“I just worshipped her”: Lauren Bacall names her acting idol

Posted On September 7, 2024September 7, 2024

The ‘Golden Age’ of Hollywood was overflowing with so many legendary talents that even the actors who became icons of that period would regularly end up starstruck, with Lauren Bacall reduced to a trembling wreck when she finally came face-to-face with her hero.

That takes some doing, considering she was regularly in the orbit of the A-listers who populated Tinseltown, never mind that she was one of them. The movies she made with offscreen paramour Humphrey Bogart may have been her most famous creative collaborations, but Bacall was regularly found rubbing shoulders with the best in the business.

She starred opposite John Wayne in Blood Alley and The Shootist, teamed with Marilyn Monroe in How to Marry a Millionaire, smouldered with Gregory Peck in Designing Woman, took second billing behind Rock Hudson in Written on the Wind and Paul Newman in Harper, and shared a cast with Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood in Sex and the Single Girl.

With that in mind, Bacall shouldn’t have had any issues crossing paths with the great and the good of the silver screen. There are always exceptions that prove the rule, though, and in her case, it was the irresistible magnetism of Bette Davis that caused her to pick her jaw up from the floor.

“She was absolutely my ideal growing up,” Bacall told Alex Simon. “I just worshipped her. She was the most amazing actress and had this quality about her that was unparalleled, and I still feel that way.” Davis was also notoriously publicity-shy but still made time to pass on words of wisdom to those hoping to follow in her footsteps.

The drawback was that Bacall was barely too stunned to speak, with her uncle’s friend being Davis’ assistant presenting a chance she couldn’t pass up. “I was so nervous I was shaking from head to foot. My whole body was shaking!” she admitted. “We went up to her suite and sat on the sofa in the living room, and suddenly out comes Bette Davis, with that walk! I thought I was going to keel over.”

Fortunately, she didn’t, and Davis reminded Bacall that she’d have to work incredibly hard to make it to the top of a business as ruthless as acting, but she was thrilled enough simply to be in the same room as her inspiration, even if she was “afraid I was going to break the cup because I was shaking so badly” during their conversation.

Even though they were big stars at around the same time and worked with many of the same people, it’s clear that Bacall never viewed herself as being in the same stratosphere as Davis, but at least she didn’t end up embarrassing herself when they met.

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