By Jake Coyle, Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Lauren Bacall, the slinky, sultry-voiced actress who created on-screen magic with Humphrey Bogart in "To Have and Have Not" and "The Big Sleep" and off-screen magic in one of Hollywood's most storied marriages, died Tuesday at age 89.
Bacall, whose long career brought two Tonys and a special Oscar, died in New York. The managing partner of the Humphrey Bogart Estate, Robbert J.F. de Klerk, said that Bacall died at home, but declined to give further details. Bacall's son Stephen Bogart confirmed his mother's death to de Klerk.
She was among the last of the old-fashioned Hollywood stars and her legend, and the legend of "Bogie and Bacall" — the hard-boiled couple who could fight and make up with the best of them — started almost from the moment she appeared on screen. A fashion model and bit-part New York actress before moving to Hollywood at 19, Bacall achieved immediate fame in 1944 with one scene in her first film, "To Have and Have Not."
Leaving Bogart's hotel room, she murmured:
"You don't have to say anything, and you don't have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow."
She was less than half Bogart's age, yet as wise and as jaded as him. Her sly glance, with chin down and eyes raised, added to her fame; she was nicknamed "The Look." Bogart and Bacall married amid headlines in 1945, and they co-starred in three more films, "The Big Sleep" (1946), "Dark Passage" (1947) and "Key Largo" (1948). Their marriage lasted until his death from cancer in 1957.
She appeared in movies for more than a half-century, but not until 1996 did she receive an Academy Award nomination — as supporting actress for her role as Barbra Streisand's mother in "The Mirror Has Two Faces." Although a sentimental favorite, she lost to Juliette Binoche for her performance in "The English Patient."
She finally got a statuette in November 2009 when she was presented with a special Oscar at the movie academy's new Governors Awards gala.
"The thought when I get home that I'm going to have a two-legged man in my room is so exciting," she quipped.
Bacall was always a star. With her lanky figure and flowing blonde hair, she was seemingly born for checked suits and silk dresses. On television talk shows, she exhibited a persona that paralleled her screen appearances: She was frank, even blunt, with an undertone of sardonic humor, all of which she demonstrated in her best-selling 1979 autobiography, "By Myself," which beat out works by William Saroyan among others for the National Book Award. (She published an updated version in 2005, "By Myself and Then Some," noting that as she ages, "I don't feel that different. But I sure as hell am.")
When her movie career faded, she returned to the theater. She starred in the hit comedy "Cactus Flower" and stepped lively in "Applause," a musical version of the classic movie "All About Eve" that brought her first Tony in 1970.
She got the second Tony in 1981 for "Woman of the Year," based on a film that starred her idol, Katharine Hepburn. She enjoyed another triumph in London with "Sweet Bird of Youth" in 1985.
She was ever protective of the Bogart legacy, lashing out at those who tried to profit from his image. In 1997, she appeared at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood for ceremonies launching the U.S. Postal Service's Humphrey Bogart stamp.
When the American Film Institute compiled its list of screen legends in 1999, Bacall ranked No. 20 on the roster of 25 actresses. Bogart topped the list of actors.
___
Biographical material in this story was written by The Associated Press' late Hollywood correspondent, Bob Thomas.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More