/7570

Actor. Born 16 September 1924 in The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. Died 12 August 2014.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 16 September 1924, The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA
- **Died:** 12 August 2014
- **Active:** 1945–2003
- **Also known as:** Betty Bacall, Лорен Бэколл
- **Frequently works with:** [Howard Hawks](https://film.one/person/howard-hawks.md), [Humphrey Bogart](https://film.one/person/humphrey-bogart.md), [Jules Furthman](https://film.one/person/jules-furthman.md), [William Faulkner](https://film.one/person/william-faulkner.md)
- **Golden Globes:** 2 Golden Globes (2 won)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 84, as actor, over 6 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1940s 84 (2), 1950s 83 (1), 1990s 88 (2), 2000s 74 (1)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 84 to 76 across 5 titles
- **Score spread:** 5 at 80+, 1 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Lead roles:** 3 of 4 acting credits billed first or second
- **Genres:** Drama 4, Crime 3, Thriller 3, Romance 2, Adventure 1, Mystery 1
- **Screen time:** 10 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $97m across 5 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauren_Bacall, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q104000, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000002/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/7570

## Streaming the US now

- **HBO Max:** [*Misery*](https://film.one/film/misery.md) (83)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Lauren Bacall

> Lauren Bacall's trick was to make a conversation difficult and make the difficulty attractive: chin down, eyes up, a voice pitched lower than the man's. It worked best opposite Humphrey Bogart, and *The Big Sleep* is where to start.

Chin down, eyes up. Lauren Bacall's habit of looking at a man from under her brow, in a voice pitched lower than his, is the thing people remember, and she was frank about where it came from: "I used to tremble from nerves so badly that the only way I could hold my head steady was to lower my chin practically to my chest and look up at Bogie. That was the beginning of The Look." What began as a way of not shaking read on screen as complete composure. That gap, between the nerves and the front, is what she played for the rest of her career.

Howard Hawks cast her from modelling in *To Have and Have Not* (1944), and she made three more films with Humphrey Bogart through 1948. *The Big Sleep* (1946) is the better of the two films of hers we have reviewed, and the one we would send you to. When Hawks and Bogart were not on hand, as in *Confidential Agent* (1945), the reception was cooler, and some decided she was half of a pairing rather than a star in her own right. The 1950s answered that in part with comedy, *How to Marry a Millionaire* (1953) among them; the stage answered it more fully with *Applause* in 1970; and from *Murder on the Orient Express* (1974) onward she worked mostly as a supporting player, in *Misery* (1990), *The Mirror Has Two Faces* (1996) and, late and unexpectedly, in Lars von Trier's *Dogville* (2003).

What she did well she did in dialogue. Her women are sharp and practical and are hiding something, and the sharpness is how they hide it. In *The Big Sleep* she gives Bogart's detective an opponent who makes every exchange harder without ever making it dull, and neither of them looks sure of winning. We laughed at the two of them, at how rude they are to each other and how little it puts either one off, and we laughed because Hawks trusts them to make written lines sound as if they had just been thought of. He is the director who got the most out of her, and she made only two films with him.

The persona had a cost. It needed a partner worth sparring with and a script that handed her the lines; without both, she has a way of looking and a way of talking and not much to do with either. In *Misery* her part is small enough that our review did not stop for it, and that is a fair measure of a good deal of the later work: welcome, watchful, and rarely given enough.

Start with *The Big Sleep*, and do not worry about following the plot; nobody in it is following the plot either. Then *To Have and Have Not*, where the persona is being invented in front of the camera by a young woman trying to keep her head still.

## Biography

Lauren Bacall was an American actor. Born Betty Joan Perske on 16 September 1924 in the Bronx, New York City, she began her career as a model before making her screen debut opposite Humphrey Bogart in *To Have and Have Not* (1944). She appeared with Bogart in several further films, including *The Big Sleep* (1946), *Dark Passage* (1947) and *Key Largo* (1948).

Bacall later took comedic roles in *How to Marry a Millionaire* (1953) and worked extensively on Broadway, winning Tony Awards for *Applause* (1970) and *Woman of the Year* (1981). Her later film credits include *Murder on the Orient Express* (1974), *Misery* (1990) as Marcia Sindell, *The Mirror Has Two Faces* (1996) and *Dogville* (2003). She received an Academy Honorary Award in 2009 and died on 12 August 2014.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, britannica.com.*

## On Fi1m (6)

- *Dogville* (2003), Fi1m 74, as Ma Ginger — [page](https://film.one/film/dogville.md)
- *The Sopranos* (1999), Fi1m 94, as Lauren Bacall — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-sopranos.md)
- *Misery* (1990), Fi1m 83, as Marcia Sindell — [page](https://film.one/film/misery.md)
- *Written on the Wind* (1956), Fi1m 83, as Lucy Moore Hadley — [page](https://film.one/film/written-on-the-wind.md)
- *The Big Sleep* (1946), Fi1m 84, as Vivian Sternwood Rutledge — [page](https://film.one/film/the-big-sleep.md)
- *To Have and Have Not* (1945), Fi1m 84, as Marie Browning — [page](https://film.one/film/to-have-and-have-not.md)

