Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey DeForest Bogart ( ; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American actor. His performances in classic Hollywood cinema made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Bogart as the greatest male star of classic American cinema.

Bogart began acting in Broadway shows. Debuting in film in '' The Dancing Town'' (1928), he appeared in supporting roles for more than a decade, regularly portraying gangsters. He was praised for his work as Duke Mantee in ''The Petrified Forest'' (1936). Bogart also received positive reviews for his performance as gangster Hugh "Baby Face" Martin in William Wyler's '' Dead End'' (1937).

His breakthrough came in '' High Sierra'' (1941), and he catapulted to stardom as the lead in John Huston's ''The Maltese Falcon'' (1941), considered one of the first great ''noir'' films. Bogart's private detectives, Sam Spade (in ''The Maltese Falcon'') and Philip Marlowe (in 1946's ''The Big Sleep''), became the models for detectives in other ''noir'' films. In 1947, he played a war hero in another ''noir'', ''Dead Reckoning'', tangled in a dangerous web of brutality and violence as he investigates his friend's murder, co-starring Lizabeth Scott. His first romantic lead role was a memorable one, as Rick Blaine, paired with Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund in ''Casablanca'' (1942). Blaine was ranked as the fourth greatest hero of American cinema by the American Film Institute, and Blaine and Lund's romance the greatest love story in American cinema, also by the American Film Institute. Raymond Chandler, in a 1946 letter, wrote that "Like Edward G. Robinson when he was younger, all he has to do to dominate a scene is to enter it."

44-year-old Bogart and 19-year-old Lauren Bacall fell in love during the filming of '' To Have and Have Not'' (1944). In 1945, a few months after principal photography for ''The Big Sleep'', their second film together, he divorced his third wife and married Bacall. After their marriage, they played each other's love interest in the mystery thrillers '' Dark Passage'' (1947) and '' Key Largo'' (1948). Bogart's performances in Huston's ''The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'' (1948) and Nicholas Ray's '' In a Lonely Place'' (1950) are now considered among his best, although they were not recognized as such when the films were released. He reprised those unsettled, unstable characters as a World War II naval-vessel commander in ''The Caine Mutiny'' (1954), which was a critical and commercial hit and earned him a third Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, following ''Casablanca'' and his win for his portrayal of a cantankerous river steam launch skipper opposite Katharine Hepburn's missionary in the World War I African adventure '' The African Queen'' (1951), another collaboration with Huston. Other significant roles in his later years included '' The Barefoot Contessa'' (1954) with Ava Gardner and his on-screen competition with William Holden for Audrey Hepburn in ''Sabrina'' (1954).

A heavy smoker and drinker, Bogart died from esophageal cancer in January 1957. Four films he starred in, ''Casablanca'', ''The Maltese Falcon'', ''The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'' and ''The African Queen'', made the American Film Institute's 1998 list of the greatest American movies of all time, with ''Casablanca'' ranked second. Regarding her husband's enduring popularity, Bacall later said, "There was something that made him able to be a man of his own, and it showed through his work. There was also a purity, which is amazing considering the parts he played. Something solid too. I think as time goes by, we all believe less and less. Here was someone who believed in something."

Early life and education

Humphrey DeForest Bogart was born on Christmas Day 1899 in New York City, the eldest child of Belmont DeForest Bogart and Maud Humphrey. Belmont was the only child of the unhappy marriage of Adam Welty Bogart (a Canandaigua, New York, innkeeper) and Julia Augusta Stiles, a wealthy heiress. The name "Bogart" derives from the Dutch surname "Bogaert", meaning "orchard". "Boomgaard" in modern Dutch means "orchard"; Bogaert is a very common Flemish surname. Belmont and Maud married in June 1898. He was a Presbyterian, of English and Dutch descent, and a descendant of Sarah Rapelje (the first European Christian girl born in New Netherland). Maud was an Episcopalian of English heritage and a descendant of ''Mayflower'' passenger John Howland. Humphrey was raised Episcopalian but was non-practicing for most of his adult life.

