Why did Lauren Bacall lose her looks so quickly??

1954

Smoking, Drinking and having Children.

Also, being a Total Bitch!!

She smoked and drank constantly.

Don't light up.

She was only 29 YO in this photo!

Also she was Jewish !

She was born Lorne. Hormones were difficult to find after the war.

She wasn't that pretty to begin with, so there's that...

I think inner rage

1952 was that bitch's high point.

Lauren is a man's name, too.

Just saying.

From drinking too much High Point. Flavah comes at a cost.

She was a mean, nasty bitch her whole life. And you wonder why because she had a very privileged and comfortable life, one that most people could only dream of.

R13 No wonder she was best friend with Vivien Leigh who was a mean nasty bitch as well (even without bipolar)

encephalitis, which she dealt with the last 30 years of her life.

She wasn't a classic beauty to begin with - very masculine face. Sandra Bernhard's face is similar.

Bernhard is more attractive, for sure.

R15 I'm talking about her declining looks since the first part of the 1950s!

Too much drinking, too much smoking, eaten away by jealousy and hate. She thought she was important, and was pissed off that so many people didn't agree with that.

She was having an affair with Martin Scorsese in the late 90's and begged him for roles, she was still attractive, he should have made use of her.

Probably she was photographed and filmed from certain angles in the early years…if she hadn’t married Bogart she wouldn’t be remembered today.

Obviouslyis not the main reason, but her natural eyebrows made her look very rough. The thin style on the beginning of her career was more flattering.

Alcohol and smoking.

Wasn’t she a smoker? That will age you.

That's one rough looking 29 year old.

She already looked like fuckin' Tony Curtis - Some like it hot in OP's 1953 picture.

She got the face she deserved, maybe a little earlier than most do.

She had an excellent facelift though - she looked great in the Babs movie.

I've posted another clip from this interview before on a "Designing Women" thread, but Emmy-winning hairstylist (the only Emmy that series ever won) also said that Bacall was really mean to almost everyone around her, except the hair and makeup people.

After working with her tons of times in movies and personal appearances over the years, she eventually dropped Bacall because she was so terribly difficult. We all know Bacall was a cunt, but to hear it from the mouth of someone who worked so closely with her is something else.

On the positive side: Crown said that Gregory Peck was always wonderful.

Gregory Peck's grandson Ethan Peck is always fuckable.

The final portrait sitting.

^ Facing Death and Eternity.

she was so beautful here, in 1943, but yeah - smoking, drinking, etc.

She lasted longer than I ever thought she would.

[quote] Betty Backle

Hah!

It has nothing to do with smoking and drinking. Ava Gardner drank like a fish but remained fairly attractive through most of her life.

Bacall was like Liz T. She was so overwhelmingly beautiful as a fresh faced girl, when age hardened their looks the difference was staggering.

Ava Gardner didn't age well at all because of all the smoking and drinking.

Of course it had a lot to do with smoking and drinking. But also body type. Gardner was plumper, heavier overall than Bacall.

Plus she had those hooded lids when she came out of mommy.

Decaf coffee

Gardner still aged like shit.

R13 That all of her money come from her film and stage career? Or did she inherit her husbands estate after he died. I've always wondered how she was able to afford that huge apartment at the Dakota in NYC? She really did live well in life.

She bought the Dakota apartment in the early 60s when the Dakota wasn't hugely expensive.

Looking after an alcoholic husband?

Her harsh, angular features only looked good in the first flush of youth with a touch of baby fat rounding them out. (Yes, I know she was always very slim, but her face had a rounder, softer quality when she was young.)

Even by her mid-20s, her beauty was pretty much gone, though she had style and a terrific voice and of course, the residual stardust of being Bogey's widow and having appeared in a few genuine classic films.

Smokin' and drinkin' on a Tuesday night.

Jewish women rarely age well.

Gardner needed special lighting to erase the bags under her eyes when she hit 40.

All her leading men were younger than her from that time.

R45, Excuse me?