## Complete filmography (80)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Marilyn Monroe: In The Movies* (2012), Actor
- *All at Sea* (2012), as May
- *The Forger* (2011), as Anne-Marie
- *Hollywood sul Tevere* (2009), Actor
- *Scooby-Doo! and the Goblin King* (2008), as The Grand Witch (voice)
- *Eve* (2008), as Grandma
- *The Walker* (2007), as Natalie Van Miter
- *These Foolish Things* (2006), as Dame Lydia
- *Manderlay* (2005), as Mam
- *The Limit* (2004), as May Markham
- *Birth* (2004), as Eleanor
- *Broadway's Lost Treasures II* (2004), as Host
- *Discovering Treasure: The Story of 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'* (2003), as Various Roles (archive footage)
- *Dogville* (2003), as Ma Ginger — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/dogville.md)
- *Presence of Mind* (2000), as Mado Remei
- *Amália Traída* (2000), as TV Announcer
- *Diamonds* (1999), as Sin-Dee
- *The Venice Project* (1999), as Countess Camilla Volta
- *Madeline: Lost in Paris* (1999), as Madame LaCroque (voice)
- *Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke* (1999), series, as Doris Duke (elderly)
- *Family Guy* (1999), series, as Evelyn (voice) — Fi1m 63, [page](https://film.one/tv/family-guy.md)
- *The Sopranos* (1999), series, as Lauren Bacall — Fi1m 94, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-sopranos.md)
- *Hollywood Hall Of Fame - Marilyn Monroe* (1998), Actor
- *Day and Night* (1997), as Sonia
- *My Fellow Americans* (1996), as Margaret Kramer
- *The Mirror Has Two Faces* (1996), as Hannah Morgan
- *From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler* (1995), as Mrs. Basil E. Frankkweiler
- *Marilyn Monroe: Portrait of a Legend...Suicide Or Murder?* (1995), Actor
- *Prêt-à-Porter* (1994), as Slim Chrysler
- *Chicago Hope* (1994), series, as Samara Visco Klein
- *La Classe américaine* (1993), as Christelle (archive footage)
- *Leonard Bernstein: The Gift of Music* (1993), as Narrator
- *A Foreign Field* (1993), as Lisa
- *The Portrait* (1993), as Fanny Church
- *You Must Remember This: A Tribute to 'Casablanca'* (1992), as Narrator
- *All I Want For Christmas* (1991), as Lillian Brooks
- *A Star for Two* (1991), as Edwige
- *Misery* (1990), as Marcia Sindell — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/film/misery.md)
- *A Little Piece of Sunshine* (1990), as Beatrix Coltrane
- *The Real Story of the Three Little Kittens* (1990), as Freezelda (voice)
- *Dinner at Eight* (1989), as Carlotta Vance
- *Frederick Forsyth Presents* (1989), series, as Beatrix
- *Screen One* (1989), series, as Lisa
- *Tree of Hands* (1989), as Marsha Archdale
- *Mr. North* (1988), as Mrs. Cranston
- *Appointment with Death* (1988), as Lady Westholme
- *Natalie - A Tribute to a Very Special Lady* (1982), Actor
- *The Fan* (1981), as Sally Ross
- *HealtH* (1980), as Esther Brill
- *Perfect Gentlemen* (1978), as Ms. Lizzie Martin
- *The Shootist* (1976), as Bond Rogers
- *Murder on the Orient Express* (1974), as Mrs. Harriet Belinda Hubbard
- *The Rockford Files* (1974), series, as Kendall Warren — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-rockford-files.md)
- *Applause* (1973), as Margo Channing
- *Great Performances* (1971), series, as Narrator
- *The Legend of Marilyn Monroe* (1966), Actor
- *Harper* (1966), as Elaine Sampson
- *Sex and the Single Girl* (1964), as Sylvia Broderick
- *Mr. Broadway* (1964), series, Actor
- *Shock Treatment* (1964), as Dr. Edwina Beighley
- *Dr. Kildare* (1961), series, as Virginia Herson
- *North West Frontier* (1959), as Catherine Wyatt
- *The Gift of Love* (1958), as Julie Beck
- *Designing Woman* (1957), as Marilla Brown Hagen
- *Written on the Wind* (1956), as Lucy Moore Hadley — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/film/written-on-the-wind.md)
- *Blithe Spirit* (1956), as Elvira Condomine
- *Blood Alley* (1955), as Cathy Grainger
- *Ford Star Jubilee* (1955), series, Actor
- *The Cobweb* (1955), as Meg Faversen Rinehart
- *The Petrified Forest* (1955), as Gabby Maple
- *Producers' Showcase* (1954), series, as Gaby
- *Woman's World* (1954), as Elizabeth Burns
- *How to Marry a Millionaire* (1953), as Schatze Page
- *Bright Leaf* (1950), as Sonia Kovac
- *Young Man with a Horn* (1950), as Amy North
- *Key Largo* (1948), as Nora Temple
- *Dark Passage* (1947), as Irene Jansen
- *The Big Sleep* (1946), as Vivian Sternwood Rutledge — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/the-big-sleep.md)
- *Confidential Agent* (1945), as Rose Cullen
- *To Have and Have Not* (1945), as Marie Browning — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/to-have-and-have-not.md)

