She was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute. She received an Academy Honorary Award in in recognition of her contribution to the Golden Age of motion pictures. Bacall began a career as a model for the Walter Thornton Model Agency before making her film debut at the age of twenty in To Have and Have Not as the leading lady opposite Humphrey Bogart , whom she later married.
She portrayed the female lead in Written on the Wind , which is considered one of Douglas Sirk 's seminal films. For her work in theatre, Bacall made her Broadway debut in Johnny 2x4 Both of her parents were Jewish.
Her father was born in New Jersey to parents who were born in Valozhyn , at that time a predominantly Jewish community in present-day Belarus. Bacall's parents divorced when she was five, after which she no longer saw her father. She later took the Romanian form of her mother's last name, Bacall.
Bacall's family moved soon after her birth to Brooklyn 's Ocean Parkway. James Theatre and as a fashion model in department stores.
She made her acting debut on Broadway in at age 17 as a walk-on in Johnny 2 X 4. By then, she lived with her mother at 75 Bank Street , and in , she was crowned Miss Greenwich Village.
