Legendary Hollywood couple Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall met on the set of To Have and Have Not in 1944. The two were said to be slightly wary of one another — and Lauren was not known for having a positive preconception about Humphrey at all — but their on-screen chemistry quickly translated to real-life love off-screen.
Humphrey was still married to his third wife, Mayo Methot, when he met Lauren, and he was unwilling to leave her.
However, Humphrey and Mayo had a notoriously dramatic relationship that did end up concluding in divorce in 1945. In fact, his divorce was finalized on May 10, and he and Lauren got married on May 21.
Lauren was only 20 years old when she married Humphrey, who was approaching his mid-40s. But in her 2005 book By Myself and Then Some, Lauren explained that she was dedicated to Humphrey and wanted to "fill his life with laughter, warmth, joy — things he hadn’t had for such a long time, if ever."
Lauren was also content with slowing down her own career in order to support Humphrey's. The two would go on to make a total of four films together — To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, and Key Largo.
The pair had two children together, a son named Stephen and a daughter named Leslie. The family of four appeared to thrive despite the expectations that others had for them.
In fact, Lauren once said, "When Bogie and I were married, the Hollywood gloom set shook their collective heads and moaned, 'It won't last.' We knew better. What the catastrophe-anticipators didn't consider was that the Bogarts were in love."
In 1979, Lauren explained in greater detail why she paused her own career: "Bogie was an old-fashioned man. He kidded that a woman’s place was in the home, but he was only half kidding. He had divorced three actresses and was convinced that a career and marriage don't mix."
In the same interview, Lauren hinted at her own thoughts on the matter: "Women. We have much more character, a greater sense of honor and conviction. Men behave as if they’re 3 years old all the time. Jesus, I don’t want to be anybody’s mother."
Lauren also said that if Humphrey had not died in 1957, they likely would have stayed together: "Probably, but then my life would have been so different. I would never have gone into the theater because that would have split us up. But I suppose if I had wanted anything badly enough, he probably would have let the girl try her wings for a while."
Lauren also shared that she doesn't mind being remembered by the nickname Humphrey gave her: Baby.
"No, but I get very angry with insensitive strangers who come up when I’m having dinner with a man and start talking to me about Bogie," she explained. "There’s a limit. As Bogie said, 'All an actor owes the public is a good performance.'"
The two were married until Humphrey died from cancer at the age of 57. Lauren kept a record of the health woes that led to his death. Sadly, Humphrey never fully bounced back from a throat surgery that was meant to rid his body of the cancer itself.
Lauren ultimately recalled that while she knew her husband well, he was someone with "so many, many layers that, as well as I knew him, I'm sure I never uncovered them all."
