"You know how to whistle, don't you? You just put your lips together and blow" - Lauren Bacall

HOW could she not be a legend? At 19, she was on the cover of Harper's Bazaar; at 20, she played opposite Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not; a year later, they were married. To the world, she was an icon of sultry sophistication, but Bacall remembers herself differently: "I used to tremble from nerves so badly that the only way I could hold my head steady was to lower my chin practically to my chest and look up at Bogie. That was the beginning of "The Look." In 1957, Bogart died of cancer; not long afterward, Bacall was engaged to Frank Sinatra. Frank, who could be a little squirrely when it came to women, broke off the engagement after it was leaked to the press.

In 1961, she married Jason Robards, Jr., who drank a bit; in 1973, they divorced. Bacall survived all these trials with panache — her three kids and her fabulous clothing remained intact. By the late '60s, The Look had faded, and Hollywood began to yawn, so Bacall turned to Broadway. Though her trademark whiskey voice is more suited to commercial voice-overs, the actress won Tonys for two musicals: Applause and Woman of the Year. In 1979, she wrote a best-selling autobiography, Lauren Bacall, By Myself, and then followed up with Lauren Bacall Now, in 1994, which was largely about her need to work.

In 1996, the still-gorgeous Bacall played Barbra Streisand's hovering mother in The Mirror Has Two Faces (a performance for which she garnered a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination), and a former First Lady in My Fellow Americans. She most recently starred alongside fellow legend Kirk Douglas in the treacly road movie Diamonds, playing, of all things, a madam. Since 1988, Bacall has averaged a film a year or better, and her advertising cachet continues unabated. Perhaps the least likely person on the planet to sign up for a Royal Caribbean cruise, Bacall still does the commercials.