Inside Their SPECIAL FRIENDSHIP

THE LEGENDARY ACTRESSES FORGED A STRONG, SUPPORTIVE RELATIONSHIP THAT LASTED MORE THAN 50 YEARS

On the first leg of their journey to Africa together, Lauren Bacall boarded a plane in Rome and discovered Katharine Hepburn hiding in the restroom. “I opened the door and there was Katie laughing uproariously at having outwitted the press,” Lauren remembered in her memoir By Myself.

The exotic set of 1951’s The African Queen began a close friendship between Katharine and Lauren, or “Kate” and “Betty,” as they called each other. Over the next 50 years, the two silver-screen legends shared secrets, sorrows and advice. They leaned on each other when tragedy struck and put friendship first when show business pitted them against each other. “To be accepted as a true friend despite the difference in our ages,” wrote Lauren, who was 17 years Kate’s junior, “is it any wonder I adored her?”

As a young woman in New York, Lauren had seen Katharine onstage and came into the relationship already a fan. To support her husband, Humphrey Bogart, she traveled to the set of where Katharine sized up the younger actress. “She has lovely tawny skin, and she has the most fabulous sandy hair,” Katharine recalled in her memoir

Making of The African Queen. “I gazed at her and wondered if I would go mad with jealousy.”

Instead, they bonded over the shared difficulty of the shoot. Brutally hot and wet weather complicated moviemaking, and the cast’s quarters became infested with fire ants. The entire group, except Bogie and director John Huston, who only drank whiskey, suffered from illness. “I nearly died of the dysentery because the water was poison,” said Katharine, who nonetheless considered making the film one of the greatest adventures of her life.

Back home, Katharine and her partner, Spencer Tracy, became constant companions of the Bogarts. Lauren and Bogie were some of the only people trusted with the romantic nature of Katharine’s relationship with her married