Humphrey DeForest Bogart ( ; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), colloquially nicknamed Bogie, was an American actor. His performances in
classic Hollywood cinema
Classical Hollywood cinema is a term used in film criticism to describe both a narrative and visual style of filmmaking which became characteristic of American cinema between the 1910s (rapidly after World War I) and the 1960s. It eventually be ...
films made him an American
cultural icon
A cultural icon is a person or an artifact that is identified by members of a culture as representative of that culture. The process of identification is subjective, and "icons" are judged by the extent to which they can be seen as an authentic ...
. In 1999, the
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees.
Leade ...
selected Bogart as the
greatest male star of classic American cinema.
Bogart began acting in
Broadway shows
Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the 144 extant and extinct Broadway venues use (used) the spelling ''Th ...
. 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
''The Petrified Forest'' is a 1936 American film directed by Archie Mayo and based on Robert E. Sherwood's 1935 Broadway drama of the same name. The motion picture stars Leslie Howard, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. The screenplay was written ...
'' (1936). Bogart also received positive reviews for his performance as gangster Hugh "Baby Face" Martin, in ''
Dead End
Dead End or dead end may refer to:
* Dead end (street), a street connected only at one end with other streets, called by many other official names, including ''cul-de-sac''.
Film and television
* ''The Dead End'' (1914 film), directed by David ...
'' (1937), directed by
William Wyler
William Wyler (; born Willi Wyler (); July 1, 1902 – July 27, 1981) was a Swiss-German-American film director and producer who won the Academy Award for Best Director three times, those being for ''Mrs. Miniver'' (1942), ''The Best Years of O ...
.
His breakthrough came in ''
High Sierra'' (1941), and he catapulted to stardom as the lead in
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...
's ''
The Maltese Falcon'' (1941), considered one of the first great ''
noir'' films.
Bogart's private detectives,
Sam Spade
Sam Spade is a fictional character and the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel '' The Maltese Falcon''. Spade also appeared in four lesser-known short stories by Hammett.
''The Maltese Falcon'', first published as a serial in the pulp ...
(in ''The Maltese Falcon'') and
Philip Marlowe
Philip Marlowe () is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler, who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The hardboiled crime fiction genre originated in the 1920s, notably in ''Black Mask'' magazine, in which Dashiel ...
(in 1946's ''
The Big Sleep
''The Big Sleep'' (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. It has been adapted for film twice, The Big Sleep (1946 film), in 1946 and again The Big Sleep ...
''), became the models for detectives in other ''noir'' films. In 1947, he played a War hero in another "noir" film, ''
Dead Reckoning
In navigation, dead reckoning is the process of calculating current position of some moving object by using a previously determined position, or fix, and then incorporating estimates of speed, heading direction, and course over elapsed time. ...
'', 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
Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films, television movies, and plays.Obituary ''Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, she is often ...
in ''
Casablanca
Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...
'' (1942), which earned him his first nomination for the
Academy Award for Best Actor
The Academy Award for Best Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. The ...
. Blaine was ranked as
the fourth greatest hero of American cinema by the American Film Institute and his and Ingrid Bergman's character's relationship
the greatest love story in American cinema, also by the American Film Institute.
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...
, 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."
Forty-four-year-old Bogart and nineteen-year-old
Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall (; born Betty Joan Perske; September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014) was an American actress. She was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute and received an Academy Honorary Aw ...
fell in love during the filming of ''
To Have and Have Not
''To Have and Have Not'' is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1937 by Charles Scribner's Sons. The book follows Harry Morgan, a fishing boat captain out of Key West, Florida. ''To Have and Have Not'' was Hemingway's second novel set in th ...
'' (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
''Dark Passage'' (1946) is a crime novel by David Goodis. It was the basis for the 1947 film noir of the same name. The film implements extensive use of the first-person camera technique.
Plot
Vincent Parry, wrongly convicted of murdering hi ...
'' (1947) and ''
Key Largo
Key Largo ( es, Cayo Largo) is an island in the upper Florida Keys archipelago and is the largest section of the keys, at long. It is one of the northernmost of the Florida Keys in Monroe County, and the northernmost of the keys connected b ...
'' (1948). 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."
Bogart's performances in Huston's ''
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
''The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'' (originally titled ''Der Schatz der Sierra Madre'') is a 1927 adventure novel by German author B. Traven, whose identity remains unknown. In the book, two destitute American men in Mexico of the 1920s join a ...
'' (1948) and ''
In a Lonely Place
''In a Lonely Place'' is a 1950 American film noir directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame, produced for Bogart's Santana Productions. The script was written by Andrew P. Solt from Edmund H. North's adaptation o ...
'' (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
''The Caine Mutiny'' is a 1951 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Herman Wouk. The novel grew out of Wouk's personal experiences aboard two destroyer-minesweepers in the Pacific Theater in World War II. Among its themes, it deals with the moral a ...
'' (1954), which was a critical and commercial hit and earned him another Best Actor nomination. He won the
Academy Award for Best Actor
The Academy Award for Best Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. The ...
for his portrayal of a cantankerous river steam launch skipper opposite
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...
'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
''The Barefoot Contessa'' is a 1954 American drama film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz about the life and loves of fictional Spanish sex symbol Maria Vargas. It stars Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, and Edmond O'Brien. The film's slo ...
'' (1954) with
Ava Gardner
Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' attention in 1946 with her perform ...
and his on-screen competition with
William Holden
William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor, and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film ''Stalag 17'' (1953) ...
for
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, t ...
in ''
Sabrina
Sabrina may refer to:
* Sabrina (given name), a feminine given name, including a list of persons and fictional characters with the name
People
* Sabrina (actress), stage name of Norma Ann Sykes (1936–2016), a British glamour model and actres ...
'' (1954). A heavy smoker and drinker, Bogart died from
esophageal cancer
Esophageal cancer is cancer arising from the esophagus—the food pipe that runs between the throat and the stomach. Symptoms often include difficulty in swallowing and weight loss. Other symptoms may include pain when swallowing, a hoarse voice ...
in January 1957. Four films Bogart 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. All four films appeared on their
updated 2007 list, with ''Casablanca'' ranked third.
Early life and education
![245 W103 St Bogie plaque jeh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/245_W103_St_Bogie_plaque_jeh.JPG)
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was born on
Christmas Day
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, ...
1899 in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, the eldest child of Belmont DeForest Bogart and
Maud Humphrey
Maud Humphrey (March 30, 1868 – November 22, 1940) was a commercial illustrator, water colorist, and suffragette from the United States. She was the mother of the actor Humphrey Bogart and frequently used her young son as a model.
Biography
H ...
. Belmont was the only child of the unhappy marriage of Adam Welty Bogart (a
Canandaigua, New York
Canandaigua (; ''Utaʼnaráhkhwaʼ'' in Tuscarora language, Tuscarora) is a City (New York), city in Ontario County, New York, United States. Its population was 10,545 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Ontario County; some administrat ...
, 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
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
surname. Belmont and Maud married in June 1898. He was a
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
, of English and Dutch descent, and a descendant of
Sarah Rapelje
Sarah Rapelje (9 June 1625 – 1685) was the first European Christian female born in New Netherland.
Biography
Sarah Rapelje was the daughter of Joris Jansen Rapelje (1604-1663) and Catalina Trico (1605-1689), who were Walloon Calvinists who sa ...
(the first female European Christian child born in
New Netherland
New Netherland ( nl, Nieuw Nederland; la, Novum Belgium or ) was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic that was located on the East Coast of the United States, east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territor ...
). Maud was an
Episcopalian
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...
of English heritage, and a descendant of ''
Mayflower
''Mayflower'' was an English ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After a grueling 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, r ...
'' passenger
John Howland
John Howland (February 23, 1673) accompanied the English Separatists and other passengers when they left England on the to settle in Plymouth Colony. He was an indentured servant and in later years an executive assistant and personal secretary ...
. 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.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
publicity department had altered it to January 23, 1900, "to foster the view that a man born on Christmas Day couldn't really 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
Eric Lax is an American author who has written books on modern medicine, four books on Woody Allen including a biography, and a personal memoir ''Faith: Interrupted'' about his loss of Christian faith.
Biography
Lax was raised in an Episcopalian ...
, Bogart always celebrated his birthday on December 25 and listed it on official records (including his marriage license).
Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall (; born Betty Joan Perske; September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014) was an American actress. She was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute and received an Academy Honorary Aw ...
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.
![Maud Humphrey from American Women, 1897 (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Maud_Humphrey_from_American_Women%2C_1897_%28cropped%29.jpg)
Belmont, Bogart's father, was a
cardiopulmonary
The blood circulatory system is a system of organs that includes the heart, blood vessels, and blood which is circulated throughout the entire body of a human or other vertebrate. It includes the cardiovascular system, or vascular system, tha ...
surgeon. Maud was a commercial illustrator who received her art training in New York and France, including study with
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...