As others have noted above, Lauren was a chain smoker for most of her life and also drank. This can cause you to hit a wall in your late twenties, especially if you weren’t blessed with great genetics. Combine that with sun exposure (Bacall spent a good deal of her life in California) and it makes sense why she aged the way she did.

I’d guess the smoking is what hardened her looks the most though. It’s common knowledge that smoking is bad for the skin, among other things. In her later years, Bacall’s voice—which was already naturally quite deep—was gravelly and extremely blown out.

you couldn't use my thread, cunt OP right? you had to create another lauren Bacall thread right on my tail. Fuck you. I hope you get the Mpox. You're WORSE than Hitler.

R45 not true - maybe not as well as Italians but they’re still “ethnics” who almost always age better than their Celtic & Scandinavian counterparts.

But also, she had those hooded eyes - which I think are the most striking, but they do age you (think Faye Dunaway). However, surgery on them is risky in that I can erase a good part of what made you beautiful/striking in the first place.

Bacall did ultimately have great face work done, though. She looked much better in The Mirror Has Two Faces then in the 70s and 80s.

After reading some of these horror stories however, it’s absolutely zero surprise she never won that Oscar (she deserved it, though and that shouldn’t factor in but of course it does and then some).

No wonder Lauren was best friend with Katharine Hepburn. They were both cunts.

Much better thread about Bacall >

R50 "She looked much better in The Mirror Has Two Faces then in the 70s and 80s"

Very true. She was basically glowing during that period. I believe she had high hopes to win an Oscar during that time.

Lauren Bacall may have looked a bit mannish but overall I think she's aged well. Even in her senior years she was quite elegant and perfect for the roles she played.

R54 In old age, she looked really good for an old woman. But when she was still in her 20s and early 30s, she looked like an old woman.

[quote]maybe not as well as Italians but they’re still “ethnics” who almost always age better than their Celtic & Scandinavian counterparts.

Oh for fuck's sake the Datalounge Ethnic Bureau have arrived from 1957 in their time machine.

#43 & #48 hit the truth of the Betty Bacall situation on the money! Because I believe that both genetics & also lifestyle choices pack a powerful 1-2 combo punch, I have to wonder how her mother fared as she aged?

Thanks go to #4 & #43 for their visuals supplied here. Without a doubt, when she was young, Ms. Bacall was a stunning looker!

The closing shot in The Big Sleep is unforgettable as she and Bogie stand side to side and speak their closing lines while a police siren begins to wail nearby. In response, Lauren turns slightly to her left and gives off one of her more memorable looks via the slants of her eyes. That ending shot is a classic & the scene, backed by the swelling of the "TBS love theme" music of Max Steiner, just overflows with their onscreen chemistry! It always destroys me !

[quote] Gardner still aged like shit.

She didn’t look like a man when she was 29.

Lauren Bacall had an affair with Martin Scorcese in the late ‘90s?

Wow!

The outsized Bacall hate on this board never made sense to me. Most of the celebrities DL loves were CUNTS. She wasn't anything outrageously cunty, she's a specific breed of old NYC rich entitled Jewish bitch that's almost completely died out.

And you must have to blind or a contrarian to think she wasn't stunning in her prime. Perfect face. And I think she looked very elegant as an older woman, even if she wasn't "youthful." I prefer the haggard bitches of yesterday to the plastic surgery cold fish of today.

She had a great facelift and her eyes looked much better after she had them done. I loved her beautiful, if manufactured, voice. She had presence. She was elegant in old age. I liked her.

Here, pre facelift and pre eye work and with grey hair, she doesn't look good and seems very affected. She looks like Charlotte Rampling in this interview/

Apparently the Lauren in Ralph Lauren is after Lauren Bacall

Her family was rich, she was a beautiful female, she became a model and then a Hollywood actress at a young age. She was never NOT going to succeed in life. Any one of us here would've succeeded under those circumstances.

Beautiful females get the royal treatment in life, while everyone else gets to eat shit.

By marrying Bogie, she permanently etched herself onto the A list. Lauren was always a star, and had the smarts to surround herself with the cream of the crop. She had that Hollywood mystique all over her like she was wearing a Blackgama fur doused in glitter.

