Lauren Bacall's TV Roles, From 'The Sopranos' to 'Family Guy'
Lauren Bacall left behind a massive body of movie work before her death at age 89, but the silver-screen legend, best known for her many pairings both on- and off-camera with Humphrey Bogart, made several TV appearances in her later years, and was actually a three-time Emmy nominee.
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Her role in the a 1973 TV-movie adaptation of the Broadway musical Applause scored the actress her first Emmy nod, and an arc on The Rockford Files in 1979 landed her a second when Bacall played Kendall Warren, a jet-setter who was being stalked by a would-be killer in the memorable two-part episode “Lions, Tigers, Monkeys and Dogs.”
The husky-voiced, big-screen siren didn’t get the Emmy (Dallas star Barbara Bel Geddes won in the Outstanding Lead Actressin a Drama category), but she did get to work alongside good pal James Garner. (And yes, romance rumors flew.)
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Nineteen years later, Bacall checked in to the CBS drama Chicago Hope for another two-parter, this time playing a wealthy artist with an inoperable brain tumor. At the time, the 73-year-old actress told The Los Angeles Times that it had been a while since she’d had a decent “offer of a movie” and revealed the sad truth about Hollywood: “They were certainly not breaking down the doors for me, anyway,” she said.
The actress described the 1998 Chicago Hope role as “refreshing,” but added that television in general had become “awfully arrogant.”
"They don’t offer you much, and there’s no point in that kind of exposure unless, first of all, you’re paid well and, second of all, it’s really good material,” she said. “I mean, good material comes before anything.”
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Bacall gave Chicago Hope her seal of approval, though, citing the drama’s well-written scripts and talented cast. Her only complaint? “They use two cameras a lot, which I am not used to at all. But the directors have been terrific,” she said.
Her experience on Hope must have been good, because Bacall later made a cameo on a star-studded episode of The Sopranos. The 2006 episode of the HBO crime drama, titled “Luxury Lounge,” had the actress in town for an awards show, but in true Sopranos style, she was later mugged. The movie icon even took a punch in the face from Christopher (Michael Imperioli).
[Warning: This clip contains strong language.]
And who can forget the legendary star’s most recent TV fling, which occurred just this spring, when she voiced the BFF of Peter Griffin’s late mother on the animated comedy Family Guy? Bacall made good use of her come-hither ways when her flirty character, the recently widowed Evelyn, turned up to console Peter, but went in for a totally inappropriate kiss instead.
It would be Bacall’s last screen credit, so somehow it seems only fitting that she sealed things with a kiss.