. She later became art director of the fashion magazine ''
The Delineator
''The Delineator'' was an American women's magazine of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, founded by the Butterick Publishing Company in 1869 under the name ''The Metropolitan Monthly.'' Its name was changed in 1875. The magazine was publis ...
'' and a militant
suffragette
A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
.
[.] 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
The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...
apartment, and had a cottage on a 55-acre estate on
Canandaigua Lake
Canandaigua Lake is the fourth largest of the Finger Lakes in the U.S. state of New York. The City of Canandaigua is located at the northern end of the lake and the village of Naples is several miles south of the southern end. It is the we ...
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
''Little Lord Fauntleroy'' is a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was published as a serial in '' St. Nicholas Magazine'' from November 1885 to October 1886, then as a book by Scribner's (the publisher of ''St. Nicholas'') in 1886. The ill ...
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
("Not for Self") la, Finis Origine Pendet ("The End Depends Upon the Beginning") Youth From Every Quarter Knowledge and Goodness
, address = 180 Main Street
, city = Andover
, state = Ma ...
in
Andover, Massachusetts
Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was settled in 1642 and incorporated in 1646."Andover" in ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th ed., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 387. As of th ...
, a boarding school to which he was admitted based on family connections.
Although his parents hoped that he would go on to
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
, 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
![Humphrey Bogart yearbook photo - 1918](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Humphrey_Bogart_yearbook_photo_-_1918.jpg)
With no viable career options, Bogart enlisted in the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
in the spring of 1918 (during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
). 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
An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the La ...
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
Military.com is a website that provides news and information about the United States military, service members, veterans, and their families as well as foreign policy and broader national security issues.
Founded in 1999, the site has been a divi ...
. Retrieved April 16, 2021. at the rank of
Petty Officer 2nd Class
Petty may refer to:
People
* Bruce Petty (born 1929), Australian political satirist and cartoonist
* Bryce Petty (born 1991), American football player
* Dini Petty (born 1945), Canadian television and radio host
* Eric D. Petty (born 1954), Amer ...
.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, 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
Nathaniel Goddard Benchley (November 13, 1915 – December 14, 1981) was an American writer from Massachusetts.
Early life
Born in Newton, Massachusetts to a literary family, he was the son of Robert Benchley (1889–1945), a noted American wri ...
, was that Bogart was injured while taking a prisoner to
Portsmouth Naval Prison
Portsmouth Naval Prison is a former U.S. Navy and Marine Corps prison on the grounds of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNS) in Kittery, Maine. The building has the appearance of a castle. The reinforced concrete naval prison was occupied from 19 ...
in
Kittery, Maine
Kittery is a town in York County, Maine, United States. Home to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island, Kittery includes Badger's Island, the seaside district of Kittery Point, and part of the Isles of Shoals. The southernmost town in t ...
. While changing trains in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, 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
James David Graham Niven (; 1 March 1910 – 29 July 1983) was a British actor, soldier, memoirist, and novelist. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Major Pollock in ''Separate Tables'' (1958). Niven's other roles ...
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
Mary Louise Brooks (November 14, 1906 – August 8, 1985) was an American film actress and dancer during the 1920s and 1930s. She is regarded today as an icon of the Jazz Age and flapper culture, in part due to the bob hairstyle that she helpe ...
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
The United States Coast Guard Reserve is the reserve component of the United States Coast Guard. It is organized, trained, administered, and supplied under the direction of the Commandant of the Coast Guard through the Assistant Commandant for R ...
.
![Swifty Humphrey Bogart 1922 newspaper](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Swifty_Humphrey_Bogart_1922_newspaper.png)
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
Chess.com is an internet chess server, news website and social networking website. The site has a freemium model in which some features are available for free, and others are available for accounts with subscriptions. Live online chess can be pla ...
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
Stage management is a broad field that is generally defined as the practice of organization and coordination of an event or theatrical production. Stage management may encompass a variety of activities including the overseeing of the rehearsal p ...
for Brady's daughter
Alice
Alice may refer to:
* Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname
Literature
* Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll
* ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
'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
A speakeasy, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, is an illicit establishment that sells alcoholic beverages, or a retro style bar that replicates aspects of historical speakeasies.
Speakeasy bars came into prominence in the United States d ...
, 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
Alexander Humphreys Woollcott (January 19, 1887 – January 23, 1943) was an American drama critic and commentator for ''The New Yorker'' magazine, a member of the Algonquin Round Table, an occasional actor and playwright, and a prominent radio p ...
, Bogart "is what is usually and mercifully described as inadequate." Other critics were kinder.
Heywood Broun
Heywood Campbell Broun Jr. (; December 7, 1888 – December 18, 1939) was an American journalist. He worked as a sportswriter, newspaper columnist, and editor in New York City. He founded the American Newspaper Guild, later known as The Newspaper ...
, 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
Lynn Starling (September 13, 1888 – February 25, 1955) was an American screenwriter and playwright.Solomon p.329 Starling wrote the 1923 play '' Meet the Wife'', subsequently adapted into a 1931 film of the same title.
Selected filmography
...
's comedy ''
Meet the Wife'', which had a successful 232-performance run at the
Klaw Theatre
The Klaw Theatre was a Broadway theatre located at 251–257 West 45th Street (now a part of George Abbott Way) in Midtown Manhattan. Built in 1921 for producer Marcus Klaw, the theater was designed by Eugene De Rosa. Rachel Crothers' '' Nice ...
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
Helen Menken (née Meinken; December 12, 1901 – March 27, 1966) was an American stage actress.
Early years
Menken was born in New York City to a German-French father, Frederick Meinken, and an Irish-born mother, Mary Madden. Her parents were ...
; they were married on May 20, 1926, at the
Gramercy Park Hotel
Gramercy Park Hotel was a luxury hotel located at 2 Lexington Avenue, in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, adjacent to the park of the same name. It was known for its rich history.
__FORCETOC__ History
Gramercy Park Hote ...
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
Mary Philips (January 23, 1901April 22, 1975) was an American stage and film actress.
Biography
The only child of Charles and Anna (née Hurley) Philips of New Haven, Connecticut, Philips was born in New London, Connecticut, and she was ed ...
on April 3, 1928, at her mother's apartment in
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...
; 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
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...
, and many of the more-photogenic actors headed for Hollywood. Bogart debuted on film with
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes MacArthur ( Brown; October 10, 1900 – March 17, 1993) was an American actress whose career spanned 80 years. She eventually received the nickname "First Lady of American Theatre" and was the second person and first woman to have w ...
in the 1928 two-reeler ''
The Dancing Town'', which survives intact. He also appeared with
Joan Blondell
Joan Blondell (born Rose Joan Bluestein; August 30, 1906 – December 25, 1979) was an American actress who performed in film and television for 50 years.
Blondell began her career in vaudeville. After winning a beauty pageant, she embarked on ...
and
Ruth Etting
Ruth Etting (November 23, 1896 – September 24, 1978) was an American singer and actress of the 1920s and 1930s, who had over 60 hit recordings and worked in stage, radio, and film. Known as "America's sweetheart of song", her signature tunes ...
in a
Vitaphone
Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one th ...
short, ''
Broadway's Like That
''Broadway's Like That'' (1929) is a 10-minute Vitaphone short film starring Ruth Etting, with Joan Blondell, Humphrey Bogart and Mary Philips. Bogart and Philips were married at the time of this film.
Plot summary
A girl who works in a music s ...
'' (1930), which was rediscovered in 1963.
Broadway to Hollywood
![Up the River (film poster)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Up_the_River_%28film_poster%29.jpg)
Bogart signed a contract with the
Fox Film
The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American Independent film production studio formed by William Fox (1879–1952) in 1915, by combining his earlier Greater New York Film Rental Company and Box Office Attractions Film C ...
Corporation for $750 a week. There he met
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor. He was known for his natural performing style and versatility. One of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy was the first actor to win two cons ...
, 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
John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...
's early
sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...
''
Up the River
''Up the River'' is a 1930 American pre-Code comedy film directed by John Ford, and starring Claire Luce, Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart. The plot concerns escaped convicts, as well as a female convict. It was the feature film debut role of ...
'' (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
Claire Luce (October 15, 1903 – August 31, 1989) was an American stage and screen actress, dancer and singer. Among her few films were ''Up the River'' (1930), directed by John Ford and starring Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart in their ...
and
Warren Hymer
Edgar Warren Hymer (February 25, 1906 – March 25, 1948) was an American theatre and film actor.
Early life
He was born in New York City. His father, John Bard Hymer (1875/1876 – 1953) was a playwright (with nine Broadway plays to ...
