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.

Rise to stardom

High Sierra, a 1941 Raoul Walsh movie, was written by Bogart's friend and drinking partner, John Huston. The movie was a step forward for Bogart. He still played the villain, "Mad Dog" Roy Earle. He still died at the end; but at least he got to kiss Ida Lupino, and to play a character with some depth. In a climactic scene, Bogart's character slid 90 feet down a mountainside to his punishment. His stunt double, Buster Wiles, bounced a few times going down the mountain and wanted another take to do better. "Forget it," said Raoul Walsh. "It's good enough for the 25-cent customers."

Related Topics:
High Sierra - 1941 - Raoul Walsh - John Huston - Ida Lupino - Buster Wiles

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Bogart and Huston enjoyed each other, and drew on each other's gifts. Bogart had always been self-conscious about being a small man; Huston was about 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m). Bogart had never been close to his father; Huston was very close to his father, the actor Walter Huston.

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Bogart admired and somewhat envied Huston because Huston got to write scripts, to shape a story and make sure it had heft. Though a poor student, Bogart was a lifelong reader. He could quote Plato, Pope, Ralph Waldo Emerson and over a thousand lines of Shakespeare. He admired writers, and some of his best friends were screenwriters, including Louis Bromfield, Nathaniel Benchley and Nunnally Johnson.

Related Topics:
Plato - Pope - Ralph Waldo Emerson - Shakespeare - Louis Bromfield - Nathaniel Benchley - Nunnally Johnson

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John Huston reported being easily bored, and admired Bogart not just for his acting talent but for his intense concentration.

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James Cagney and George Raft had both turned down Bogart's part in High Sierra; Raft didn't want to play a character who died at the end. Now George Raft turned down the male lead in John Huston's directorial debut, The Maltese Falcon, also 1941.

Related Topics:
George Raft - 1941

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Bogart grabbed the part and audiences saw him play a leading role with real complexity. His character Sam Spade was still capable of duplicity and violence, but he was a leading man: handsome, smart, fated to survive. When he discovered his sexy client was a murderess, he turned her in, with a speech he made famous: "I don't care who loves you. I won't play the sap for you! You killed Miles and you're going over for it. I hope they don't hang you by your sweet neck. If you're a good girl, you'll be out in 20 years and you'll come back to me. If they hang you, I'll always remember you."

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As America entered World War II, it turned to a new kind of leading man, less dapper and polished, but tougher and more willing to use violence to make the world safe and to get what he wanted. Bogart's persona was much better suited to the war years than to the 1930s. Bogart played a guy who'd grown up on the streets, a guy who knew how to fire a gun, how to punch a guy on the jaw, and spit out "Tell that to your boss."

Related Topics:
World War II - 1930s

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Bogart got his first real romantic lead in Casablanca, playing Rick Blaine, the nightclub owner. Bogart had learned how to convey pain in his eyes and to show emotion with subtle shadings of his voice. He was still young but looked like a man who had lived hard.

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As Casablanca became an iconic movie, much was made of the fact that its script was still being written as shooting on the movie began. Less well understood is that the character of Rick Blaine drew powerfully on the persona that Bogart had been cultivating in real life for at least six years. The soured idealist; the loner; the hard-drinking man exiled from better things in New York—all of these were crucial parts of Rick Blaine—and of Bogart. Bogart played a complex man wary of showing his emotions or ideals, a chess player who kept even his friends off balance.

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In real life, Bogart himself played tournament chess, achieving expert strength, one level below master level. Bogart reportedly asked that Blaine also be portrayed as a chess player.

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Bogart was surrounded by a fine international cast, including Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Sidney Greenstreet, Paul Henreid and Conrad Veidt. Dooley Wilson played the part of Sam, Rick's confidant and piano player, even though he could not play the piano. The script and Max Steiner's musical score have both been praised extensively, as has the cinematography.

Related Topics:
Ingrid Bergman - Claude Rains - Peter Lorre - Sidney Greenstreet - Paul Henreid - Conrad Veidt - Dooley Wilson - Max Steiner

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The stories that Ronald Reagan had been offered, but passed on, the role of Rick are just that, stories, resulting from the casual lies pumped out by studio publicity departments in those days to keep fans interested in the activities of a star who was not doing anything newsworthy at the time. Warner Brothers' publicity department concocted similar tales during the shooting of Casablanca, e.g., that Bogart was learning Swedish so that he could woo Bergman, that were just as spurious.

Related Topics:
Ronald Reagan - Warner Brothers

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Off the set, Bergman and Bogart hardly spoke during the filming of Casablanca. She said later, "I kissed him but I never knew him." Years later, after Ingrid Bergman had taken up with Italian director Roberto Rossellini, and borne him a child, Bogart bawled her out for it. "You used to be a great star," he said. "What are you now?" "A happy woman," she replied.

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Casablanca won the 1943 Academy Award for Best Picture. Bogart was nominated for the Best Actor in a Leading Role, but lost out to Paul Lukas for his performance in Watch on the Rhine.

Related Topics:
1943 - Academy Award for Best Picture - Best Actor in a Leading Role

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Only Bogart's fourth marriage, to Lauren Bacall ("Baby"), was a happy one. They met while making To Have and Have Not. Bogart played a tough, independent fisherman named Steve, who got pushed to his limit by some unsavory people and then got his revenge. They were married on 21 May 1945 in Mansfield, Ohio, at Malabar Farm, the country home of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louis Bromfield, who was a close friend of Bogart.

Related Topics:
Lauren Bacall - 21 May - 1945 - Mansfield, Ohio - Malabar Farm - Pulitzer Prize - Louis Bromfield

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Bacall became an overnight sensation with her famous line to Bogart. Leaning against a doorway, her head down and voice low, she told Bogart's character: "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? Just put your lips together, and blow."

