Lauren Bacall to get honorary Oscar

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Lauren Bacall, whose sultry roles in film noir movies "To Have and Have Not," "The Big Sleep" and "Dark Passage" earned her Hollywood immortality, is to get an honorary Oscar.

The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted late on Thursday to honor Bacall with an honorary Oscar, along with other Hollywood figures.

The 84-year-old Bacall, who was married to screen legend Humphrey Bogart until his death in 1957, has never received an Oscar, although she was nominated for her supporting role in 1996 movie "The Mirror Has Two Faces."

Bacall made her screen debut opposite Bogart in the 1944 movie "To Have and Have Not," the first of more than 30 films she starred in.

The Board of Governors also voted to award honorary Oscars to producer and director Roger Corman and cinematographer Gordon Willis, and to give the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial award to producer and movie executive John Calley.

Corman is a king of low-budget "B movies" who made "It Conquered the World" (1956), "The Little Shop of Horrors" (1960) and "The Raven" (1963), which was based on the poem by American author Edgar Allan Poe.

Willis has been a cinematographer on more than 30 films, and was nominated for two Oscars. Calley's producing credits include "Postcards from the Edge" (1990) and this year's "Angels & Demons."

The honorary Oscars that Bacall, Corman and Willis will receive are to honor "extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement" or service to the motion picture academy.

The Thalberg Award was created to honor producers who create "high quality" work, the academy said.

All four will receive their awards on November 14 at an event in Hollywood. Organizers of the Oscars created the event to hand out those statues ahead of the Academy Awards in March and ease the time crunch for the telecast of the glitzy show.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Alison Williams)