© Associated PressMs. Bacall's first son, Stephen H. Bogart (named after Bogart's character in "To Have and Have Not"), was born in 1949. Here, the family in 1951 on a deck of the French liner Il de France in New York City following their arrival from Europe.
Lauren Bacall, the actress whose provocative glamour elevated her to stardom in Hollywood's golden age and whose lasting mystique put her on a plateau in American culture that few stars reach, died on Tuesday in New York. She was 89.
Her death was confirmed by her son Stephen Bogart. "Her life speaks for itself," Mr. Bogart said. "She lived a wonderful life, a magical life."
With an insinuating pose and a seductive, throaty voice - her simplest remark sounded like a jungle mating call, one critic said - Ms. Bacall shot to fame in 1944 with her first movie, Howard Hawks's adaptation of the Ernest Hemingway novel
To Have and Have Not, playing opposite Humphrey Bogart, who became her lover on the set and later her husband.
It was a smashing debut sealed with a handful of lines now engraved in Hollywood history.
"You know you don't have to act with me, Steve," her character says to Bogart's in the movie's
most memorable scene. "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."
Comment: And what do our readers think?