Crossword Genius

Neural defect has bachelor telephone dead actress (6,6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

lauren bacall

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'actress' is the definition.
(I know that Lauren Bacall is a actress)

'neural defect has bachelor telephone dead' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
an anagram of 'neural' is 'lauren' which is located in the answer.
'bachelor' could be 'ba' (the qualification: Bachelor of Arts) and 'ba' is located in the answer.
'telephone' could be 'call' (call is a kind of telephone) and 'call' is found in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for lauren bacall that I've seen before include "Film star" , "Betty Joan Perske" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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