She was a survivor. And her reinventions were something to be admired.

A woman who never sang a note professionally becoming a two-time Tony winner for Best Actress in a musical is something to behold.

They don't make them like that anymore, kids. They really don't.

R59 I'm also very surprised. I've never heard that.

Bacall's family weren't rich. She was bought up in the Bronx by an immigrant single mother who was a secretary

R67 True , She didn't come from rich family. Lauren herslef admitted that and talked about her humble early life in her book.

Lauren Bacall said she had a major crush on unknown Kirk Douglas, before they became actors.

R60 DL hate everyone. Get over it.

She was from low class stock and seemed to have a chip on her shoulder about it even when she reached the upper echelon. I think Bogie’s early death might have made her meaner too. Whatever might have been imperfect about their relationship, he was truly the love of her life.

R71 Wrong

The love of Lauren's life is Frank Sinatra.

Dear R51, you can’t know how much I appreciate SOMEBODY slagging off on Hepburn.

My mom thought she was such a great role model. Flagrantly shacking up with the married Spencer Tracey? Telling “daddy” (a doctor) to cut her lavish checks when she needed more money? Raising hell when her lodgings weren’t the equal of Bogart’s?

The only thing she ever did worth emulating was wearing pants when she felt like it. That was a real step. Rah.

She and Bacall both sincerely believed their press, self-impressed bitches that they were.

Katharine Hepburn was a tremendous snob

R56 it was only a response to the idiocy that Jewish women don’t age well. Anyway I agree with most of the posts here no matter what she was a legend.

Some women considered great beauties when young simply do not age well. See Bergman, Ingrid.

Ingrid looked fine for a woman of her age. You just think these women didn’t age well because the insane demands for old women to somehow look and dress like 20-30 somethings weren’t around back then.

To be fair, Gardner didn’t hit the wall until she was forty years old. Bacall, much sooner.

Lauren played the Widow Bogart even when she remarried…

R76 Ingrid Bergman was very attractive into middle age. It wasn’t until the last decade of her life, when she was suffering from cancer that she started to age really visibly. She was diagnosed in 1974 and died in 1982, on her 67th birthday.

[quote]Her family was rich...

Why do you make things up, R64? Just want to see who's gullible enough to believe you?

I'll tell you a secret: caffeine sometimes made her tense. And tension can show on your face!

[quote]Flagrantly shacking up with the married Spencer Tracey?

Kate shacked up with Spencer Tracy?! That's weird. She was a lez.

It was bizarre to see her looking so much better in The Mirror Has Two Faces in '96 than The Fan from '81. Whatever work she had done was fantastic.

A friend of mine was in college one of the Harvard Krokodiloes, the university's oldest male singing group. He once performed with them for some big occasion for Leonard Bernstein in NYC in the 80s. Lauren Bacall was the mistress of ceremonies, and he said she was an unspeakable bitch to everyone, including especially to his group because they were all young men in tuxedos and looked interchangeable.

I never get the Datalounge argument that if you're famous you're somehow allowed to be a screeching cunt to other people. And yes you can be famous on Broadway and in Hollywood and still be nice to people: Liza Minnelli, Julie Andrews, Angela Lansbury, Hugh Jackman, Carol Channing, Sutton Foster are or were well known for being extremely nice in real life besides being extremely talented on the stage and screen.

Her eyes were small and homely at normal angles and lighting conditions. The idea that her signature downward tilt looking up, came from being so nervous it was the only way to keep from shaking, was probably PR.

R81 That's what her wiki says. If it's not so, change it.

R87 EGADS! WHAT A HOMELY HORROR SHOW THIS WOMAN IS!

Her wiki says she got money from a wealthy family to attend a private school, some kind of benefactor scholarship. Please learn to read.

[quote]She was a mean, nasty bitch her whole life

Yes, but Betty knew who she had to tiptoe around, like Lena and Barbra.

R90 [quote]Educated at the expense of wealthy uncles at a private boarding school, Highland Manor, Tarrytown, New York, and at the Julia Richman High School, Manhattan, Betty intended to be a dancer, having attended ballet classes since infancy.

