Overview

Lauren Bacall (1924–2014), or Betty, as she was known to friends, was one of the last great movie stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Her career spanned seven decades and was one of the longest and most distinguished in the history of show business. Yet it wasn’t easy. After becoming a star at nineteen with her first film, To Have and Have Not (1944), she joked there was nowhere for her to go but down. She became an icon of film noir before the term was even coined. A cool, sophisticated, sexy, and ultramodern woman, she projected confidence and independence. Lauren Bacall: The Queen of Cool is the first book to bring together all aspects of the legendary star’s life and career, exploring her iconic style, her extensive body of work, as well as her friendships and relationships with some of the most famous figures of the twentieth century. Her relationship with Humphrey Bogart is the stuff of legend, the most beloved pairing of classical Hollywood, a perfect blend of romance, glamour, and cinematic glory. When Bogart died in 1957, Bacall was a mere thirty-three years old, and for the rest of her life she would wrestle with the legend of her late husband, struggling to prove to the industry that she was more than just the most famous widow in Hollywood. That she managed to achieve in spades, becoming a two-time Tony Award–winning Broadway star, a bestselling author, and continuing a successful, though at times rocky, screen career, which brought her an Academy Award nomination in 1996 and an Honorary Oscar in 2009. Combining meticulous research with stunning photographs, author Anthony Uzarowski presents in this volume a multidimensional portrait of the woman and the star that was Lauren Bacall.

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9781496838834

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Reviews

This reassessment of Bacall's career before, during, and after Bogart will be an essential volume for film fans and historians alike.--Gillian Kelly, author of Robert Taylor: Male Beauty, Masculinity, and Stardom in Hollywood and Ray Milland: Identity, Stardom, and the Long Climb to ""The Lost Weekend""

With an appreciative but critical eye, the author presents an intimate, revealing, and at times reverential--but always objective--portrait of one of moviedom's most enduring legends, Hollywood's 'Queen of Cool, ' the unforgettable Lauren Bacall.--Michael Gregg Michaud, author of biographies of Sal Mineo, Mae West, Marlene Dietrich, Troy Donahue, and Christopher Jones This reassessment of Bacall's career before, during, and after Bogart will be an essential volume for film fans and historians alike.--Gillian Kelly, author of Robert Taylor: Male Beauty, Masculinity, and Stardom in Hollywood and Ray Milland: Identity, Stardom, and the Long Climb to ""The Lost Weekend""

Author Information

Anthony Uzarowski is a film historian and author. His books include the acclaimed biographies Jessica Lange: An Adventurer’s Heart and Ava Gardner: A Life in Movies. He has also written numerous articles on cinema and the arts, with his work appearing in such publications as The Guardian, Film International, Gay Times, Queerty, and more.

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