Put Your Lips Together… So the Mortician Can Sew Your Mouth Shut

Or

To Have Not

Or

The Big Sleep

Lauren Bacall, the only actress to get hit on by Bugs Bunny and name dropped by Madonna, has died of a stroke at the age of 89. The 19-year-old former model found herself selected to star opposite Humphrey Bogart, then 45, in To Have and Have Not, prime evidence that pairing hot young women with old men is not a modern Hollywood invention. She lowered her naturally high-pitched nasal voice to a husky growl, and to keep her chin from quivering, she tucked it into her chest and gazed upward at Bogart, creating “The Look” and snaring a husband. They would star together in 3 more noir films, The Big Sleep, Dark Passage and Key Largo. She turned in a comedic version of her independent woman with the acid tongue schtick in How to Marry a Millionaire. She also learned how to bury a millionaire, as Bogart died of throat cancer at the age of 58. Other roles included The Shootist, John Wayne’s last film, where she put her talents in dealing with movie stars dying of cancer to good use; The Mirror Has Two Faces, for which she received an Academy Award nomination, and didn’t even attempt to fake the happy loser face when she lost to Juliette Binoche, and the voice of Fancy Feast.