She was discovered by Diana Vreeland.

Exactly, R92. That doesn't mean her parents were rich. She was born in The Bronx. Not a whole lot of rich people there, maybe with the exception of Riverdale.

What was she so very bitter about?

R95 Frank Sinatra dumping her

R96- Thanks! I believe I read years ago that he publicly humiliated her.

Anyone what her relationship with Jason was like? Both drunks or sure. But was he Prince Harry to her Meg?

Here's why she was bitter:

*She had a good career in the 40s but she didn't have the GREAT career she thought she would when she started--there were many other beautiful young women in Hollywood at the time, and though she had a better career than most, she did not have an A-list Hollywood career. She was known for being beautiful and for being Humphrey Bogart's wife. [On the plus side, she was famously incredibly choosy about the films she made, so the ones she did appear in had some genuine classics among them "the Big Sleep, "To Have and Have Not," "Dark Passage," and "Young Man with a Horn"]

*Bogart married her even though he was quite a bit older, but she thought they would be together longer. They were barely together for ten years when he developed cancer, and then she had an awful two years caring for him.

*Her next husband, Jason Robards he turned out to be a womanizing alcoholic, so she divorced him. Their marriage was by all accounts awful.

*Even though she found new career life doing musicals on Broadway, everyone knew she couldn't sing or dance and she was mocked a lot for it. (the story about Ethel Merman going to see her and shouting loudly "JESUS!" when Bacall began to sing is of course legendary.) And she didn't make a lot of money from it.

Heavy smoking and drinking? Years of abuse from her erstwhile iconic asshole husband? She was a big smoker early on.

People in that part of the country get too much sun exposure and sub burns, too.

Sun-bathing, drinking, and smoking--the same thing for Sean Bean. He looks so damn old! He's still alive, though. He's got that on Lauren.

[quote] People in that part of the country get too much sun exposure and sub burns, too.

New York City? She lived most of her life there.

I should've mentioned that, for the record, suntanning, smoking (even weed) and chronic drinking EACH can cause premature aging to humans, esp. in the face.

Result of being a bitch.

For a heavy smoking and drinking broad she lived an awfully long life. So she got lucky there.

She looks a lot like a young Justine Bateman in R87's pic, I've heard the comparison before but never really thought so until now. I think because of her affiliation with Bogart, she was in turn associated with Classic Hollywood and some of the great actresses, Davis, Hepburn, etc. yet, she didn't have the body of work that they did (nor the talent) and that might have been a bit discomfiting to know.

She looks trans in R87. Striking, but trans.

I read her biography so long ago. I do remember that she and Bogie named their son Steve after Bogie's character in To Have and Have Not, and that's she was friends with "Buzz" Meredith. I don't remember why or how they met.

Personally, I never cared for her looks. Only a couple gorgeous angles when very young. Never a pretty smile. But I am fascinated by famous widows.

I have never like her nor thought she was particularly beautiful, even when young. She was such a bitter cunt and that was overwhelming unattractive to me.

Not fair comparing Lauren Bacall's aging in her later years to Ava Gardner or Ingrid Bergman because of how different their lifespans were. Lauren lived to around 90 years of age! Ava only lived until around 67. And Ingrid also died relatively young at around 67.

A lot of people underestimate just how badly smoking fucks up your looks. My grandmother (who weirdly sort of looked like and sounded like Lauren) was from the same era and smoked like a chimney from age 12—Marlboro Reds all day, every day. Lung cancer got her and she died a couple months after her 59th birthday. She looked much older than she was when she died. Like R104 said, Lauren was lucky that she lived to be almost 90. Two of my grandmother's sisters were also chainsmokers but neither ever ended up with cancer (though they looked worse for wear). I suppose to some extent it's really just the luck of the draw. My last surviving great-aunt is in her late 80s now, never smoked, and is still extremely glamorous and looks very good for her age.

Someone who knew her said her bark was worse than her bite and that she was acutely insecure

R111 this is true if most people who have a cunty reputation

Insecure or not, treating people like shit is never acceptable.

r113: never acceptable to anyone except Dataloungers. They PREFER their favorite divas treat "the little people" like shit.

