Lauren Bacall, one of the most glamorous Hollywood legends to ever appear the silver screen has died.  She suffered a stroke and died at her Manhattan home on Tuesday, just one month short of her 90th birthday.

Born Betty Joan Perske, she described herself as a “nice Jewish girl from the Bronx”, she began modeling at age 17.  Two years later she became one of the biggest stars in the world, featuring in “To Have and Have Not” (1944) opposite her future husband Humphrey Bogart.  The director Howard Hawks gave to her the screen name Lauren Bacall.  She quickly went from starlet to respected actress with the sexy way she instructed Bogie to whistle, “You just put your lips together and blow.”

Bogart and Bacall married in 1945, and stayed married until Bogart's death in 1957.  During that time they starred together in “The Big Sleep”, “Dark Passage”, and “Key Largo”.  Over the years she made more than 60 films, proving her versatility with key roles in comedies, romances, dramas and adventure sagas.  She even lent her voice to animated roles, including English language version of Studio Ghibli’s classic “Howl’s Moving Castle”.

She won two Tony Awards for her stage work, and won an honorary Governor's Award from the Motion Picture Academy in 2009.

Lauren Bacall was also politically active, speaking out against the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings, a conservative cultural pogrom that led to blacklists and the ruined careers of writers, actors, and others in Hollywood.  She responded by campaigning for Democrat Adlai Stevenson’s failed presidential bid in 1952. 

Bacall said in 2005 that she was “anti-Republican”, referring to America’s conservative party.  “Being a liberal is the best thing on earth you can be.  You are welcoming to everyone when you’re a liberal.  You do not have a small mind,” Bacall said.  She remained active in Democratic Party circles and causes over the years.

And a final bit of trivia, Lauren bacall was a cousin of former Israeli president Shimon Peres, winner of the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for the peace talks that he participated in as Israeli Foreign Minister, producing the Oslo Accords.