One of the greatest power couples of the Hollywood Golden Age was Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.
The pair met on the set of the 1944 romance To Have and Have Not. Bacall was just 19 at the time, and Bogart—26 years her senior—was currently married to his third wife. Nonetheless, the couple quickly became close and married in 1945. Together, they were a force to be reckoned with—though Bacall herself needed little help in that…
Throughout her career, Bacall became as well known around Hollywood for the roles she refused as for those she took on. Repeatedly clashing with directors and producers, she soon gained a reputation among studio heads for being difficult, when in fact she was merely refusing to play by their rules and wanted to take control of her career.
During her contract with Warner Bros. in the late 1940s, Bacall was suspended a record six times in six years. Her determination to control her career and make her own choices came to a head in the spring of 1946 when both she and Bogart came to blows with the studio heads at Warner, who suspended the couple after they refused to star in their latest drama, Stallion Road. Looking to escape Hollywood during their suspension, the couple took a short cruise on their yacht, the Santana—leading Variety magazine to label the standoff between them and Warner Bros. the “Mutiny on the Santana.”
Eventually, Bacall’s near-constant refusal to play ball with the studio heads at Warner proved too much, and she was let go from her contract in 1950. In typical no-nonsense style, however, she simply drove off the Warner lot, across Hollywood, parked up at 20th Century Fox, and signed a new contract with them that afternoon.