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
Fredric March (born Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel; August 31, 1897 – April 14, 1975) was an American actor, regarded as one of Hollywood's most celebrated, versatile stars of the 1930s and 1940s.Obituary ''Variety'', April 16, 1975, p ...
.
Bogart then had a supporting role in ''
Bad Sister'' (1931) with
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her pe ...
. 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''
![Bogart Howard Davis Petrified Forest](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Bogart_Howard_Davis_Petrified_Forest.jpg)
In 1934, Bogart starred in the
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
play ''Invitation to a Murder'' at the Theatre Masque (renamed the
John Golden Theatre
The John Golden Theatre, formerly the Theatre Masque and Masque Theater, is a Broadway theater at 252 West 45th Street (George Abbott Way) in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1927, the Golden Theatre was de ...
in 1937). Its producer,
Arthur Hopkins
Arthur Hopkins (October 4, 1878 – March 22, 1950) was a well-known Broadway theater director and producer in the early twentieth century. Between 1912 and 1948, he produced and staged more than 80 plays – an average of more than two per year ...
, heard the play from offstage; he sent for Bogart and offered him the role of escaped murderer Duke Mantee in
Robert E. Sherwood
Robert Emmet Sherwood (April 4, 1896 – November 14, 1955) was an American playwright and screenwriter.
He is the author of '' Waterloo Bridge, Idiot's Delight, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Rebecca, There Shall Be No Night, The Best Years of Our ...
's forthcoming play, ''
The Petrified Forest
''The Petrified Forest'' is a 1936 American film directed by Archie Mayo and based on Robert E. Sherwood's 1935 Broadway drama of the same name. The motion picture stars Leslie Howard, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. The screenplay was written ...
''.
Hopkins later recalled:
The play had 197 performances at the
Broadhurst Theatre
The Broadhurst Theatre is a Broadway theatre, Broadway theater at 235 West 44th Street (Manhattan), 44th Street in the Theater District, Manhattan, Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1917, the theater was designed ...
in New York in 1935.
Although
Leslie Howard
Leslie Howard Steiner (3 April 18931 June 1943) was an English actor, director and producer.Obituary ''Variety'', 9 June 1943. He wrote many stories and articles for ''The New York Times'', ''The New Yorker'', and '' Vanity Fair'' and was one ...
was the star, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' critic
Brooks Atkinson
Justin Brooks Atkinson (November 28, 1894 – January 14, 1984) was an American theatre critic. He worked for ''The New York Times'' from 1922 to 1960. In his obituary, the ''Times'' called him "the theater's most influential reviewer of his ...
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
John Herbert Dillinger (June 22, 1903 – July 22, 1934) was an American gangster during the Great Depression. He led the Dillinger Gang, which was accused of robbing 24 banks and four police stations. Dillinger was imprisoned several times and ...
and
Dutch Schultz
Dutch Schultz (born Arthur Simon Flegenheimer; August 6, 1901October 24, 1935) was an American mobster. Based in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s, he made his fortune in organized crime-related activities, including bootlegging and the nu ...
.
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her pe ...
and Leslie Howard were cast. Howard, who held the production rights, made it clear that he wanted Bogart to star with him.
![Humphrey Bogart in The Petrified Forest film trailer](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Humphrey_Bogart_in_The_Petrified_Forest_film_trailer.jpg)
The studio tested several Hollywood veterans for the Duke Mantee role and chose
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg; December 12, 1893January 26, 1973) was a Romanian-American actor of stage and screen, who was popular during the Hollywood's Golden Age. He appeared in 30 Broadway plays and more than 100 films duri ...
, 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
A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...
but Bogart declined, having built a reputation with his name in Broadway theater. The film version of ''
The Petrified Forest
''The Petrified Forest'' is a 1936 American film directed by Archie Mayo and based on Robert E. Sherwood's 1935 Broadway drama of the same name. The motion picture stars Leslie Howard, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. The screenplay was written ...
'' was released in 1936. According to ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'', "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, 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 per week and was
typecast
In film, television, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character, one or more particular roles, or characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ...
as a gangster in a series of
B movie
A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...
crime dramas. Although he was proud of his success, the fact that it derived from
gangster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...
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
Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...
, 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
George Francis Frazier Jr. (June 10, 1911 – June 13, 1974) was an American journalist. Frazier was raised in South Boston, attended the Boston Latin School, and was graduated from Harvard College (where he won the Boylston Prize for Rhetoric) in ...
, "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
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
'' 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
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
. 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
James Francis Cagney Jr. (; July 17, 1899March 30, 1986) was an American actor, dancer and film director. On stage and in film, Cagney was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. He ...
.
![James Cagney Humphrey Bogart in The Roaring Twenties trailer](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/James_Cagney_Humphrey_Bogart_in_The_Roaring_Twenties_trailer.jpg)
Leading men at Warner Bros. included
George Raft
George Raft (born George Ranft; September 26, 1901 – November 24, 1980) was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. A stylish leading man in dozens of movies, Raft is ...
, James Cagney and
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg; December 12, 1893January 26, 1973) was a Romanian-American actor of stage and screen, who was popular during the Hollywood's Golden Age. He appeared in 30 Broadway plays and more than 100 films duri ...
. Most of the studio's better scripts went to them or others, leaving Bogart with what was left: films like ''
San Quentin
San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County.
Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is the o ...
'' (1937), ''
Racket Busters
''Racket Busters'' is a 1938 film about crime in the trucking industry starring Humphrey Bogart and George Brent. The film was directed by Lloyd Bacon.
Plot summary
Attorney Hugh Allison (Walter Abel) is appointed Special Prosecutor to invest ...
'' (1938), and ''
You Can't Get Away with Murder
''You Can't Get Away with Murder'' is a 1939 crime drama directed by Lewis Seiler, starring Humphrey Bogart and Gale Page, and featuring " Dead End Kid" leader Billy Halop. The film is from Bogart's period of being cast in B pictures by Warne ...
'' (1939). His only leading role during this period was in ''
Dead End
Dead End or dead end may refer to:
* Dead end (street), a street connected only at one end with other streets, called by many other official names, including ''cul-de-sac''.
Film and television
* ''The Dead End'' (1914 film), directed by David ...
'' (1937, on loan to
Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn (born Szmuel Gelbfisz; yi, שמואל געלבפֿיש; August 27, 1882 (claimed) January 31, 1974), also known as Samuel Goldfish, was a Polish-born American film producer. He was best known for being the founding contributor a ...
), as a gangster modeled after
Baby Face Nelson
Lester Joseph Gillis (December 6, 1908 – November 27, 1934), also known as George Nelson and Baby Face Nelson, was an American bank robber who became a criminal partner of John Dillinger, when he helped Dillinger escape from prison, in Crown P ...
.
Bogart played violent roles so often that in
Nevil Shute
Nevil Shute Norway (17 January 189912 January 1960) was an English novelist and aeronautical engineer who spent his later years in Australia. He used his full name in his engineering career and Nevil Shute as his pen name, in order to protect h ...
's 1939 novel, ''
What Happened to the Corbetts
''What Happened to the Corbetts'' (US title: ''Ordeal'') is a novel by Nevil Shute, a fictional depiction of the effect of aerial bombing on the British city of Southampton, a major maritime centre. It was written in 1938, and published in April ...
'', 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
''Angels with Dirty Faces'' is a 1938 American crime drama film directed by Michael Curtiz for Warner Brothers. It stars James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, The Dead End Kids, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, and George Bancroft. The screenplay was wr ...
'' (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
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
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
''Swing Your Lady'' is a 1938 country musical comedy film directed by Ray Enright, starring Humphrey Bogart, Frank McHugh, and Louise Fazenda. Ronald Reagan is also in the cast in one of his early roles. Daniel Boone Savage, a professional wre ...
'' (1938), a "
hillbilly
Hillbilly is a term (often derogatory) for people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas in the United States, primarily in southern Appalachia and the Ozarks. The term was later used to refer to people from other rural and mountainous areas west ...
musical" which he reportedly considered his worst film performance. He played a rejuvenated, formerly-dead scientist in ''
The Return of Doctor X
''The Return of Doctor X'' (also billed as ''The Return of Dr. X'') is a 1939 American science fiction- horror film directed by Vincent Sherman and starring Wayne Morris, Rosemary Lane, and Humphrey Bogart as the title character. It was based on ...
'' (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.
![Bogarts-LIFE-1944](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Bogarts-LIFE-1944.jpg)
On August 21, 1938, Bogart entered a turbulent third marriage to actress
Mayo Methot
Mayo Jane Methot (March 3, 1904 – June 9, 1951) was an American film and stage actress. She appeared in over 30 films, as well as in various Broadway productions, though she attracted significant media attention for her tempestuous marriage t ...
