By Dana Ford (CNN) — Actress Lauren Bacall, best known for her distinctive husky voice and sultry sensuality, died Tuesday, a spokesman for the family said. She was 89.
Robbert de Klerk, co-managing partner of the Humphrey Bogart Estate, said Bacall died in New York City.
Bacall shot to international fame in 1944 with her first film, “To Have and Have Not,” which she made with future husband Humphrey Bogart.
They married in 1945, had two children and went on to make four more films together. Bogart died in 1957.
“He was an extraordinary, extraordinary man. I mean, I’ve been extremely lucky. God, I have no complaints at all,” Bacall said during a 2005 interview with CNN’s Larry King.
A marriage to Jason Robards, which produced another child, ended in divorce. She was engaged to Frank Sinatra, briefly, between marriages.
Bacall won two Tony Awards and an honorary Oscar; she was nominated for three Emmy Awards.
During the interview with King, Bacall said working on stage was her original dream.
“When the curtain goes up, [the stage is] ours. It’s ours to project what the playwright wants to stay to an audience, what to convey and to get a response from the audience immediately.
“Movies are great fun and wonderful when they’re good. But you never get to see them till six months after they’re finished.
“So you never get a sense of whether they’re really well liked or how good they are. And you don’t really know what the finished product is going to be like, because it’s a director’s medium.”
Bacall was discovered by the wife of American film director Howard Hawks, after she appeared on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar.
Hawks later gave Bacall, who was born Betty Joan Perske, the name Lauren. Her last name, Bacall, came from her mother’s maiden name.
Her first autobiography, “Lauren Bacall: By Myself,” won the National Book Award in 1980. “By Myself and Then Some,” her updated autobiography, was published in 2005.
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