## Gallery

- ![Lauren Bacall](https://film.one/media/person/77414/gallery-e1cfbb1a9592.jpg) Lauren Bacall — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Lauren_Bacall_1945_press_photo.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![2x3 arrays of bronze stars; they were intended to be used on Leicester Square for British Film Year Trevor Howard, Lauren Bacall, Sir Alec Guiness [sic] Vanessa (2014)](https://film.one/media/person/77414/gallery-3d846fafd78c.jpg) 2x3 arrays of bronze stars; they were intended to be used on Leicester Square for British Film Year Trevor Howard, Lauren Bacall, Sir Alec Guiness [sic] Vanessa (2014) — Edwardx, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Cinema_Museum%2C_London_object_06.JPG/1280px-Cinema_Museum%2C_London_object_06.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Scope and content: Photograph of Ernest Hemingway having drinks with Lauren Bacall in Spain.](https://film.one/media/person/77414/gallery-6187062a2678.jpg) Scope and content: Photograph of Ernest Hemingway having drinks with Lauren Bacall in Spain. — Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4d/Ernest_Hemingway_with_Lauren_Bacall_in_Spain_-_NARA_-_192696.jpg/1280px-Ernest_Hemingway_with_Lauren_Bacall_in_Spain_-_NARA_-_192696.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Lauren Bacall Press Conference of "The Walker" at the Hyatt Hotel, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin (2007)](https://film.one/media/person/77414/gallery-a5c1f1b6de06.jpg) Lauren Bacall Press Conference of "The Walker" at the Hyatt Hotel, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin (2007) — Thore Siebrands from Germany, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Flickr_-_Siebbi_-_Lauren_Bacall.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Lauren Bacall](https://film.one/media/person/77414/gallery-1e060f4adb75.jpg) Lauren Bacall — Image via TMDB
- ![Lauren Bacall](https://film.one/media/person/77414/gallery-f2e464ae6095.jpg) Lauren Bacall — Image via TMDB
- ![Lauren Bacall](https://film.one/media/person/77414/gallery-c9fc3afb74d7.jpg) Lauren Bacall — Image via TMDB
- ![Lars Jacob, Mikaela Kindblom (event hostess) & Emil Eikner at a tribute to Lauren Bacall (whose possibly copyrighed photo has been distorted here)Place: Swe (2014)](https://film.one/media/person/77414/gallery-11f119d31dec.jpg) Lars Jacob, Mikaela Kindblom (event hostess) & Emil Eikner at a tribute to Lauren Bacall (whose possibly copyrighed photo has been distorted here)Place: Swe (2014) — Assistant for CabarEng, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Lars_Jacob%2C_Mikaela_Kindblom_%26_Emil_Eikner_2014.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Lauren Bacall, actress (with manuscript for book "Lauren Bacall, By Myself" at Alfred A. Knopf office, NY)](https://film.one/media/person/77414/gallery-8073912cb65b.jpg) Lauren Bacall, actress (with manuscript for book "Lauren Bacall, By Myself" at Alfred A. Knopf office, NY) — Bernard Gotfryd, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7f/Lauren_Bacall%2C_actress_%28with_manuscript_for_book_%22Lauren_Bacall%2C_By_Myself%22_at_Alfred_A._Knopf_office%2C_NY%29_00278.jpg/1280px-Lauren_Bacall%2C_actress_%28with_manuscript_for_book_%22Lauren_Bacall%2C_By_Myself%22_at_Alfred_A._Knopf_office%2C_NY%29_00278.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated

- 1997: Best Supporting Actress (nominated), for *The Mirror Has Two Faces*

### BAFTA Film Awards — 0 won, 2 nominated

- 1997: Best Actress in a Supporting Role (nominated), for *The Mirror Has Two Faces*
- 1977: Best Actress in a Leading Role (nominated), for *The Shootist*

### Golden Globes — 2 won

- 1996: Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture (won), for *The Mirror Has Two Faces*
- 1992: Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award (won)

### Primetime Emmy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated

- 1980: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (nominated), for *The Rockford Files*

### SAG Awards — 1 won

- 1997: Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role (won), for *The Mirror Has Two Faces*

### Other awards — 9 won

- Academy Honorary Award 2010: Academy Honorary Award (won)
- Kennedy Center Honors 1997: Kennedy Center Honors (won)
- Honorary César 1996: Honorary César (won)
- Donostia Award 1992: Donostia Award (won)
- Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical 1981: Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical (won), for *Woman of the Year*
- National Book Award 1980: National Book Award (won)
- Lucien Barrière Literary Award 1979: Lucien Barrière Literary Award (won)
- Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical 1970: Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical (won), for *Applause*
- Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year 1967: Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year (won)

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/lauren-bacall