Well it is amusing, I suppose r114.

Bacall bought her nine room apartment at the Dakota in 1961 for somewhere between $28,000 - $48,000!

Can you even IMAGINE?

R116 According to the website I used, if she paid $48K, today that apartment should cost $476K.

You can't buy into the Dakota for under several mil. That's if you are approved.

It sold for $26 million.

R110, what's even more amazing is that Bette Davis lived to almost 90 as well. This, after probably 70 years of smoking five packs a day, even refusing to stop after her cancer and strokes.

R60-R61 -- GREAT post and pre-facelift examples.

And the bitch said she never had any plastic surgery...

R120 Davis made it to 81 so not almost 90, but still a good run for someone who smoked as heavily as she did. If you’ve made it to 80 and have chainsmoked for decades and decades, why bother quitting? The damage is done and you’re nearing the end of your life anyway.

I smoked in and off until I was 29, and I don’t do it regularly anymore except for a rare celebratory occasion, where I’ll allow myself to have a cigarette or two. I don’t drink, so a couple of cigarettes is the extent of my having “a night out.”

She just didn't know how to take care of herself!

She was beautiful. Bogie abused her. She was a Jew in an industry that hated Jews. She worked hard and earned the praise she got.

She smoked to lower her voice. She drank booze because Bogart was a pathetic alcoholic She married him when she was quite young. He moldeded her.

She didn t'look manly. Pull back her hair and Veronica Lake looked manly. Have any of you bitches ever watched one of her performances? Start to finish? She was good. She was smart and blunt. Many people didn't like these facts. She still had fame and fortune.

She had OCPD and cirrhosis of the liver. Then, she had a stroke that killed her.

You all sound like you know nothing about her or her work. Just a load of antisemites.

Hawkes, the director, renamed her Lauren. Her real name was Betty Joan Perske. Shimon Peres, the assassinated Israeli leader was her cousin.

R124 that sounds like a lot of shucking of personal accountability on the basis that Lauren was Jewish (and I say that as someone whose Russian-Jewish great-grandfather died in the Holocaust—don't even go there). She was talented, made her mark, and is a legend for various reasons, one of them being that she was notoriously not the nicest person. Just because you've experienced hardship doesn't mean you have to take your anger out on others, which, by many accounts, it seems she did.

meant shirking, not shucking--yikes

There's a scene in the Doris Duke movie where Duke is dying and Bacall has very little makeup on and you can see facelift scars

I thought she was great in Too Rich

You can't say she aged badly

r124 How do you know she had OCPD and cirrhosis of the liver? Did you know her? I'd never pick her for OCD but perhaps you have insider information?

R130 Betty's obsessive-compulsive tendencies were widely known throughout the Dakota. Her neighbors heard her turning her faucets on and off through all hours of the night, and onlookers from Central Park witnessed her bedroom light going on and off 34 times each evening.

I think this person probably meant COPD.

[quote] Shimon Peres, the assassinated Israeli leader was her cousin.

You are thinking of Yitzhak Rabin

Peres died in 2016 at the ripe old age of 93

Oh FFS, OCD! Really? Who's got time for that shit?!

It is very unlikely that Bacall would have lived to be 89 if she had cirrhosis. I don't know what R124 is talking about.

R122, she was a Jew in an industry run by Jews. She did alright.

[quote] he moldeded her

I was moldeded.

Dionne Warwick is 81 and still sucking down her Virginia Slims. Some people can smoke and get away with it.

She was a rotten, mean, nasty cunt.

[quote]I was moldeded.

Was it by your dentist after he shot you up with Novocaine and other sedatives?

Me too!

My Jewish grandmother turns 100 soon, and she still smokes - survived a major stroke (not to mention the Holocaust..). Some people are built different.

It was the stroke (at age 85) that damaged her looks the most, she was never extremely beautiful but looked like a classy older woman.

She was traumatized when Christopher stole her gift basket.

R29 she Was NOT attractive in any way shape or form in the 1990s

I recommend watching the full interview with Hollywood hairstylist Judy Crown that was linked above. She give a great account of what it's like to work behind the scenes as a hairdresser to the stars.