The date of Bogart's birth has been disputed. Clifford McCarty wrote that Warner Bros. publicity department had altered it to January 23, 1900, "to foster the view that a man born on Christmas Day couldn't be as villainous as he appeared to be on screen". The "corrected" January birth date subsequently appeared—and in some cases, remains—in many otherwise-authoritative sources. According to biographers Ann M. Sperber and Eric Lax, Bogart always celebrated his birthday on December 25 and listed it on official records (including his marriage license).

Lauren Bacall wrote in her autobiography that Bogart's birthday was always celebrated on Christmas Day, saying that he joked about being cheated out of a present every year. Sperber and Lax noted that a birth announcement in the ''Ontario County Times'' of January 10, 1900, rules out the possibility of a January 23 birth date; state and federal census records from 1900 also report a Christmas 1899 birth date. Bogart's birth record confirms he was actually born on December 25, 1899.

Belmont, Bogart's father, was a cardiopulmonary surgeon. Maud was a commercial illustrator who received her art training in New York and France, including study with James Abbott McNeill Whistler. She later became art director of the fashion magazine ''The Delineator'' and a militant suffragette.. Maud used a drawing of baby Humphrey in an advertising campaign for Mellins Baby Food. She earned over $50,000 a year at the peak of her career – a very large sum of money at the time, and considerably more than her husband's $20,000. The Bogarts lived in an Upper West Side apartment, and had a cottage on a 55-acre estate on Canandaigua Lake in upstate New York. When he was young, Bogart's group of friends at the lake would put on plays.

He had two younger sisters: Frances ("Pat") and Catherine Elizabeth ("Kay"). Bogart's parents were busy in their careers, and frequently fought. Very formal, they showed little emotion towards their children. Maud told her offspring to call her "Maud" instead of "Mother", and showed little, if any, physical affection for them. When she was pleased, she " apped you on the shoulder, almost the way a man does", Bogart recalled. "I was brought up very unsentimentally but very straightforwardly. A kiss, in our family, was an event. Our mother and father didn't glug over my two sisters and me."

Bogart was teased as a boy for his curls, tidiness, the "cute" pictures his mother had him pose for, the Little Lord Fauntleroy clothes in which she dressed him, and for his first name. He inherited from his father a tendency to needle, a fondness for fishing, a lifelong love of boating, and an attraction to strong-willed women.

Bogart attended the private Delancey School until the fifth grade and then attended the prestigious Trinity School. He was an indifferent, sullen student who showed no interest in after-school activities. Bogart later attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, a boarding school to which he was admitted based on family connections. Although his parents hoped that he would go on to Yale University, Bogart left Phillips in 1918 after one semester (although the Phillips Academy website claims he was in the graduating class of 1920). He failed four out of six classes. Several reasons have been given; according to one, he was expelled for throwing the headmaster (or a groundskeeper) into Rabbit Pond on campus. Another cited smoking, drinking, poor academic performance, and (possibly) inappropriate comments made to the staff. In a third scenario, Bogart was withdrawn by his father for failing to improve his grades. His parents were deeply disappointed in their failed plans for his future.

Navy

With no viable career options, Bogart enlisted in the United States Navy in the spring of 1918, during World War I. He recalled later, "At eighteen, war was great stuff. Paris! Sexy French girls! Hot damn!" Bogart was recorded as a model sailor, who spent most of his sea time after the armistice ferrying troops back from Europe.Sperber and Lax 1997, p. 27. Bogart left the service on June 18, 1919,Famous Veteran: Humphrey Bogart.
Military.com. Retrieved April 16, 2021. at the rank of Petty Officer 2nd Class. During World War II, Bogart attempted to re-enlist in the Navy but was rejected due to his age. He then volunteered for the Coast Guard Temporary Reserve in 1944, patrolling the California coastline in his yacht, the ''Santana''.Celebrities and Other Famous People: A list of people that once served in or was associated with the U.S. Coast Guard.
uscg.mil. Retrieved April 16, 2021.