, a lively, friendly woman when sober but
paranoid
Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concer ...
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
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
". 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
''Dame'' is an honorific title and the feminine form of address for the honour of damehood in many Christian chivalric orders, as well as the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British honours system and those of several oth ...
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 and phoniness, and was again irritated by his inferior films. Bogart rarely watched his own films and avoided premieres, issuing fake press releases about his private life to satisfy journalistic and public curiosity.
When he thought an actor, director or studio had done something shoddy, he spoke up publicly about it. Bogart advised
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for ''The Story of G.I. Joe'' (1945), followed by his starring in ...
that the only way to stay alive in Hollywood was to be an "againster". He was not the most popular of actors, and some in the Hollywood community shunned him privately to avoid trouble with the studios.
Bogart once said,
The Hollywood press, unaccustomed to such candor, was delighted.
Early stardom
''High Sierra''
''
High Sierra'' (1941, directed by
Raoul Walsh
Raoul Walsh (born Albert Edward Walsh; March 11, 1887December 31, 1980) was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh. He w ...
) featured a screenplay written by
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...
, Bogart's friend and drinking partner, adapted from a novel by
W. R. Burnett
William Riley Burnett (November 25, 1899 April 25, 1982) was an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for the crime novel ''Little Caesar'', the film adaptation of which is considered the first of the classic American gangster ...
, author of the novel on which ''
Little Caesar'' was based.
Paul Muni
Paul Muni (born Frederich Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund; September 22, 1895– August 25, 1967) was an American stage and film actor who grew up in Chicago. Muni was a five-time Academy Award nominee, with one win. He started his acting career in ...
, George Raft, Cagney and Robinson turned down the lead role,
giving Bogart the opportunity to play a character with some depth. Walsh initially opposed Bogart's casting, preferring Raft for the part. It was Bogart's last major film as a gangster; a supporting role followed in ''
The Big Shot'', released in 1942. He worked well with
Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino (4 February 1918Recorded in ''Births Mar 1918'' Camberwell Vol. 1d, p. 1019 (Free BMD). Transcribed as "Lupine" in the official births index – 3 August 1995) was an English-American actress, singer, director, writer, and producer. T ...
, sparking jealousy from Mayo Methot.
The film cemented a strong personal and professional connection between Bogart and Huston. Bogart admired (and somewhat envied) Huston for his skill as a writer; a poor student, Bogart was a lifelong reader. He could quote
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
,
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...
,
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...
and over a thousand lines of
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
, and subscribed to the ''
Harvard Law Review
The ''Harvard Law Review'' is a law review published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the ''Harvard Law Review''s 2015 impact factor of 4.979 placed the journal first out of 143 ...
''.
Bogart admired writers; some of his best friends were screenwriters, including
Louis Bromfield
Louis Bromfield (December 27, 1896 – March 18, 1956) was an American writer and conservationist. A bestselling novelist in the 1920s, he reinvented himself as a farmer in the late 1930s and became one of the earliest proponents of sustainab ...
,
Nathaniel Benchley
Nathaniel Goddard Benchley (November 13, 1915 – December 14, 1981) was an American writer from Massachusetts.
Early life
Born in Newton, Massachusetts to a literary family, he was the son of Robert Benchley (1889–1945), a noted American wri ...
, and
Nunnally Johnson
Nunnally Hunter Johnson (December 5, 1897 – March 25, 1977) was an American screenwriter, film director, producer, and playwright. As a filmmaker, he wrote the screenplays to more than fifty films in a career that spanned from 1927 to 1967. He ...
. He enjoyed intense, provocative conversation (accompanied by stiff drinks), as did Huston. Both were rebellious and enjoyed playing childish pranks. Huston was reportedly easily bored during production and admired Bogart (also bored easily off-camera) for his acting talent and his intense concentration on-set.
''The Maltese Falcon''
Now regarded as a classic
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...
, ''
The Maltese Falcon'' (1941) was
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...
's directorial debut. Based on the
Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...
novel, it was first serialized in the pulp magazine ''
Black Mask'' in 1929 and was the basis of two earlier film versions; the second was ''
Satan Met a Lady
''Satan Met a Lady'' is a 1936 American detective film directed by William Dieterle and starring Bette Davis and Warren William.
The screenplay by Brown Holmes is a loose adaptation of the 1929 novel '' The Maltese Falcon'' by Dashiell Hammett, ...
'' (1936), starring
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her pe ...
.
Producer
Hal B. Wallis
Harold Brent Wallis (born Aaron Blum Wolowicz; October 19, 1898 – October 5, 1986) was an American film producer. He is best known for producing '' Casablanca'' (1942), '' The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1938), and ''True Grit'' (1969), along ...
initially offered to cast George Raft as the
leading man
A leading actor, leading actress, or simply lead (), plays the role of the protagonist of a film, television show or play. The word ''lead'' may also refer to the largest role in the piece, and ''leading actor'' may refer to a person who typica ...
, but Raft (then better known than Bogart) had a contract stipulating he was not required to appear in
remake
A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same ...
s. Fearing that it would be nothing more than a sanitized version of the pre-
Production Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...
''
The Maltese Falcon'' (1931), Raft turned down the role to make ''
Manpower
Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include ...
'' with director
Raoul Walsh
Raoul Walsh (born Albert Edward Walsh; March 11, 1887December 31, 1980) was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh. He w ...
, with whom he had worked on ''
The Bowery
The Bowery () is a street and neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th Street in the north.Jackson, Kenneth L. "Bow ...
'' in 1933. Huston then eagerly accepted Bogart as his
Sam Spade
Sam Spade is a fictional character and the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel '' The Maltese Falcon''. Spade also appeared in four lesser-known short stories by Hammett.
''The Maltese Falcon'', first published as a serial in the pulp ...
.
Complementing Bogart were co-stars
Sydney Greenstreet
Sydney Hughes Greenstreet (December 27, 1879 – January 18, 1954) was a British-American actor. While he did not begin his career in films until the age of 61, he had a run of significant motion pictures in a Hollywood career lasting throu ...
,
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before movin ...
,
Elisha Cook Jr.
Elisha Vanslyck Cook Jr. (December 26, 1903 – May 18, 1995) was an American character actor famed for his work in films noir. According to Bill Georgaris of TSPDT: They Shoot Pictures, Don't They, Cook appeared in a total of 21 film ...
, and
Mary Astor
Mary Astor (born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke; May 3, 1906 – September 25, 1987) was an American actress. Although her career spanned several decades, she may be best remembered for her performance as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in '' The Maltese ...
as the treacherous female foil.
Bogart's sharp timing and facial expressions were praised by the cast and director as vital to the film's quick action and rapid-fire dialogue.
[Sperber and Lax 1997, p. 127.] It was a commercial hit, and a major triumph for Huston. Bogart was unusually happy with the film: "It is practically a masterpiece. I don't have many things I'm proud of ... but that's one".
''Casablanca''
![Humphrey Bogart Ingrid Bergman Casablanca Promo Still](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Humphrey_Bogart_Ingrid_Bergman_Casablanca_Promo_Still.jpg)
Bogart played his first romantic lead in ''
Casablanca
Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...
'' (1942): Rick Blaine, an
expatriate
An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...
nightclub owner hiding from a suspicious past and negotiating a fine line among
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
, the
French underground, the
Vichy
Vichy (, ; ; oc, Vichèi, link=no, ) is a city in the Allier Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais.
It is a Spa town, spa and resort town and in World ...
prefect and unresolved feelings for his ex-girlfriend. Bosley Crowther wrote in his November 1942 ''New York Times'' review that Bogart's character was used "to inject a cold point of tough resistance to evil forces afoot in Europe today". The film, directed by
Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz ( ; born Manó Kaminer; since 1905 Mihály Kertész; hu, Kertész Mihály; December 24, 1886 April 10, 1962) was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed cla ...
and produced by Hal Wallis, featured
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films, television movies, and plays.Obituary ''Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, she is often ...
,
Claude Rains
William Claude Rains (10 November 188930 May 1967) was a British actor whose career spanned almost seven decades. After his American film debut as Dr. Jack Griffin in ''The Invisible Man'' (1933), he appeared in such highly regarded films as '' ...
,
Sydney Greenstreet
Sydney Hughes Greenstreet (December 27, 1879 – January 18, 1954) was a British-American actor. While he did not begin his career in films until the age of 61, he had a run of significant motion pictures in a Hollywood career lasting throu ...
,
Paul Henreid
Paul Henreid (November 10, 1908 – March 29, 1992) was an Austrian-British-American actor, director, producer, and writer. He is best remembered for two film roles; Victor Laszlo in ''Casablanca'' and Jerry Durrance in ''Now, Voyager'', bo ...
