Lauren Bacall Dead: Actress And Wife Of Humphrey Bogart Died At Age 89

Actress Lauren Bacall died Tuesday after officials suspect she had a stroke in her New York City home, The Hollywood Reporter said. She was 89. Known by many in the industry as a beacon of cool during the Golden Age of film, Bacall was most famous for her roles alongside Humphrey Bogart and her smoldering stare dubbed “The Look.”

“With deep sorrow for the magnitude of our loss, yet with great gratitude for her amazing life, we confirm the passing of Lauren Bacall,” the Humphrey Bogart Estate wrote on its Facebook page Tuesday.

Born Betty Joan Perske, Bacall was thrust into the spotlight as a model on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar at the age of 19. During her subsequent film career, the actress starred in as many as 70 movies and won two Golden Globes and an Academy Award. She is best known for her romantic roles alongside Bogart in "The Big Sleep," "The Dark Passage" and "Key Largo."

Their on-screen romance spilled into the real world when the two were married nearly two years after they filmed their first movie “To Have And To Have Not.” Bacall was 20 years old at the time, and Bogart was 25 years her senior. Still, the Bogey and Bacall romance was deemed the stuff of fairytales. They stayed together until Bogart died in 1957.

In that first film, Bacall perfected what came to be known as “The Look.” Dealing with a severe surge of nerves during filming, the only way she could “hold my trembling head still was to keep it down, chin low, almost to the chest, and eyes up at Bogart,” she said in a interview with Vanity Fair in 2011.

In her memoir “Now,” Bacall admitted being called a legend unnerved her. “In my slightly paranoiac head, legends and special ladies don’t work, it’s over for them; they just go around being legends and special ladies.”