He may have received his trademark scar and developed his characteristic lisp during his naval stint. There are several conflicting stories. In one, his lip was cut by shrapnel when his ship (the ) was shelled. The ship was never shelled, however, and Bogart may not have been at sea before the armistice. Another story, held by longtime friend Nathaniel Benchley, was that Bogart was injured while taking a prisoner to Portsmouth Naval Prison in Kittery, Maine. While changing trains in Boston, the handcuffed prisoner reportedly asked Bogart for a cigarette. When Bogart looked for a match, the prisoner smashed him across the mouth with the cuffs (cutting Bogart's lip) and fled before being recaptured and imprisoned. In an alternative version, Bogart was struck in the mouth by a handcuff loosened while freeing his charge; the other handcuff was still around the prisoner's wrist. By the time Bogart was treated by a doctor, a scar had formed. David Niven said that when he first asked Bogart about his scar, however, he said that it was caused by a childhood accident. "Goddamn doctor", Bogart later told Niven. "Instead of stitching it up, he screwed it up." According to Niven, the stories that Bogart got the scar during wartime were made up by the studios. His post-service physical did not mention the lip scar, although it noted many smaller scars. When actress Louise Brooks met Bogart in 1924, he had scar tissue on his upper lip which Brooks said Bogart may have had partially repaired before entering the film industry in 1930. Brooks said that his "lip wound gave him no speech impediment, either before or after it was mended."

Acting

First performances

Bogart returned home to find his father in poor health, his medical practice faltering, and much of the family's wealth lost in bad timber investments. His character and values developed separately from his family during his navy days, and he began to rebel. Bogart became a liberal who disliked pretension, phonies and snobs, sometimes defying conventional behavior and authority; he was also well-mannered, articulate, punctual, self-effacing and standoffish. After his naval service, he worked as a shipper and a bond salesman, joining the Coast Guard Reserve.

Frank Kelly Rich writes that Bogart "dove headfirst into the Jazz Age lifestyle, always up for late night revels... When his meager wages were exhausted, he'd play chess against all comers in arcades for a dollar a match (he was a brilliant player) to fund his outings." Mike Doyle of Chess.com writes that "Before he made any money from acting, he would hustle players for dimes and quarters, playing in New York parks and at Coney Island." Bogart resumed his friendship with Bill Brady Jr. (whose father had show-business connections), and obtained an office job with William A. Brady's new World Films company. Although he wanted to try his hand at screenwriting, directing, and production, he excelled at none. Bogart was stage manager for Brady's daughter Alice's play ''A Ruined Lady''. He made his stage debut a few months later as a Japanese butler in Alice's 1921 play ''Drifting'' (nervously delivering one line of dialogue), and appeared in several of her subsequent plays.

Although Bogart had been raised to believe that acting was a lowly profession, he liked the late hours actors kept and the attention they received: "I was born to be indolent and this was the softest of rackets." He spent much of his free time in speakeasies, drinking heavily. A bar-room brawl at this time was also a purported cause of Bogart's lip damage, dovetailing with Louise Brooks' account.

Preferring to learn by doing, he never took acting lessons. Bogart was persistent and worked steadily at his craft, appearing in at least 18 Broadway productions between 1922 and 1935, 11 of which were comedies. He played juveniles or romantic supporting roles in drawing-room comedies and is reportedly the first actor to say, " Tennis, anyone?" on stage. According to Alexander Woollcott, Bogart "is what is usually and mercifully described as inadequate." Other critics were kinder. Heywood Broun, reviewing ''Nerves'', wrote: "Humphrey Bogart gives the most effective performance ... both dry and fresh, if that be possible". He played a juvenile lead (reporter Gregory Brown) in Lynn Starling's comedy '' Meet the Wife'', which had a successful 232-performance run at the Klaw Theatre from November 1923 through July 1924. Bogart disliked his trivial, effeminate early-career parts, calling them "White Pants Willie" roles.

While playing a double role in ''Drifting'' at the Playhouse Theatre in 1922, he met actress Helen Menken; they were married on May 20, 1926, at the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York City. Divorced on November 18, 1927, they remained friends. Menken said in her divorce filing that Bogart valued his career more than marriage, citing neglect and abuse. He married actress Mary Philips on April 3, 1928, at her mother's apartment in Hartford, Connecticut; Bogart and Philips had worked together in the play ''Nerves'' during its brief run at the Comedy Theatre in 1924.

