I remember my oldest son, Steve, saying to me once, 'I don't ever remember seeing you with an apron on.' And I thought, that's right, honey, you did not. That was his concept of what a mother should be.

This effect became known as "The Look" Bacall's trademark. Bacall starred in the CinemaScope comedy How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) a runaway hit that saw her teaming up with Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable. She had already won a Golden Globe and was widely expected to win the Oscar but it went instead to Juliette Binoche for The English Patient.

In 2009 Lauren Bacall was selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to receive an Academy Honorary Award "in recognition of her central place in the Golden Age of motion pictures. She first emerged as leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film To Have And Have Not (1944) and continued on in the film noir genre with appearances in Bogart movies The Big Sleep (1946) Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo (1948) as well as a comedienne in How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) with Marilyn Monroe and Designing Woman (1957) with Gregory Peck. Bacall has also worked on Broadway in musicals gaining Tony Awards for Applause in 1970 and Woman of the Year in 1981.