,
Conrad Veidt
Hans Walter Conrad Veidt (; 22 January 1893 – 3 April 1943) was a German film actor who attracted early attention for his roles in the films ''Different from the Others'' (1919), '' The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' (1920), and ''The Man Who Laugh ...
,
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before movin ...
and
Dooley Wilson
Arthur "Dooley" Wilson (April 3, 1886 – May 30, 1953) was an American actor, singer and musician who is best remembered for his portrayal of Sam in the 1942 film ''Casablanca (film), Casablanca''. In that romantic drama, he performs its theme ...
.
Bogart and Bergman's on-screen relationship was based on professionalism rather than actual rapport, although Mayo Methot assumed otherwise. Off the set, the co-stars hardly spoke. Bergman (who had a reputation for affairs with her leading men)
[Sperber and Lax 1997, p. 201.] later said about Bogart, "I kissed him but I never knew him." Because she was taller, Bogart had blocks attached to his shoes in some scenes.
Bogart is reported to have been responsible for the notion that Rick Blaine should be portrayed as a
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
player, a metaphor for the relationships he maintained with friends, enemies, and allies. He played tournament-level chess (one division below master) in real life, often enjoying games with crew members and cast but finding his better in Paul Henreid.
''Casablanca'' won the
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film and is the only category ...
at the
16th Academy Awards
The 16th Academy Awards were held on March 2, 1944, to honor the films of 1943. This was the first Oscar ceremony held at a large public venue, Grauman's Chinese Theatre. The ceremony was broadcast locally on KFWB, and internationally by CBS R ...
for 1943. Bogart was nominated for
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Best or The Best may refer to:
People
* Best (surname), people with the surname Best
* Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer
Companies and organizations
* Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain
* Best Lock Corporatio ...
, but lost to
Paul Lukas
Paul Lukas (born Pál Lukács; 26 May 1894 – 15 August 1971) was a Hungarian actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor, and the first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for his performance in the film ''Watc ...
for his performance in ''
Watch on the Rhine
A watch is a portable timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn around the wrist, attached by ...
''. The film vaulted Bogart from fourth place to first in the studio's roster, however, finally overtaking
James Cagney
James Francis Cagney Jr. (; July 17, 1899March 30, 1986) was an American actor, dancer and film director. On stage and in film, Cagney was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. He ...
. He more than doubled his annual salary to over $460,000 by 1946, making him the world's highest-paid actor.
Bogart went on
United Service Organizations
The United Service Organizations Inc. (USO) is an American nonprofit-charitable corporation that provides live entertainment, such as comedians, actors and musicians, social facilities, and other programs to members of the United States Armed F ...
and
War Bond
War bonds (sometimes referred to as Victory bonds, particularly in propaganda) are debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war without raising taxes to an unpopular level. They are ...
tours with Methot in 1943 and 1944, making arduous trips to Italy and North Africa (including Casablanca).
He was still required to perform in films with weak scripts, leading to conflicts with the front office. He starred in ''
Conflict
Conflict may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Films
* ''Conflict'' (1921 film), an American silent film directed by Stuart Paton
* ''Conflict'' (1936 film), an American boxing film starring John Wayne
* ''Conflict'' (1937 film) ...
'' (1945, again with Greenstreet), but turned down ''
God Is My Co-Pilot'' that year.
Bogart and Bacall
''To Have and Have Not''
Howard Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era. Critic Leonard Maltin called him "the greatest American director who is not a household name."
A v ...
introduced Bogart and Lauren Bacall while Bogart was filming ''
Passage to Marseille
''Passage to Marseille'', also known as ''Message to Marseille'', is a 1944 American war film made by Warner Brothers, directed by Michael Curtiz. The screenplay was by Casey Robinson and Jack Moffitt from the novel ''Sans Patrie'' (''Men Without ...
'' (1944). The three subsequently collaborated on ''
To Have and Have Not
''To Have and Have Not'' is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1937 by Charles Scribner's Sons. The book follows Harry Morgan, a fishing boat captain out of Key West, Florida. ''To Have and Have Not'' was Hemingway's second novel set in th ...
'' (1944), a loose adaptation of the
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...
novel, and Bacall's film debut. It has several similarities to ''Casablanca'': the same kind of hero and enemies, and a piano player (portrayed this time by Hoagy Carmichael) as a supporting character. When they met, Bacall was 19 and Bogart 44; he nicknamed her "Baby". A model since age 16, she had appeared in two failed plays. Bogart was attracted by Bacall's high cheekbones, green eyes, tawny blond hair, lean body, maturity, poise and earthy, outspoken honesty;
he reportedly said, "I just saw your test. We'll have a lot of fun together".
Their emotional bond was strong from the start, their difference in age and acting-experience encouraged a mentor-student dynamic. In contrast to the Hollywood norm, their affair was Bogart's first with a leading lady. His early meetings with Bacall were discreet and brief, their separations bridged by love letters.
The relationship made it easier for Bacall to make her first film, and Bogart did his best to put her at ease with jokes and quiet coaching.
[Bacall, Lauren. ''By Myself and Then Some'', HarperCollins, New York, 2005. ] He encouraged her to steal scenes;
Howard Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era. Critic Leonard Maltin called him "the greatest American director who is not a household name."
A v ...
also did his best to highlight her role, and found Bogart easy to direct.
However, Hawks began to disapprove of the relationship.
He considered himself Bacall's protector and mentor, and Bogart was usurping that role. Not usually drawn to his starlets, the married director also fell for Bacall; he told her that she meant nothing to Bogart and threatened to send her to the poverty-row studio Monogram Pictures. Bogart calmed her down, and then went after Hawks; Jack Warner settled the dispute, and filming resumed. Hawks said about Bacall, "Bogie fell in love with the character she played, so she had to keep playing it the rest of her life."
''The Big Sleep''
Months after wrapping ''To Have and Have Not'', Bogart and Bacall were reunited for an encore: the film noir ''
The Big Sleep
''The Big Sleep'' (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. It has been adapted for film twice, The Big Sleep (1946 film), in 1946 and again The Big Sleep ...
'' (1946), based on the novel by
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...
with script help from William Faulkner. Chandler admired the actor's performance: "Bogart can be tough without a gun. Also, he has a sense of humor that contains that grating undertone of contempt." Although the film was completed and scheduled for release in 1945, it was withdrawn and re-edited to add scenes exploiting Bogart and Bacall's box-office chemistry in ''To Have and Have Not'' and the publicity surrounding their offscreen relationship. At the insistence of director Howard Hawks, production partner Charles K. Feldman agreed to a rewrite of Bacall's scenes to heighten the "insolent" quality which had intrigued critics such as James Agee and audiences of the earlier film, and a memo was sent to studio head Jack Warner.
The dialogue, especially in the added scenes supplied by Hawks, was full of sexual innuendo. The film was successful, although some critics found its plot confusing and overly complicated.
According to Chandler, Hawks and Bogart argued about who killed the chauffeur; when Chandler received an inquiry by telegram, he could not provide an answer.
Marriage to Bacall
![Bogart Bacall wedding 1945](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Bogart_Bacall_wedding_1945.jpg)
Bogart filed for divorce from Methot in February 1945. He and Bacall married in a small ceremony at the country home of Bogart's close friend, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
Louis Bromfield
Louis Bromfield (December 27, 1896 – March 18, 1956) was an American writer and conservationist. A bestselling novelist in the 1920s, he reinvented himself as a farmer in the late 1930s and became one of the earliest proponents of sustainab ...
,
at Malabar Farm State Park, Malabar Farm (near Lucas, Ohio) on May 21, 1945.
They moved into a $160,000 ($ in ) white brick mansion in an exclusive neighborhood of Los Angeles' Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, Holmby Hills.
At the time of the 1950 United States census, the couple was living at 2707 Benedict Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills with their son and nursemaid. Bacall is listed as Betty Bogart. The marriage was a mostly happy one but not without its troubles. Bogart's drinking was sometimes problematic and he initially wasn't happy about having his first child. He was a homebody, and Bacall liked the nightlife; he loved the sea, which made her Motion sickness, seasick.
Bogart and Bacall both had affairs but they never stopped loving each other, a fact Bacall mentions throughout her memoir ''By Myself''. In a 1997 ''Parade (magazine), Parade'' magazine cover story, she told reporter Dotson Rader that Bogart said "'If you want a career more than anything, I will do everything I can to help you, and I will send you on your way, but I will not marry you. I've been through it, and I know it doesn't work.' He was right. He loved me and wanted me with him. I made the deal, and I stuck to it, and I'm damn glad that I did."
