Oscar honors film legends

Actress Lauren Bacall, whose glamour and no-nonsense attitude with her male counterparts have captivated audiences for decades, is being awarded an Honorary Oscar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Also being honored are producer-director Roger Corman, cinematographer Gordon Willis and producer John Calley.

A Star Is Found

Born Betty Joan Perske, Lauren Bacall was a student of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (appearing off-Broadway as Betty Bacall) and was only 19 when, having been spotted on the cover of Harper's Bazaar, she obtained a screen test from director Howard Hawks. He cast her in "To Have and Have Not" opposite Humphrey Bogart.

Just Put Your Lips Together and Blow

Her teaming with Bogie was the beginning of a beautiful friendship (they were married in 1945) and the launch of a timeless screen duo.

Film Noir

Bacall starred as Vivian Sternwood Rutledge in the Raymond Chandler mystery, "The Big Sleep" (1946). She later appeared with Bogie in "Dark Passage" and "Key Largo" (right). Bacall's other credits included "Young Man with a Horn," "How to Marry a Millionaire," "Designing Woman," "Sex and the Single Girl" and "Harper."

Gams

The one on the right is Vice President Harry Truman, playing the piano at the Washington Press Club, February 10, 1945.

She's Still Got It

Clockwise from top left: Bacall returned to the stage, winning Tony Awards for the musicals "Applause" and "Woman of the Year," but she continued to make memorable film appearances, including "Murder on the Orient Express," "The Mirror Has Two Faces" (nabbing her only Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actress), "The Shootist" and "Dogville."

All Hail the King of the Bs!

Roger Corman's credits as producer or director top 350, and while his budgets may not have been regal, he helped foster the careers of such Hollywood royalty as Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, Jonathan Demme, James Cameron, Joe Dante and Ron Howard. But he wasn't merely a purveyor of pop thrills: his company also released films by Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa and Ingmar Bergman.

Exploitation Films

Corman became synonymous with exploitation films of the 1950s, '60s and '70s -- usually featuring monsters, teenagers, bikers, fast cars, faster women, or any combination of the above. Some sample film titles (clockwise from top left): "Little Shop of Horrors," "It Conquered the World," "Teenage Caveman," "Rock 'n' Roll High School," "The Wild Angels," "Death Race 2000," and "X -- The Man With X-Ray Eyes" (center).

The Horror Masters

Corman is perhaps most fondly remembered for his adaptations (somewhat loose though they were) of the stories of Edgar Allen Poe, most featuring Vincent Price, including "The House of Usher," "The Pit and the Pendulum," and "The Masque of the Red Death."

The Prince of Darkness

Gordon Willis' camerawork was perhaps too revolutionary. His willingness to "go dark" if the characters and story demanded it aliented some (including members of the Academy's cinematography branch), yet his craftmanship contributed to several modern-day masterworks, from "The Godfather" trilogy and "All the President's Men" to a string of Woody Allen classics.

Windows to the Soul

Executives viewing dailies of "The Godfather" wanted Willis fired, complaining that they couldn't see the eyes of their star, Marlon Brando. That, Willis might say, was the point. The shadows of his deep, golden-hued photography merely accented the darkness in the soul of Don Corleone.

The Hunt

Capturing artfully-staged tableaux of violence, or juxtaposing personifications of evil in all its guises, Willis' camera brought the classic moral struggles of Francis Coppola's epic "The Godfather Part II" to new levels of grandeur.

Cosmopolitan

Willis' long collaboration with Woody Allen began on "Annie Hall," but it was his luxurious widescreen black-and-white photography for "Manhattan" which showed the city in a new, gleaming light. The movie's hallmark image is a near-dawn romantic interlude in the shadow of the Queensborough Bridge.

The Chameleon

Willis finally received his first Oscar nomination for the 1983 mockumentary "Zelig," using period equipment to shoot new footage -- even stomping on the film to "age" it -- while artfully matching lighting, resolution and scratches to seamlessly mix new footage with old newsreels, as here where Leonard Zelig (Woody Allen) is seen waiting on deck while the Babe takes a swing.

John Calley

Veteran producer and studio executive John Calley (here at the 2007 premiere of "The Jane Austen Book Club") will receive the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for his "consistently high quality of motion picture production."

At the Helm

In the 1970s and early '80s Calley oversaw a rich production slate at Warner Brothers, including films by Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Sidney Lumet and Robert Altman, and box office hits like "Deliverance," "The Exorcist," "Blazing Saddles," "Superman," and the Oscar-winning "Chariots of Fire." He later shepherded James Bond as chairman of Sony Pictures.

Calley's Credits

Calley's varied producer credits include "The Loved One," "Catch-22" (top left, with Alan Arkin), "Postcards from the Edge" (top right, with Meryl Streep), "Closer," "The Da Vinci Code" (bottom right, with Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou), "Angels & Demons," and the Oscar-nominated "The Remains of the Day" (bottom right, with Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins).

An Oscar for Betty

Honorary Award recipient Lauren Bacall at the 2009 Governors Awards, in the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 14, 2009.

This Year's Oscar Winners

Honorary Award recipients Roger Corman, Lauren Bacall and Gordon Willis following the 2009 Governors Awards, in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 14, 2009.

By CBSNews.com producer David Morgan