Lauren "Betty" Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske in New York City in 1924. Her parents divorced when she was five and she would remain very close to her mother throughout her career. Bacall began dancing as a child but became interested in acting and modelling as a teenager. After graduating high school , she studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and worked as a theatre usher and model.
Film Career
Bacall was first noticed by the wife of directer Howard Hawks, Nancy "Slim" Hawks, on the cover of "Harper's Bazaar." Hawks cast the 19-year-old Bacall for a part in TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944), a film loosely based on the Hemingway novel and starring Humphrey Bogart. In 1953, Bacall made her first comedy, HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE, co-starring Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable. Bacall's career spans several decades and includes performances in film, and on stage, television, and radio. She co-starred with a bevvy of stars in Agagtha Chrstie's MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (1974), and a couple years later she appeared with John Wayne in his final picture, THE SHOOTIST (1976).
