The 100 Greatest Brooklynites of All Time: 30 to 21
We always assumed Bacall came from Old European aristocracy. But she’s actually Jewish, born Betty Perske, and spent her first few years in Brooklyn, like so many children of Jewish immigrants in the 20th century did. Younger than her first husband Humphrey Bogart—with whom she memorably starred in films like To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep and Key Largo—by 25 years, Bacall is still alive and working, most notably in recent years in both parts of Lars von Trier’s aborted USA: Land of Opportunities trilogy.