Theatrical production dropped off sharply after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and many of the more-photogenic actors headed for Hollywood. Bogart debuted on film with Helen Hayes in the 1928 two-reeler '' The Dancing Town'', which survives intact. He also appeared with Joan Blondell and Ruth Etting in a Vitaphone short, '' Broadway's Like That'' (1930), which was rediscovered in 1963.

Broadway to Hollywood

Bogart signed a contract with the Fox Film Corporation for $750 a week (about $13,933 in 2025). There he met Spencer Tracy, a Broadway actor whom Bogart liked and admired, and the two men became close friends and drinking companions. In 1930, Tracy first called him "Bogie". Tracy made his feature film debut in his only movie with Bogart, John Ford's early sound film ''Up the River'' (1930), in which their leading roles were as inmates. Tracy received top billing, but Bogart's picture appeared on the film's posters. He was billed fourth behind Tracy, Claire Luce and Warren Hymer but his role was almost as large as Tracy's and much larger than Luce's or Hymer's. A quarter of a century later, the two men planned to make '' The Desperate Hours'' together. Both insisted upon top billing, however; Tracy dropped out, and was replaced by Fredric March.

Bogart then had a supporting role in '' Bad Sister'' (1931) with Bette Davis. Bogart shuttled back and forth between Hollywood and the New York stage from 1930 to 1935, out of work for long periods. His parents had separated; his father died in 1934 in debt, which Bogart eventually paid off. He inherited his father's gold ring, which he wore in many of his films. At his father's deathbed, Bogart finally told him how much he loved him. Bogart's second marriage was rocky; dissatisfied with his acting career, depressed and irritable, he drank heavily.Sperber and Lax 1997, p. 45.

In Hollywood permanently: ''The Petrified Forest''

In 1934, Bogart starred in the Broadway play ''Invitation to a Murder'' at the Theatre Masque (renamed the John Golden Theatre in 1937). Its producer, Arthur Hopkins, heard the play from offstage; he sent for Bogart and offered him the role of escaped murderer Duke Mantee in Robert E. Sherwood's forthcoming play, ''The Petrified Forest''. Hopkins later recalled:

The play had 197 performances at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York in 1935. Although Leslie Howard was the star, ''The New York Times'' critic Brooks Atkinson said that the play was "a peach ... a roaring Western melodrama ... Humphrey Bogart does the best work of his career as an actor." Bogart said that the play "marked my deliverance from the ranks of the sleek, sybaritic, stiff-shirted, swallow-tailed 'smoothies' to which I seemed condemned to life." However, he still felt insecure. Warner Bros. bought the screen rights to ''The Petrified Forest'' in 1935. The play seemed ideal for the studio, which was known for its socially-realistic pictures for a public entranced by real-life criminals such as John Dillinger and Dutch Schultz. Bette Davis and Leslie Howard were cast. Howard, who held the production rights, made it clear that he wanted Bogart to star with him.

The studio tested several Hollywood veterans for the Duke Mantee role and chose Edward G. Robinson, who had star appeal and was due to make a film to fulfill his contract. Bogart cabled news of this development to Howard in Scotland, who replied: "Att: Jack Warner Insist Bogart Play Mantee No Bogart No Deal L.H.". When Warner Bros. saw that Howard would not budge, they gave in and cast Bogart. Jack Warner wanted Bogart to use a stage name but Bogart declined, having built a reputation with his name in Broadway theater. The film version of ''The Petrified Forest'' was released in 1936. According to ''Variety'', "Bogart's menace leaves nothing wanting". Frank S. Nugent wrote for ''The New York Times'' that the actor "can be a psychopathic gangster more like Dillinger than the outlaw himself". The film was successful at the box office, earning $500,000 in rentals ($11,427,014 in 2025), and made Bogart a star. He never forgot Howard's favor and named his only daughter, Leslie Howard Bogart, after him in 1952.

Supporting gangster and villain roles

Despite his success in ''The Petrified Forest'' (an "A movie"), Bogart signed a tepid 26-week contract at $550 ($12,570 in 2025) per week and was typecast as a gangster in a series of B movie crime dramas. Although he was proud of his success, the fact that it derived from gangster roles weighed on him: "I can't get in a mild discussion without turning it into an argument. There must be something in my tone of voice, or this arrogant face—something that antagonizes everybody. Nobody likes me on sight. I suppose that's why I'm cast as the heavy."

