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Bacall in 1944 AP/Press Association Images
RIP

Legendary actress Lauren Bacall dies at 89

The star passed away from a stroke on Tuesday morning.

LEGENDARY ACTRESS Lauren Bacall, an icon of Hollywood’s golden age who lit up the silver screen in a series of classic movies opposite her husband Humphrey Bogart, has died aged 89.

“With deep sorrow, yet with great gratitude for her amazing life, we confirm the passing of Lauren Bacall,” the Bogart estate confirmed in a brief statement on Twitter.

US media reports said Bacall died after suffering a stroke at her home in New York on Tuesday morning.

Born Betty Joan Perske, a 19-year-0ld Bacall electrified Hollywood in her 1944 screen debut To Have and Have Not, when she famously met Bogart.

With her smoldering gaze and deep, husky voice, she soon became hot property both in Hollywood and on Broadway.

Beginning in the Golden Age of Hollywood, her career would include wartime dramas and film noir with Bogart, action movies with John Wayne, a romance picture with Gregory Peck and a comedy, How to Marry a Millionaire, with Marilyn Monroe.

She cemented her sultry bombshell status in To Have and Have Not, when she cooed to Harry ‘Steve’ Morgan, played by Bogart:

You know how to whistle, don’t you Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.

The line gave her instant silver-screen immortality, and the American Film Institute pronounced it the 34th greatest movie quote of all time.

2009 Governors Awards Bacall with her honorary Oscar in 2009 Chris Pizzello / Press Association Chris Pizzello / Press Association / Press Association

When Bogart died from throat cancer in 1957, Bacall, who had two children with the legendary actor, placed a whistle in his coffin.

Bacall had one child with her second husband, Jason Robards, during an eight-year marriage to the actor between 1961 and 1969.

She narrowly missed out on a first acting Oscar for her performance in 1996′s The Mirror Has Two Faces but was presented with an honorary Academy Award in 2009.

- © AFP, 2014

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