Silver screen legend Lauren Bacall, who died this week at the age of 89, was a staunch liberal,
The Daily Beast reports.
Bacall, who was married to Humphrey Bogart from 1945 until his death from cancer in 1957, was also fervently anti-communist.
"She was a great liberal," wrote The Beast's Michael Tomasky. "And Bogey, too, in fact. They were, in those days when things like this really mattered, deeply liberal and deeply anti-communist."
Her politics may been the result of her upbringing. Born Betty Joan Perske in 1924 in New York City, she was the only child of immigrant parents and the first cousin of
Israel's former president Shimon Peres.
"I know this history mostly because of my dear friend Russ Hemenway. . . who knew 'Betty' well and who even squired her around New York for a time," wrote Tomasky.
"Russ told me that he met Bacall during an Adlai Stevenson campaign. She was smart and sharp and knew the score. Bogey died in 1957, right after Stevenson's second failure.
"Bacall soldiered on in politics, supporting Russ's National Committee for an Effective Congress, which worked to elect progressives to Congress, and other organizations."
Tomasky also revealed that Bacall backed Bobby Kennedy during his Senate run in 1964, and that in 2005 the actress told Larry King she was "anti-Republican . . .a liberal. The L-word."
She told King that "being a liberal is the best thing on earth you can be. You are welcoming to everyone when you're a liberal. You do not have a small mind."
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