Bogart bought the ''Santana'', a sailing yacht, from actor Dick Powell in 1945. He found the sea a sanctuary and spent about thirty weekends a year on the water, with a particular fondness for sailing around Santa Catalina Island (California), Catalina Island: "An actor needs something to stabilize his personality, something to nail down what he really is, not what he is currently pretending to be." Bogart joined the
Coast Guard Temporary Reserve (a forerunner of the modern Coast Guard Auxiliary), offering the Coast Guard use of the ''Santana''. He reportedly attempted to enlist, but was turned down due to his age.
''Dark Passage'' and ''Key Largo''
![Bacall and Bogart Dark Passage](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Bacall_and_Bogart_Dark_Passage.jpg)
The suspenseful ''
Dark Passage
''Dark Passage'' (1946) is a crime novel by David Goodis. It was the basis for the 1947 film noir of the same name. The film implements extensive use of the first-person camera technique.
Plot
Vincent Parry, wrongly convicted of murdering hi ...
'' (1947) was Bogart and Bacall's next collaboration.
Vincent Parry (Bogart) is intent on finding the real murderer for a crime of which he was convicted and sentenced to prison. According to Bogart's biographer, Stefan Kanfer, it was "a production line film noir with no particular distinction".
Bogart and Bacall's last pairing in a film was in ''
Key Largo
Key Largo ( es, Cayo Largo) is an island in the upper Florida Keys archipelago and is the largest section of the keys, at long. It is one of the northernmost of the Florida Keys in Monroe County, and the northernmost of the keys connected b ...
'' (1948). Directed by John Huston,
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg; December 12, 1893January 26, 1973) was a Romanian-American actor of stage and screen, who was popular during the Hollywood's Golden Age. He appeared in 30 Broadway plays and more than 100 films duri ...
was billed second (behind Bogart) as gangster Johnny Rocco: a seething, older synthesis of many of his early bad-guy roles. The billing question was hard-fought and at the end of at least one of the trailers, Robinson is listed above Bogart in a list of the actors' names in the last frame; and in the film itself, Robinson's name, appearing between Bogart's and Bacall's, is pictured slightly higher onscreen than the other two. Robinson had top billing over Bogart in their four previous films together: ''Bullets or Ballots'' (1936), ''Kid Galahad (1937 film), Kid Galahad'' (1937), ''The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse'' (1938) and ''Brother Orchid'' (1940). In some posters for ''Key Largo'', Robinson's picture is substantially larger than Bogart's, and in the foreground manhandling Bacall while Bogart is in the background. The characters are trapped during a hurricane in a hotel owned by Bacall's father-in-law, portrayed by Lionel Barrymore. Claire Trevor won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Rocco's physically abused, alcoholic girlfriend.
Later career
''The Treasure of the Sierra Madre''
![Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre trailer](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Humphrey_Bogart_in_The_Treasure_of_the_Sierra_Madre_trailer.jpg)
Riding high in 1947 with a new 15-year contract with Warners which provided limited script refusal and the right to form his own production company, Bogart rejoined with John Huston for ''
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
''The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'' (originally titled ''Der Schatz der Sierra Madre'') is a 1927 adventure novel by German author B. Traven, whose identity remains unknown. In the book, two destitute American men in Mexico of the 1920s join a ...
'': a stark tale of greed among three gold prospectors in Mexico. Lacking a love interest or a happy ending, it was considered a risky project.
Bogart later said about co-star (and John Huston's father) Walter Huston, "He's probably the only performer in Hollywood to whom I'd gladly lose a scene."
The film was shot in the heat of summer for greater realism and atmosphere and was grueling to make.
James Agee wrote, "Bogart does a wonderful job with this character ... miles ahead of the very good work he has done before." Although John Huston won the Academy Award for Best Director and screenplay and his father won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actor award, the film had mediocre box-office results. Bogart complained, "An intelligent script, beautifully directed—something different—and the public turned a cold shoulder on it."
House Un-American Activities Committee
Bogart, a liberal Democratic Party (United States), Democrat, organized the Committee for the First Amendment (a delegation to Washington, D.C.) opposing what he saw as the House Un-American Activities Committee's harassment of Hollywood screenwriters and actors. He later wrote an article, "I'm No Communist", for the March 1948 issue of ''Photoplay'' magazine distancing himself from the Hollywood blacklist, Hollywood Ten to counter negative publicity resulting from his appearance. Bogart wrote, "The ten men cited for contempt by the House Un-American Activities Committee were not defended by us."
Santana Productions
Bogart created his film company, Santana Productions (named after his yacht and the cabin cruiser in ''Key Largo''), in 1948.
The right to create his own company had left Jack Warner furious, fearful that other stars would do the same and further erode the major studios' power. In addition to pressure from freelancing actors such as Bogart, James Stewart, and Henry Fonda, they were beginning to buckle from the impact of television and the enforcement of antitrust laws which broke up theater chains.
Bogart's new contract with Warners had required him to make one film a year for Warners but he only made ''Chain Lightning (1950 film), Chain Lightning'' (1950) and ''The Enforcer (1951 film), The Enforcer'' (1951) for them during the contract period. In 1953, his contract with Warners was dissolved by mutual consent.
[
]
Except for ''Beat the Devil (film), Beat the Devil'' (1953), originally distributed in the United States by United Artists, the company released its films through Columbia Pictures; Columbia re-released ''Beat the Devil'' a decade later. In quick succession, Bogart starred in ''Knock on Any Door'' (1949), ''Tokyo Joe (film), Tokyo Joe'' (1949), ''In a Lonely Place
''In a Lonely Place'' is a 1950 American film noir directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame, produced for Bogart's Santana Productions. The script was written by Andrew P. Solt from Edmund H. North's adaptation o ...
'' (1950), and ''Sirocco (film), Sirocco'' (1951). Santana also made two films without him: ''And Baby Makes Three'' (1949) and ''The Family Secret (1951 film), The Family Secret'' (1951).
Although most lost money at the box office (ultimately forcing Santana's sale), at least two retain a reputation; ''In a Lonely Place'' is considered a film-noir high point. Bogart plays Dixon Steele, an embittered writer with a violent reputation who is the primary suspect in the murder of a young woman and falls in love with failed actress Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame). Several Bogart biographers, and actress-writer Louise Brooks, have felt that this role is closest to the real Bogart. According to Brooks, the film "gave him a role that he could play with complexity, because the film character's pride in his art, his selfishness, drunkenness, lack of energy stabbed with lightning strokes of violence were shared by the real Bogart". The character mimics some of Bogart's personal habits, twice ordering the actor's favorite meal (ham and eggs).
A parody of sorts of ''The Maltese Falcon'', ''Beat the Devil'' was the final film for Bogart and John Huston
John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...
. Co-written by Truman Capote, the eccentrically filmed story follows an amoral group of rogues, one of whom was portrayed by Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before movin ...
, chasing an unattainable treasure. Bogart sold his interest in Santana to Columbia for over $1 million in 1955.
''The African Queen''
Outside Santana Productions, Bogart starred with Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...
in the John Huston-directed '' The African Queen'' in 1951. The C. S. Forester novel on which it was based was overlooked and left undeveloped for 15 years until producer Sam Spiegel and Huston bought the rights. Spiegel sent Katharine Hepburn the book; she suggested Bogart for the male lead, believing that "he was the only man who could have played that part". Huston's love of adventure, his deep, longstanding friendship (and success) with Bogart, and the chance to work with Hepburn convinced the actor to leave Hollywood for a difficult shoot on location in the Belgian Congo. Bogart was to get 30 percent of the profits and Hepburn 10 percent, plus a relatively small salary for both. The stars met in London and announced that they would work together.
Bacall came for the over-four-month duration, leaving their young son in Los Angeles. The Bogarts began the trip with a Film promotion, junket through Europe, including a visit with Pope Pius XII. Bacall later made herself useful as a cook, nurse and clothes washer; her husband said: "I don't know what we'd have done without her. She Lux (soap), Luxed my undies in darkest Africa." Nearly everyone in the cast developed dysentery except Bogart and Huston, who subsisted on canned food and alcohol; Bogart said, "All I ate was baked beans, canned asparagus and Scotch whisky. Whenever a fly bit Huston or me, it dropped dead." Hepburn (a Teetotalism, teetotaler) fared worse in the difficult conditions, losing weight and at one point becoming very ill. Bogart resisted Huston's insistence on using real leeches in a key scene where Charlie has to drag his steam launch through an infested marsh, and reasonable fakes were employed. The crew overcame illness, Army ant, army-ant infestations, leaky boats, poor food, attacking hippopotamus, hippos, poor water filters, extreme heat, isolation, and a boat fire to complete the film. Despite the discomfort of jumping from the boat into swamps, rivers and marshes, ''The African Queen'' apparently rekindled Bogart's early love of boats; when he returned to California, he bought a classic mahogany Hacker-Craft runabout which he kept until his death.