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Bogart fell in love with Bacall. The movie's director, Howard Hawks, once commented: "When two people are falling in love with each other, they're not tough to get along with, I can tell you that. Bogie was marvelous. I said "You've got to help" and of course after a few days he really began to get interested in the girl. That made him help more." Hawks also said of Bacall: "She had to keep practicing for six to eight months to keep that low voice. Now, it's perfectly natural. And the funny thing is that Bogie fell in love with the character she played, so she had to keep playing it the rest of her life."

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Bogart had another strong, unspoken friendship with Walter Brennan, who played the harmless drunk Eddie in To Have and Have Not. Hawks recalled: "The fellow who rented their boat said 'What do you take care of him for?' Bogart looked at him and said, 'He thinks he's taking care of me.' And he wasn't very nice the way he said it. Those are the relationships that happen between men."

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Bogart and Bacall's relationship is at the heart of the film noir masterpiece The Big Sleep. The plot is complex and has holes in it that even Raymond Chandler, who wrote the novel on which it was based, could not explain. Hawks himself admitted "I never figured out what was going on but I thought had great scenes in it…After that got by, I said, 'I'm never going to worry about being logical again.'"

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Chandler thoroughly admired Bogart's performance: "Bogart can be tough without a gun. Also he has a sense of humor that contains that grating undertone of contempt."

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Bacall allowed Bogart lots of weekend time on his boat. She got seasick on boats and Bogart liked the boat to be an all-male preserve, stating "The trouble with having dames on board is you can't pee over the side." Bogart would frequently sail to Catalina with friends or set some lobster traps.

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Bogart allowed Bacall romantic crushes on Adlai Stevenson and Leonard Bernstein, knowing she'd married young before ever having much chance to date. But he made clear he'd leave Bacall if she ever had an affair. She never did. Bacall once wrote of Bogart: "You had to stay awake married to him. Every time I thought I could relax and do everything I wanted, he'd buck. There was no way to predict his reactions, no matter how well I knew him."

Related Topics:
Adlai Stevenson - Leonard Bernstein

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Bogart and Bacall moved into a $160,000 white brick mansion in Holmby Hills, an exclusive neighborhood between Beverly Hills and Bel Air. Bogart and Bacall had two Jaguar cars, and three blooded Boxer dogs. Bogart said "We moved where all the creeps live." But he enjoyed some of his neighbors, especially Judy Garland.

Related Topics:
Holmby Hills - Beverly Hills - Bel Air - Jaguar - Boxer - Judy Garland

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When Lauren Bacall learned she was pregnant, she was ecstatic. Bogart came home from a day at the studio, and she met him with the great news. He grew very quiet. He put his arm around her and led her gently into the house. He was quiet during dinner—and then, after dinner, Bogart and Bacall had the worst fight they ever had. Bogart had finally found a woman he truly loved, and he didn't want to share her. He was scared of losing her affection to a baby.

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When Lauren Bacall gave birth to a son, Stephen, Bogart became a father at 49. He'd had months to absorb the news, had even had his own baby shower. (Frank Sinatra had brought him baby rattles.) But Bogart still felt awkward about being a father. ("What do you do with a kid?" he asked a friend. "They don't drink.") In 1952, they had their second child, Leslie (a girl, named after actor Leslie Howard).

Related Topics:
Stephen - Frank Sinatra - Leslie Howard

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In 1950, Bogart and his friend Bill Seeman arrived at the El Morocco Club in New York after midnight. Bogart had bought two giant stuffed panda bears for Stephen, and he and Seeman introduced the bears around as their "dates" and demanded a table for four. They propped up the bears in separate chairs, and began doing some heavy drinking.

Related Topics:
1950 - El Morocco

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Two young women at the club saw the pandas. One of them picked up one of the pandas. Bogart got angry and pushed her. After she fell to the floor, her friend picked up the other panda, Bogart said something cruel, and her boyfriend arrived and began throwing plates. After a wild scuffle, Bogart, Seeman and the pandas were thrown out of El Morocco and told never to return.

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One of the women sued Bogart for $25,000. He showed up in court and was asked: "Were you drunk?" "Isn't everybody at three in the morning?" he replied. The case was dropped. Later, he mused: "Errol Flynn and I are the only ones left who do any good old hell-raising."

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Bogart also loved to go to Romanoff's in Beverly Hills. A valet would take the Jaguar, and a maitre d' would lead Bogart to his regular booth. Friends would stop by to chat or talk shop: David Niven, Judy Garland, Richard Brooks, Marilyn Monroe, Swifty Lazar, Spencer Tracy. Rock Hudson was a rising star; when he saw him, Bogart would ask, "What the hell kind of name is 'Rock' Hudson?"

Related Topics:
David Niven - Judy Garland - Richard Brooks - Marilyn Monroe - Swifty Lazar - Rock Hudson

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Bogart considered Mike Romanoff a poseur but nonetheless counted him a close friend. Among other things, Bogart admired him as a chess player and appreciated his tendency to needle people. Mike Romanoff was a man with a cultivated Oxford accent, who insisted that his true name was "Prince Michael Alexandrovitch Dmitri Obolensky Romanoff", and that he was a blood nephew of the former Russian tsar.

Related Topics:
Mike Romanoff - Oxford accent - Tsar

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Mike Romanoff would greet Bogart by saying, "Good afternoon, Mr. Bogart. Are you going to be paying your bill today? I thought that might be a pleasant change."

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Bogart would smile and reply: "Are you going to be putting any alcohol in your drinks today? That might be a pleasant change."

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If Bacall was with Bogart, Romanoff might turn to her and say: "I see that you are still dating the same aging actor."

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