Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey DeForest Bogart (December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957) was an iconic American actor who retains legendary status decades after his death. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Bogart the Greatest Male Star of All Time.

Later career

In 1951, Bogart starred in the movie The African Queen, with Katharine Hepburn, and again directed by his friend John Huston. It was a difficult shoot, on location in Africa. One day the boat The African Queen sank. (Lauren Bacall recalled: "The natives had been told to watch it and they did—they watched it sink.")

Related Topics:
1951 - The African Queen - Katharine Hepburn

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John Huston recalled: "Bogie didn't particularly care for the Charlie Alnutt role when he started, but I slowly got him into it, showing him by expression and gesture what I thought Alnutt should be like. He first imitated me, then all at once he got under the skin of that wretched, sleazy, absurd, brave little man. He realized he was on to something new and good. He said to me, 'John, don't let me lose it.'"

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Hepburn's proper spinster character scolded Bogart's Charlie Alnutt: "Nature, Mr. Allnutt, is what we are put in this world to rise above." Bogart had a famous put down too: "You crazy, psalm-singing, skinny old maid!"

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The role of Charlie Alnutt won Bogart his first Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 1952. He had vowed to friends that if he won, his speech would break the convention of thanking everyone in sight. He would say instead: "I don't owe anything to anyone! I earned this award by hard work and paying attention to my craft." But when Bogart won the Academy Award, he thanked John Huston, Katharine Hepburn, the cast and crew of the movie. He had always felt Hollywood people did not like him much, and he was deeply moved to find himself so popular now.

Related Topics:
Academy Award - Best Actor in a Leading Role - 1952

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Bogart relied on his standing with his fellow actors to organize a delegation who went to Washington, D.C., during the height of McCarthyism, to protest the House Unamerican Activities Committee's harassment of Hollywood writers and actors. Bogart was not, however, prepared to deal with the industry pressure to abandon this campaign; within a year he disavowed his activities, retreating to his role as actor and apologizing for speaking out on politics.

Related Topics:
Washington, D.C. - McCarthyism - House Unamerican Activities Committee

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The Caine Mutiny was Bogart's last major movie. He dropped his asking price to get the role of Captain Queeg, then griped with some of his old bitterness about it. ("This never happens to Cooper or Grant or Gable, but always to me. Why does it happen to me?")

Related Topics:
The Caine Mutiny - Cooper - Grant - Gable

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Bogart gave a bravura performance as Captain Queeg. Queeg was in many ways an extension of the character he had played in The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and The Big Sleep—the wary loner who trusts no one—but with none of the warmth or humor that made those characters so appealing. Like his portrayal of Fred C. Dobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Bogart played—but did not overplay—a paranoid, self-pitying character whose small-mindedness eventually destroyed him.

Related Topics:
The Maltese Falcon - The Big Sleep - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

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Bogart had always treated his body poorly, and often drank heavily when not working. (Typically contrary, the one night he refused to get drunk was New Year's Eve.) He smoked unfiltered Chesterfields. Once, after signing a long-term deal with Warner Brothers, Bogart predicted with glee that his teeth and hair would fall out before the contract ended. That sent a fuming Jack Warner to his lawyers.

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In 1955, he made three movies: The Desperate Hours, The Left Hand of God, and We're No Angels. Each movie had a special satisfaction. The Desperate Hours gave him a third chance to play a hostage drama. During The Left Hand of God, Bogart was able to befriend Gene Tierney, and encourage her to get the psychiatric help he thought she badly needed. In We're No Angels, he got a starring role for Joan Bennett, who'd been out of work for three years after a family scandal.

Related Topics:
1955 - The Desperate Hours - The Left Hand of God - We're No Angels - Gene Tierney - Joan Bennett

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But his health was failing—Bogart had cancer of the esophagus. He almost never spoke of it and refused to see a doctor until January of 1956, and by then removal of his esophagus, two lymph nodes and a rib was too little, too late.

Related Topics:
Cancer - Esophagus

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Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy came to see him. Bogart was too weak to walk up and down stairs. He tried to joke about it: "Put me in the dumbwaiter and I'll ride down to the first floor in style. Come on—I'm a little guy—I'll fit."

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Hepburn has described the last time she and Spencer Tracy saw Bogart: "Spence patted him on the shoulder and said, 'Goodnight, Bogie.' Bogie turned his eyes to Spence very quietly and with a sweet smile covered Spence's hand with his own and said, 'Goodbye, Spence.' Spence's heart stood still. He understood."

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Bogart had just turned 57 and weighed only 80 pounds (36 kg) when he died on January 14, 1957 after falling into a coma. His funeral was held at All Saints Episcopal Church with musical selections played from Bogart's favorite composers, Johann Sebastian Bach and Claude Debussy. Lauren Bacall had asked Spencer Tracy to give the eulogy but Tracy was too upset. John Huston gave the eulogy instead, and reminded the gathered mourners that while Bogart's life had ended far too soon, it had been a rich one. Huston said: "He is quite irreplaceable. There will never be another like him."

Related Topics:
January 14 - 1957 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Claude Debussy - Lauren Bacall - Spencer Tracy - John Huston

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Huston also noted of Bogart: "Himself, he never took too seriously—his work most seriously. He regarded the somewhat gaudy figure of Bogart, the star, with an amused cynicism; Bogart, the actor, he held in deep respect…In each of the fountains at Versailles there is a pike which keeps all the carp active; otherwise they would grow overfat and die. Bogie took rare delight in performing a similar duty in the fountains of Hollywood. Yet his victims seldom bore him any malice, and when they did, not for long. His shafts were fashioned only to stick into the outer layer of complacency, and not to penetrate through to the regions of the spirit where real injuries are done."

Related Topics:
Versailles - Pike

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Katharine Hepburn: "He was one of the biggest guys I ever met. He walked straight down the center of the road. No maybes. Yes or no. He liked to drink. He drank. He liked to sail a boat. He sailed a boat. He was an actor. He was happy and proud to be an actor. He'd say to me, 'Are you comfortable? Everything okay?' He was looking out for me."

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Bogart once said of himself: "I don't approve of the John Waynes and the Gary Coopers saying 'Shucks, I ain't no actor—I'm just a bridge builder or a gas station attendant.' If they aren't actors, what the hell are they getting paid for? I have respect for my profession. I worked hard at it."

Related Topics:
John Wayne - Gary Cooper

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His cremated remains are interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, California. Buried with him is a small gold whistle, which he had given to his future wife, Lauren Bacall, before they married. In reference to their first movie together, it was inscribed: "If you want anything, just whistle."

Related Topics:
Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery - Glendale, California

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Humphrey Bogart's hand and foot prints are immortalized in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theater and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6322 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

Related Topics:
Grauman's Chinese Theater - Hollywood Walk of Fame - Hollywood

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His last words were, "I never should have switched from scotch to martinis."

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