Does anyone else think Judy Crown is the one who keeps posting the interviews with Judy Crown?

Interestingly enough, despite her contempt for "The Fan", Betty apparently considered her acting in it among the best she ever did. Make of that what you will.

Say what you want, Judy knows her stuff.

[quote]Betty apparently considered her acting in it among the best she ever did.

Not to mention her singing!

you just know Bacall relished swearing in that Sopranos clip

[quote] She was a Jew in an industry that hated Jews.

HOLLYWOOD hates JEWS???

Oh Blanche, TRY AGAIN....

That's like saying the Antwerp diamond-cutting industry is notoriously anti-Semitic....

Some claims of victimhood simply will not fly.

R149 gosh some of you are dense. Just because all/most of the producers were Jewish doesn’t mean they wanted their comely studio groomed actresses to be/look in any way Jewish.

[quote]She was having an affair with Martin Scorsese in the late 90's and begged him for roles, she was still attractive, he should have made use of her.

R20 Good luck creating this fiction.

So, I was born rich, had OCD, and dated Martin Scorsese when I was an old lady? Who writes this fuckin shit?!

I believe it was Betty LYNN who was fucking Scorsese in the 90s.

Bogart and Bacall's son Steven, seems pretty dopey and sells real estate

The matronly styles of the 50s didn't flatter unless you were a fresh-faced starlet or a sexpot. Lauren was a "lady". Her looks got their second wind in the 60s.

[quote]You all sound like you know nothing about her or her work. Just a load of antisemites

R124, you had me until you called us all anti-Semites.

I like Lauren Bacall, saw her on stage twice, saw her later films, only a couple of the early ones. Liked her older. I have no emotional negative feelings like others here, perhaps because I didn't know her or know anyone who bumped into or worked with her. She was a bitch from most accounts, fine. I don't really give a shit, and I'm not a Bogart worshiper. It has nothing to do with being Jewish, most people don't even know she was Jewish. I'm Jewish, btw, and not an anti-semite.

Yes, the moguls and directors were all Jewish but the actors and actresses all had to change their names and look as "non-Jewish" as possible if they were big stars. See Lamarr, Hedy as well. If she or Bacall looked like Barbra Streisand, they wouldn't have had their careers.

Why was Bacall such a raging cunt all the time? She led quite a charmed life.

she looks good in this 1987 interview and not like she's had any noticeable plastic surgery. She was 63

the face got tightened and the hooded eyes disappeared between 1988 and 1996

Bacall, Jackie Onassis and Lee Radziwill all had good facelifts and their eyes done well. There was someone doing good plastic surgery in New York in the late 80s early 90s

Lauren was way better looking than Jackie O, who looked like an ugly, beady eyed drag queen.

Jackie Kennedy Onassis..ET without Make-up!!

Joan Rivers

Jackie O. was not stunningly beautiful she was elegant. This is breeding - manners, deportment, presentation, way of moving, etc. This is high at when done correctly. Snapping at theater pages and autograph seekers is inelegant.

^^high art

At R87, she looks a bit like Princess Stéphanie of Monaco.

R155, DAMN, he sure inherited both parents looks. And habits.

He's only FIFTY-FOUR in that clip, but has the saggy-baggy eyes of a 70 year old.

And he sounds like he smokes a carton a day. Poor kid was basically smoking since he was born, considering both parent's nicky addictions.

R161 what’s wrong with hooded eyes? Many of the most beautiful women have them.

Anyone who is famous for their beauty as a teen or very young adult will look comparatively worse as they age than someone who first came to attention when they were older and their looks already formed.

They droop over the eyes after about age 40 R169. In Bacall's case it was about age 35...

what’s wrong with hooded eyes? Many of the most beautiful women have them.

don't ask me, ask Bacall, she's the one who got rid of them

[R161] what’s wrong with hooded eyes? Many of the most beautiful women have them.

you can't fuckin see!

Boy Claire Trevor kept hers. She looks great in this 1961 Alfred Hitchcock episode I’m watching.