Screen legend Lauren Bacall dead at 89

Lauren Bacall, one of cinema’s most enduring icons, has passed away at the age of 89 from a stroke. The news was confirmed on Twitter by the estate of her late husband, Humphrey Bogart.

“With deep sorrow, yet with great gratitude for her amazing life, we confirm the passing of Lauren Bacall,” the Tweet read.

A legend of the film noir era, she began her career on the stage – by her birth name Betty Bacall – while working as a model on the side.

Spotted in Vogue by Howard Hawks’ wife Nancy, she was recruited for his 1944 film To Have and Have Not, where she appeared opposite her future husband Bogart, asking him if he knew how to whistle: “You just put your lips together and blow.”

On set they began a relationship despite him already being married to Mayo Methot and the 25-year age difference between them (she was 20, he was 45).

They were together until Bogart’s death in 1957, during which time they had two children, Stephen and Leslie.

Their on-screen collaborations were just as fruitful, and included The Big Sleep, Dark Passage and Key Largo.

Independently, she made an impression in plenty of eventual classics, including How to Marry a Millionaire, Written on the Wind and Murder on the Orient Express.

Bacall returned to Broadway in the 1960s and worked there steadily for the next few decades, earning a Tony Award for Applause in 1970 and again in 1981 for Woman of the Year.

She received her first Academy Award nomination in 1996 for The Mirror Has Two Faces, and was the expected victor, until a surprise upset saw the prize instead go to Juliette Binoche for The English Patient. The Academy made up for it with an Honorary Oscar in 2009.

Following Bogart’s death, she enjoyed a brief dalliance with Frank Sinatra, before marrying Jason Robards, with whom she had a third child, Sam.

Bacall is survived by all three of her children.