His performance as cantankerous skipper Charlie Allnut earned Bogart an Academy Award for Best Actor
The Academy Award for Best Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. The ...
in 1951 (his only award of three nominations), and he considered it the best of his film career. Promising friends that if he won his speech would break the convention of thanking everyone in sight, Bogart advised Claire Trevor when she was nominated for ''Key Largo
Key Largo ( es, Cayo Largo) is an island in the upper Florida Keys archipelago and is the largest section of the keys, at long. It is one of the northernmost of the Florida Keys in Monroe County, and the northernmost of the keys connected b ...
'' to "just say you did it all yourself and don't thank anyone". When Bogart won, however, he said: "It's a long way from the Belgian Congo to the stage of this theatre. It's nicer to be here. Thank you very much ... No one does it alone. As in tennis, you need a good opponent or partner to bring out the best in you. John and Katie helped me to be where I am now." Despite the award and its accompanying recognition, Bogart later said: "The way to survive an Oscar is never to try to win another one ... too many stars ... win it and then figure they have to top themselves ... they become afraid to take chances. The result: A lot of dull performances in dull pictures." ''The African Queen'' was Bogart's first starring Technicolor role.
''The Caine Mutiny''
Bogart dropped his asking price to obtain the role of Captain Queeg in Edward Dmytryk's drama, ''The Caine Mutiny
''The Caine Mutiny'' is a 1951 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Herman Wouk. The novel grew out of Wouk's personal experiences aboard two destroyer-minesweepers in the Pacific Theater in World War II. Among its themes, it deals with the moral a ...
'' (1954). Though he retained some of his old bitterness about having to do so, he delivered a strong performance in the lead; he received his final Oscar nomination and was the subject of a June 7, 1954, ''Time (magazine), Time'' magazine cover story.
Despite his success, Bogart was still Depression (mood), melancholy; he grumbled to (and feuded with) the studio, while his health began to deteriorate. Like his portrayal of Fred C. Dobbs in ''The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'', Bogart's Queeg is a paranoid, self-pitying character whose small-mindedness eventually destroys him. Henry Fonda played a different role in the Broadway version of ''The Caine Mutiny'', generating publicity for the film.
Final roles
For ''Sabrina
Sabrina may refer to:
* Sabrina (given name), a feminine given name, including a list of persons and fictional characters with the name
People
* Sabrina (actress), stage name of Norma Ann Sykes (1936–2016), a British glamour model and actres ...
'' (1954), Billy Wilder wanted Cary Grant for the older male lead and chose Bogart to play the conservative brother who competes with his younger, playboy sibling (William Holden
William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor, and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film ''Stalag 17'' (1953) ...
) for the affection of the Cinderella-like Sabrina (Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, t ...
). Although Bogart was lukewarm about the part, he agreed to it on a handshake with Wilder without a finished script but with the director's assurance that he would take good care of Bogart during filming. The actor, however, got along poorly with his director and co-stars; he complained about the script's last-minute drafting and delivery, and accused Wilder of favoring Hepburn and Holden on and off the set. Wilder was the opposite of Bogart's ideal director (John Huston) in style and personality; Bogart complained to the press that Wilder was "overbearing" and "is [a] kind of Prussian German with a riding crop. He is the type of director I don't like to work with ... the picture is a crock of crap. I got sick and tired of who gets Sabrina." Wilder later said, "We parted as enemies but finally made up." Despite the acrimony, the film was successful; according to a review in ''The New York Times'', Bogart was "incredibly adroit ... the skill with which this old rock-ribbed actor blends the gags and such duplicities with a manly manner of melting is one of the incalculable joys of the show".
Joseph L. Mankiewicz's ''The Barefoot Contessa
''The Barefoot Contessa'' is a 1954 American drama film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz about the life and loves of fictional Spanish sex symbol Maria Vargas. It stars Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, and Edmond O'Brien. The film's slo ...
'' (1954) was filmed in Rome. In this Hollywood backstory, Bogart is a broken-down man, a cynical director-narrator who saves his career by making a star of a flamenco dancer modeled on Rita Hayworth. He was uneasy with Ava Gardner
Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' attention in 1946 with her perform ...
in the female lead; she had just broken up with his Rat Pack buddy Frank Sinatra, and Bogart was annoyed by her inexperienced performance. The actor was generally praised as the film's strongest part. During filming and while Bacall was home, Bogart resumed his discreet affair with Verita Bouvaire-Thompson (his long-time studio assistant, whom he drank with and took sailing). When Bacall found them together, she extracted an expensive shopping spree from her husband; the three traveled together after the shooting.
Bogart could be generous with actors, particularly those who were blacklisted, down on their luck or having personal problems. During the filming of the Edward Dmytryk–directed ''The Left Hand of God'' (1955), he noticed his co-star Gene Tierney having a hard time remembering her lines and behaving oddly; he coached her, feeding Tierney her lines. Familiar with mental illness because of his sister's bouts of depression, Bogart encouraged Tierney to seek treatment. He also stood behind Joan Bennett and insisted on her as his co-star in Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz ( ; born Manó Kaminer; since 1905 Mihály Kertész; hu, Kertész Mihály; December 24, 1886 April 10, 1962) was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed cla ...
's ''We're No Angels (1955 film), We're No Angels'' (1955) when a scandal made her ''persona non grata'' with studio head Jack Warner.
Bogart had already been diagnosed with terminal cancer when shooting ''The Harder They Fall (1956 film), The Harder They Fall'', a boxing drama with Rod Steiger in a supporting role. Steiger later mentioned Bogart's courage and geniality during his final performance:
Bogey and I got on very well. Unlike some other stars, when they had closeups, you might have been relegated to a two-shot, or cut out altogether. Bogey didn't play those games. He was a professional and had tremendous authority. He'd come in exactly at 9 a.m. and leave at precisely 6 p.m. I remember once walking to lunch in between takes and seeing Bogey on the lot. I shouldn't have because his work was finished for the day. I asked him why he was still on the lot, and he said, "They want to shoot some retakes of my closeups because my eyes are too watery". A little while later, after the film, somebody came up to me with word of Bogey's death. Then it struck me. His eyes were watery because he was in pain with the cancer. I thought: "How dumb can you be, Rodney"!
Television and radio
Bogart rarely performed on television, but he and Bacall appeared on Edward R. Murrow's ''Person to Person'' and disagreed on the answer to every question. He also appeared on ''The Jack Benny Program'', where a surviving kinescope of the live telecast captures him in his only TV sketch-comedy performance (October 25, 1953).
Bogart and Bacall worked on an early color telecast in 1955, an NBC adaptation of "The Petrified Forest
''The Petrified Forest'' is a 1936 American film directed by Archie Mayo and based on Robert E. Sherwood's 1935 Broadway drama of the same name. The motion picture stars Leslie Howard, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. The screenplay was written ...
" for ''Producers' Showcase''. Bogart received Billing (performing arts), top billing, Henry Fonda played Leslie Howard's role and Bacall played Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her pe ...
's part. Jack Klugman, Richard Jaeckel, and Jack Warden played supporting roles. In the late 1990s, Bacall donated the only known kinescope of the 1955 performance (in black and white) to the Museum of Television & Radio (now the Paley Center for Media), where it remains archived for viewing in New York City and Los Angeles. It is now in the public domain.
Bogart also performed radio adaptations of some of his best-known films, such as ''Casablanca'' and ''The Maltese Falcon'', and recorded a radio series entitled ''Bold Venture'' with Bacall.
Personal life
Children
Bogart became a father at age 49, when Bacall gave birth to their son Stephen Humphrey Bogart on January 6, 1949, during the filming of ''Tokyo Joe''. The name was taken from Steve, Bogart's character's nickname in ''To Have and Have Not''. Stephen became an author and biographer and hosted a television special about his father on Turner Classic Movies. The couple's second child and daughter, Leslie Howard Bogart, was born on August 23, 1952. Her first and middle names honor Leslie Howard
Leslie Howard Steiner (3 April 18931 June 1943) was an English actor, director and producer.Obituary ''Variety'', 9 June 1943. He wrote many stories and articles for ''The New York Times'', ''The New Yorker'', and '' Vanity Fair'' and was one ...
, Bogart's friend and co-star in ''The Petrified Forest''.
Rat Pack
Bogart was a founding member and the original leader of the Hollywood Rat Pack. In the spring of 1955, after a long party in Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas attended by Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and her husband Sidney Luft, Michael Romanoff and his wife Gloria, David Niven
James David Graham Niven (; 1 March 1910 – 29 July 1983) was a British actor, soldier, memoirist, and novelist. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Major Pollock in ''Separate Tables'' (1958). Niven's other roles ...
