Humphrey DeForest Bogart, nicknamed Bogie, was an American actor. His performances in classic Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Bogart as the greatest male star of classic American cinema.
Betty Joan Perske, professionally known as Lauren Bacall, was an American actress. She was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute. She received an Academy Honorary Award in 2009 in recognition of her contribution to the Golden Age of motion pictures. She was known for her alluring, sultry presence and her distinctive, husky voice. Bacall was one of the last surviving major stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.
The Petrified Forest is a 1936 American crime drama film directed by Archie Mayo and based on Robert E. Sherwood's 1934 drama of the same name. The motion picture stars Leslie Howard, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. The screenplay was written by Delmer Daves and Charles Kenyon, and adaptations were later performed on radio and television. The film is set in Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.
Gerard James Butler is a Scottish actor and film producer. After studying law, he turned to acting in the mid-1990s with small roles in productions such as Mrs Brown (1997), the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), and Tale of the Mummy (1998). In 2000, he starred as Count Dracula in the gothic horror film Dracula 2000 with Christopher Plummer and Jonny Lee Miller.
Doris Duke was an American billionaire tobacco heiress, philanthropist, and socialite. She was often called "the richest little girl in the world". Her great wealth, luxurious lifestyle, and love life attracted significant press coverage, both during her life and after her death.
The Mirror Has Two Faces is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film produced and directed by Barbra Streisand, who also stars. The screenplay by Richard LaGravenese is loosely based on the 1958 French film Le Miroir à deux faces written by André Cayatte and Gérard Oury. Also starring are Jeff Bridges, Pierce Brosnan, George Segal, Mimi Rogers, Brenda Vaccaro, and Lauren Bacall. The story focuses on a shy, middle-aged professor (Bridges) who enters into a platonic relationship with an unlucky-in-love colleague (Streisand).
Young Man with a Horn is a 1950 American musical drama film starring Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, Doris Day, Hoagy Carmichael, and Juano Hernandez. Directed by Michael Curtiz, it was based on the 1938 novel of the same name by Dorothy Baker inspired by the life of jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke. The film was produced by Jerry Wald, and its screenplay written by Carl Foreman and Edmund H. North.
Confidential Agent is a 1945 American spy film starring Charles Boyer and Lauren Bacall which was a Warner Brothers production. The movie was directed by Herman Shumlin and produced by Robert Buckner, with Jack L. Warner as executive producer. The screenplay was by Robert Buckner, based on the 1939 novel The Confidential Agent by Graham Greene. The music score was by Franz Waxman and the cinematographer was James Wong Howe. The supporting cast included George Coulouris and Peter Lorre.
Designing Woman is a 1957 American Metrocolor romantic comedy film, in CinemaScope, about two young, whirlwind-romanced newlywed professionals and their misadventures in adjusting to each other's lifestyles. Vincente Minnelli directed the film, which stars Gregory Peck, Lauren Bacall, and Dolores Gray, and features Sam Levene and Chuck Connors. The film earned George Wells an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
John Erman was an American television director, producer, and actor. He was nominated for ten Primetime Emmy Awards, winning once for the film Who Will Love My Children? (1983). He also won two Directors Guild of America Awards for the miniseries Roots (1977) and the film An Early Frost (1985).
Bernard and Doris is a 2006 film directed by Bob Balaban. The teleplay by Hugh Costello is a semi-fictionalized account of the relationship that developed between socialite heiress and philanthropist Doris Duke and her self-destructive Irish butler Bernard Lafferty later in her life.
Painting Churches is a play written by Tina Howe, first produced Off-Broadway in 1983. It was a finalist for the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play concerns the relationship between an artist daughter and her aging parents.
The Forger is a 2011 American drama film about art forgery. It stars Josh Hutcherson, Hayden Panettiere, Alfred Molina, Dina Eastwood and Lauren Bacall in her final film role. The film is produced by Michael-Ryan Fletchall and Craig Comstock, directed by Lawrence Roeck, and written by Carlos De Los Rios.
Three Faces East is a 1930 American pre-Code film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Constance Bennett and Erich von Stroheim. Produced by Daryl Zanuck and released by Warner Brothers it is based on a 1918 Broadway play about World War I spies, Three Faces East, by Anthony Paul Kelly. It was filmed as a silent in 1926. A later remake in 1940 starred Boris Karloff and Margaret Lindsay was titled British Intelligence.
Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight is a 1994 American biographical television film directed by Yves Simoneau, written by Anna Sandor, and starring Diane Keaton, Rutger Hauer and Bruce Dern. The film is based on the 1987 book Amelia Earhart: A Biography by Doris L. Rich, and depicts events in the life of Amelia Earhart, focusing on her final flight and disappearance in 1937, with her exploits in aviation and her marriage to publisher George P. Putnam being revealed in flashbacks. It aired on TNT on June 12, 1994.
Wayne Armand Massarelli was an American make-up artist whose film credits included My Fellow Americans, The Muppets Take Manhattan, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, These Old Broads and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. His television work included Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke, Karen Sisco, Grace Under Fire, and Tears and Laughter: The Joan and Melissa Rivers Story.
The Casino Murder Case is a 1935 American mystery film starring Paul Lukas and Alison Skipworth. Rosalind Russell is in the supporting cast. It was directed by Edwin L. Marin from a screenplay by Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf, based on the 1934 novel of the same name by S. S. Van Dine. It was the ninth film in the Philo Vance film series.
American actress Lauren Bacall (1924–2014) had an extensive career in films, television shows, and plays. She was one of the leading ladies during the Golden Age of Hollywood along with actresses such as Marilyn Monroe and Rita Hayworth. Bacall started her career as a teenage fashion model when she appeared on the cover of Harper's Bazaar and was discovered by Howard Hawks' wife Nancy. As she naturally had a high-pitched and nasal voice, she received lessons to help deepen it and was required to shout verses by Shakespeare for hours every day as part of her training.
Perfect Gentlemen is a 1978 American made-for-television comedy crime film starring Lauren Bacall, Ruth Gordon, Sandy Dennis and Lisa Pelikan. The film, produced and directed by Jackie Cooper from a screenplay written by Nora Ephron, was filmed on location in Claremont, California and Hollywood, California from October 27, 1977, to November 1977. It originally premiered on March 14, 1978, on CBS.
Bernard Lafferty was an Irish butler and heir to American tobacco heiress and philanthropist, Doris Duke. Duke hired Lafferty in 1987 and named him the executor of her $1.2 billion estate six months prior to her death in October 1993. Their unorthodox relationship sparked controversy and speculation, although no charges were ever filed against Lafferty regarding her death.
