Golden Age of Hollywood actress and esteemed icon Lauren Bacall has died at the age of 89, one month before her 90th birthday.
She died yesterday morning (12 August) at her apartment in New York City following a “massive” stroke.
The news of her death comes just one after the announcement that Robin Williams committed suicide by hanging himself in his bedroom on 11 August.
Bacall was one of the few remaining actors alive from the Golden Age of Hollywood filmmaking during the 1940s and 1950s on the American Film Institute’s list of top 25 male and female actors from that period. She was ranked at number 20 out of 25.
Following the death of child star Shirley Temple in February aged 85, it means that 79 year old Sophia Loren is the only female to be featured in the AFI’s list of the top 50 male and female list.
The only two surviving males are Sidney Poitier (ranked 22, age 87) and Kirk Douglas (ranked 17, age 97).
Despite being anointed as a legend by the AFI, Bacall did not take it as a compliment. In an interview with Larry King in 2005, she spoke about what her definition of a legend is: “I don’t like the category. And to begin with, to me, a legend is something that is not on the Earth, that is dead.”
Bacall is best remembered for her role in the The Big Sleep in 1946, in which she starred alongside Humphrey Bogart, whom she was married to for 12 years until his death in 1957.
Lauren Bacall: 16 September 1924 – 12 August 2014.
