Verita Bouvaire-Thompson (9 February 1918 – 1 February 2008) was an American actress turned hairdresser who reputedly had a 14-year affair with actor Humphrey Bogart.

Biography

Thompson was born in Nogales, Arizona, to an Irish American father and a Mexican mother and was raised by her paternal grandparents, living most of her youth in northern Mexico. After graduating from high school and coming second in the 1935

Miss Arizona The Miss Arizona competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Arizona in the Miss America pageant. Arizona has twice won the Miss America title. The first Miss Arizona, Anna Marie Barnett, was crowned in 1938. ...

Pageant she was discovered by a Hollywood talent scout and signed a contract with Republic Pictures. During the filming of her first film she fell off a horse and broke her arm. Back in Mexico she met a hairdresser and wig maker with whom she formed a partnership. Upon returning to Hollywood her patrons were

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, Ray Milland, George Raft and finally, Humphrey Bogart. According to Thompson, her association with Bogart started in 1942, when he was still married to his third wife,

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 ...

, in a union noted for its stormy, sometimes physically violent arguments. In 1949 she became his personal hairdresser and worked on all but four of Bogarts's last 18 pictures. Thompson later moved to

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

. When Hurricane Katrina was about to hit the city, she is alleged to have refused the offer of a private jet, stating, " Lauren Bacall failed to chase me out of Hollywood. Katrina won't force me out of New Orleans.” Thompson was the author of the 1982 autobiography, ''Bogie and Me: The Love Story of Humphrey Bogart and Verita Thompson''. In a 2011 biography of Humphrey Bogart, the relationship is mentioned and labeled as unverified, though under the premise that Bogart had quietly begun to seek the company of other women, including his ex-wife

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 wer ...

and his personal hairdresser, "a spirited little brunette named Verita Thompson." The author then quotes Thompson as saying that, "'Often he'd stay the night usually leaving for the studio around five in the morning." Others confirm that a relationship began in 1942. While the fact of the extramarital affair is downplayed, the fact that she was his hairdresser is well established. She provided some celebrity at the Resurrection Party of the Centurya re-enactment of

Truman Capote Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, ...

's 1966

Black and White Ball The Black and White Ball was a masquerade ball held on November 28, 1966, at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Hosted by author Truman Capote, the ball was in honor of ''The Washington Post'' publisher Katharine Graham. Impulse Truman Capote deci ...

extravaganzaat the Queen Anne Ballroom in New Orleans on November 28, 2006. This was exactly four decades following Capote's blowout to celebrate the publication of '' In Cold Blood''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bouvaire-Thompson, Verita 1918 births 2008 deaths People from Nogales, Arizona American hairdressers American film actresses 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American actresses Actresses from Arizona Writers from Arizona American autobiographers Women autobiographers American people of Irish descent American actresses of Mexican descent 20th-century American women writers American expatriates in Mexico 21st-century American women