Lauren Bacall RIP

Another Hollywood great has passed away: Lauren Bacall at the age of 89 from a major stroke. the Humphrey Bogart Estate confirmed yesterday. Born Betty Joan Perske of Polish and Romanian immigrants in New York, she once described herself as "a nice Jewish girl from the Bronx". Her love of theatre was stirred at an early age by watching John Gielgud in Shakespeare's Hamlet. She took up a modelling career, which led to her first movie. At the age of 19 she exploded onto the silver screen in her debut film To Have and Have Not (1944), starring opposite Humphrey Bogart, whom she famously invited to whistle to call her and whom she later married. Her husky voice and smouldering looks made her a huge box office hit. After Bogart's death from lung cancer, she married Jason Robards. Her career lasted seven decades (CLICK).