, Angie Dickinson and others, Bacall surveyed the wreckage and said: "You look like a goddamn rat pack."[Sperber and Lax 1997, p. 504.]
The name stuck and was made official at Romanoff's in Beverly Hills. Sinatra was dubbed pack president; Bacall den mother; Bogart director of public relations, and Sid Luft acting cage manager.[Sperber and Lax 1997, p. 430.] Asked by columnist Earl Wilson (columnist), Earl Wilson what the group's purpose was, Bacall replied: "To drink a lot of bourbon and stay up late."
Illness and death
After signing a long-term deal with Warner Bros., Bogart predicted with glee that his teeth and hair would fall out before the contract ended. By 1955, however, his health was failing. In the wake of Santana, Bogart had formed a new company and had plans for a film (''John P. Marquand#Popular fiction, Melville Goodwin, U.S.A.'') in which he would play a general and Bacall a press magnate. His persistent cough and difficulty eating became too serious to ignore, though, and he dropped the project.
A heavy smoker and drinker, Bogart had developed esophageal cancer
Esophageal cancer is cancer arising from the esophagus—the food pipe that runs between the throat and the stomach. Symptoms often include difficulty in swallowing and weight loss. Other symptoms may include pain when swallowing, a hoarse voice ...
. He did not talk about his health and visited a doctor in late January 1956 after considerable persuasion from Bacall. The disease worsened and several weeks later, on March 1, Bogart had surgery to remove his esophagus, two lymph nodes and a rib. The surgery was unsuccessful, and chemotherapy followed. He had additional surgery in November 1956, when the cancer had metastasized. Although he became too weak to walk up and down stairs, he joked despite the pain: "Put me in the dumbwaiter and I'll ride down to the first floor in style." It was then altered to accommodate his wheelchair. Frank Sinatra, Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...
, and Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor. He was known for his natural performing style and versatility. One of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy was the first actor to win two cons ...
visited him on January 13, 1957. In an interview, Hepburn said:
Bogart lapsed into a coma and died the following day; at the time of his death, he weighed only . A simple funeral was held at All Saints Episcopal Church, with music by Bogart's favorite composers: Johann Sebastian Bach and Claude Debussy. Hollywood's biggest stars and most powerful people like Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films, television movies, and plays.Obituary ''Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, she is often ...
, Mary Astor
Mary Astor (born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke; May 3, 1906 – September 25, 1987) was an American actress. Although her career spanned several decades, she may be best remembered for her performance as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in '' The Maltese ...
, Olivia de Havilland, Bing Crosby, James Cagney
James Francis Cagney Jr. (; July 17, 1899March 30, 1986) was an American actor, dancer and film director. On stage and in film, Cagney was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. He ...
, Henry Fonda, Harry Cohn, David O. Selznick and Jack L. Warner attended the Bogart's funeral. Bacall asked Tracy to give the eulogy; he was too upset, however, and John Huston spoke instead:
Bogart was cremated, and his ashes were interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale), Forest Lawn Memorial Park's Columbarium of Eternal Light in its Garden of Memory in Glendale, California. He was buried with a small, gold whistle that had been part of a charm bracelet he had given to Bacall before they married. On it was inscribed, "If you want anything, just whistle." This alluded to a scene in ''To Have and Have Not'' when Bacall's character says to Bogart shortly after their first meeting, "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow."
Bogart's estate had a gross value of $910,146 and a net value of $737,668 ($ million and $ million, respectively, in ).
Awards and honors
On August 21, 1946, he recorded his hand- and footprints in cement in a ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. On February 8, 1960, Bogart was posthumously inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a List of actors with Hollywood Walk of Fame motion picture stars, motion-picture star at 6322 Hollywood Boulevard.
Legacy and tributes
After his death, a "Bogie cult" formed at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in Greenwich Village, and in France; this contributed to his increased popularity during the late 1950s and 1960s. In 1997, ''Entertainment Weekly'' magazine ranked Bogart the number-one movie legend of all time; two years later, the American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees.
Leade ...
rated him the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, greatest male screen legend.
Jean-Luc Godard's ''Breathless (1960 film), Breathless'' (1960) was the first film to pay tribute to Bogart. Over a decade later, in Woody Allen's comic paean ''Play It Again, Sam (film), Play It Again, Sam'' (1972), Bogart's ghost aids Allen's character: a film critic having difficulties with women who says that his "sex life has turned into the 'Petrified Forest.
The United States Postal Service honored Bogart with a stamp in its "Legends of Hollywood" series in 1997, the third figure recognized. At a ceremony attended by Lauren Bacall and the Bogart children, Stephen and Leslie, USPS governing-board chair Tirso del Junco delivered a tribute:
"Today, we mark another chapter in the Bogart legacy. With an image that is small and yet as powerful as the ones he left in celluloid, we will begin today to bring his artistry, his power, his unique star quality, to the messages that travel the world."
On June 24, 2006, 103rd Street between Broadway and West End Avenue in New York City was renamed Humphrey Bogart Place. Lauren Bacall and her son, Stephen Bogart, attended the ceremony. "Bogie would never have believed it", she said to the assembled city officials and onlookers.
In popular culture
Bogart has inspired multiple artists.
* Two Bugs Bunny cartoons featured impersonations of the actor: ''Slick Hare'' (1947) and ''8 Ball Bunny'' (1950, based on ''The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'').
* ''The Man with Bogart's Face'' (1981, starring Bogart lookalike Robert Sacchi) was an Homage (arts), homage to the actor.
* The lyrics of Bertie Higgins' 1981 song "Key Largo (song), Key Largo" refer to two of Bogart's films, ''Key Largo
Key Largo ( es, Cayo Largo) is an island in the upper Florida Keys archipelago and is the largest section of the keys, at long. It is one of the northernmost of the Florida Keys in Monroe County, and the northernmost of the keys connected b ...
'' and ''Casablanca
Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...
''.
* Al Stewart's 1976 song "Year of the Cat (song), Year of the Cat" was influenced by ''Casablanca'' and begins with the line "In a morning from a Bogart movie, in a country where they turn back time..."
* In 2023, notable artist William Kentridge included a drawing of Bogart in his solo museum exhibition at The Broad in Los Angeles.
Filmography
Notable radio appearances
See also
* Bogart–Bacall syndrome
* List of actors with Academy Award nominations
* List of amateur chess players
* List of members of the American Legion
References
Notes
Bibliography
* Bacall, Lauren. ''By Myself''. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1979. .
* Bogart, Stephen Humphrey. ''Bogart: In Search of My Father''. New York: Dutton, 1995. .
* Citro, Joseph A., Mark Sceurman and Mark Moran.''Weird New England''. New York: Sterling, 2005. .
*
* Halliwell, Leslie. ''Halliwell's Film, Video and DVD Guide''. New York: HarperCollins Entertainment, 2004. .
* Hepburn, Katharine. ''The Making of the African Queen''. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1987. .
* Hill, Jonathan and Jonah Ruddy. ''Bogart: The Man and the Legend''. London: Mayflower-Dell, 1966.
* ''History of the U.S.S. Leviathan, Cruiser and Transport Forces, United States Atlantic Fleet'', pp. 207–208.
* ''Humphrey Bogart.'' ''Time (magazine), Time'', June 7, 1954.
* Hyams, Joe. ''Bogart and Bacall: A Love Story''. New York: David McKay Co., Inc., 1975. .
* Hyams, Joe. ''Bogie: The Biography of Humphrey Bogart''. New York: New American Library, 1966 (later editions renamed as: ''Bogie: The Definitive Biography of Humphrey Bogart''). .
* Kanfer, Stefan. ''Tough Without A Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart.'' New York: Knopf, 2011. .
*
* Michael, Paul. ''Humphrey Bogart: The Man and his Films''. New York: Bonanza Books, 1965. No ISBN.
* Porter, Darwin. ''The Secret Life of Humphrey Bogart: The Early Years (1899–1931)''. New York: Georgia Literary Association, 2003. .
* Pym, John, ed. ''"Time Out" Film Guide''. London: Time Out Group Ltd., 2004. .
* Santas, Constantine, ''The Essential Humphrey Bogart.'' Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. .
* Shickel, Richard. ''Bogie: A Celebration of the Life and Films of Humphrey Bogart.'' New York: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, 2006. .
* Sperber, A. M. and Eric Lax. ''Bogart''. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1997. .
* Tierney, Gene with Mickey Herskowitz. ''Self-Portrait''. New York: Peter Wyden, 1979. .
* Wallechinsky, David and Amy Wallace. ''The New Book of Lists''. Edinburgh, Scotland: Canongate, 2005. .
* Wise, James. ''Stars in Blue: Movie Actors in America's Sea Services''. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1997. .
* Youngkin, Stephen D. ''The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre''. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2005, .
External links
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