Lauren Bacall (1924–2014) was born Betty Joan Perske on this day in Greenwich Village, a dreamer with fire in her eyes and ambition in her bones. From the beginning, she wanted to be an actress, saying, “I loved to dream about other worlds and other lives... I loved to pretend.”

At just 19, her smoldering gaze on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar caught the attention of director Howard Hawks. That iconic cover, and the nerves that made her lower her chin and look up, created what the world would come to know as “The Look.”

She made her film debut in To Have and Have Not (1944) opposite Humphrey Bogart and delivered the unforgettable line: “You know how to whistle, don’t you? You just put your lips together...and blow.” Bogart and the world whistled back.

Bacall and Bogart married a year later, starring in five classic films together. “No one has ever written a romance better than we lived it,” she later said. He was her greatest love, and she remembered him as “a very complicated, fascinating man… totally solid and totally dependable. Character just oozed out of his pores.”

Known for her husky voice, beautiful eyes, and no-nonsense style, Bacall triumphed on Broadway, wrote a bestselling biography, and continued to shine long after her Hollywood debut. “I think your whole life shows in your face,” she once said, “and you should be proud of that.”

Even late in life, she embraced new challenges with fearless spirit. “As long as I can walk and talk,” she joked, “I’ll try almost anything. I say ‘almost’ because the high wire is definitely out.”

“These are the good old days,” she said, a reminder to keep honoring the present moment with heart and style.