In spite of his success, Warner Bros. had no interest in raising Bogart's profile. His roles were repetitive and physically demanding; studios were not yet air-conditioned, and his tightly scheduled job at Warners was anything but the indolent and "peachy" actor's life he hoped for. Although Bogart disliked the roles chosen for him, he worked steadily. "In the first 34 pictures" for Warner's, he told journalist George Frazier, "I was shot in 12, electrocuted or hanged in 8, and was a jailbird in 9". Shipman indicates the quote is from a 1965 book about Bogart by Richard Gehman citing Frazier. This outline also appears in Frazier's June 2, 1944, profile of Bogart in ''Life'' magazine, p. 59 He averaged a film every two months between 1936 and 1940, sometimes working on two films at the same time. Bogart used these years to begin developing his film persona: a wounded, stoical, cynical, charming, vulnerable, self-mocking loner with a code of honor.

Amenities at Warners were few, compared to the prestigious Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Bogart thought that the Warners wardrobe department was cheap, and often wore his own suits in his films. He chose his own dog named Zero, to play Pard (his character's dog) in '' High Sierra''. His disputes with Warner Bros. over roles and money were similar to those waged by the studio with more established and less malleable stars such as Bette Davis and James Cagney.

Leading men at Warner Bros. included George Raft, James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson. Most of the studio's better scripts went to them or others, leaving Bogart with what was left: films like ''San Quentin'' (1937), '' Racket Busters'' (1938), and '' You Can't Get Away with Murder'' (1939). His only leading role during this period was in '' Dead End'' (1937, on loan to Samuel Goldwyn), as a gangster modeled after Baby Face Nelson.

Bogart played violent roles so often that in Nevil Shute's 1939 novel, '' What Happened to the Corbetts'', the protagonist replies "I've seen Humphrey Bogart with one often enough" when asked if he knows how to operate an automatic weapon. Although he played a variety of supporting roles in films such as ''Angels with Dirty Faces'' (1938), Bogart's roles were either rivals of characters played by Cagney and Robinson or a secondary member of their gang. In '' Black Legion'' (1937), a movie Graham Greene described as "intelligent and exciting, if rather earnest", he played a good man who was caught up with (and destroyed by) a racist organization.

The studio cast Bogart as a wrestling promoter in '' Swing Your Lady'' (1938), a "hillbilly musical" which he reportedly considered his worst film performance. He played a rejuvenated, formerly-dead scientist in '' The Return of Doctor X'' (1939), his only horror film: "If it'd been Jack Warner's blood ... I wouldn't have minded so much. The trouble was they were drinking mine and I was making this stinking movie." His wife, Mary, had a stage hit in ''A Touch of Brimstone'' and refused to abandon her Broadway career for Hollywood. After the play closed, Mary relented; she insisted on continuing her career, however, and they divorced in 1937.

On August 21, 1938, Bogart entered a turbulent third marriage to actress Mayo Methot, a lively, friendly woman when sober but paranoid and aggressive when drunk. She became convinced that Bogart was unfaithful to her (which he eventually was, with Lauren Bacall, while filming ''To Have and Have Not'' in 1944). They drifted apart; Methot's drinking increased, and she threw plants, crockery and other objects at Bogart. She set their house afire, stabbed him with a knife, and slashed her wrists several times. Bogart needled her; apparently enjoying confrontation, he was sometimes violent as well. The press called them "the Battling Bogarts".

According to their friend, Julius Epstein, "The Bogart-Methot marriage was the sequel to the Civil War". Bogart bought a motor launch which he named ''Sluggy,'' his nickname for Methot: "I like a jealous wife .. We get on so well together (because) we don't have illusions about each other ... I wouldn't give you two cents for a dame without a temper." Louise Brooks said that "except for Leslie Howard, no one contributed as much to Humphrey's success as his third wife, Mayo Methot." Methot's influence was increasingly destructive, however, and Bogart also continued to drink.

He had a lifelong disdain for pretension

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