Celebrity Pop: Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey Bogart

As Rick, in CASABLANCA

Humphrey DeForest Bogart December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957) was an American film and theater actor. His performances in numerous films during the Classical Hollywood era made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected him as the greatest male star of classic American cinema.

Bogart began acting in Broadway shows and began his movie career in Up the River (1930). The film also starred Spencer Tracy. Bogart played the romantic role in a part as large as Tracy's, despite Bogart's much lower billing. Bogart appeared in various supporting parts for several years, sometimes portraying gangsters due to his resemblance to John Dillinger. He was highly praised for his work in The Petrified Forest (1936), which was his big break into the Warner Bros. gangster pantheon.

Bogart's breakthrough from supporting roles to A-list stardom came with High Sierra (1941), his last role as a gangster, and The Maltese Falcon (1941), considered to be one of the first great film noirs. His private detectives Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon and Phillip Marlowe in The Big Sleep (1946) became the model for detectives in other film noirs. His first true romantic lead role came when he appeared alongside Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca (1942), although filming the pair involved efforts to mask the fact Bergman was taller than the 5'8" (1.73 m) Bogart. Casablanca, a Best Picture Academy Award Winner, landed him his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Bogart and 19-year-old Lauren Bacall fell in love when they filmed To Have and Have Not (1944) and soon after the main filming for The Big Sleep (1946), their second film together, concluded in early 1945, he filed for divorce from his third wife and married Bacall. After their marriage, she also played his love interest in Dark Passage (1947), and Key Largo (1948).

Bogart's performances in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), as a paranoid gold prospector, and In a Lonely Place (1950), as a screenwriter suspected of murder, are today considered to be his best, although they were not as recognized at their time of release.^[10] The unsettled, sometimes terrifying character he portrayed in these roles is again illustrated in his World War II war boat commander in The Caine Mutiny (1954), which was a critical and commercial smash, and garnered him another Best Actor nomination.

It was for his cantankerous transport boat pilot alongside Katharine Hepburn's missionary in the World War I adventure The African Queen (1951) that Bogart won the Academy Award for Best Actor. In his later years significant roles included competing with William Holden for Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina (1954) and The Barefoot Contessa with Ava Gardner. A heavy smoker and drinker, Bogart died from esophageal cancer in January 1957.

Broadway to Hollywood

Bogart then signed a contract with the Fox Film Corporation for $750 a week. There he met Spencer Tracy, a serious Broadway actor whom Bogart liked and admired, and they became close friends and drinking companions. It was Tracy, in 1930, who first called him "Bogie". Tracy made his film debut in the only film in which he and Bogart appeared together, John Ford's early sound film Up the River (1930). Both had major roles as inmates. Tracy received top billing and Bogart's face was featured on the film's posters instead of Tracy's.

Bogart then had a minor supporting role in Bad Sister (1931) with Bette Davis. Decades later, Tracy and Bogart planned to make The Desperate Hours together, but both sought top billing, so Tracy dropped out and was replaced by Fredric March.

Bogart shuttled back and forth between Hollywood and the New York stage from 1930 to 1935, suffering long periods without work. His parents had separated, his father dying in 1934 in debt, which Bogart eventually paid off. Bogart inherited his father's gold ring which he always wore, even in many of his films. At his father's deathbed, Bogart finally told him how much he loved him. His second marriage was on the rocks, and he was less than happy with his acting career. He became depressed, irritable, and drank heavily.

Bogart with Ingrid Bergman

CASABLANCA

BOGART & CASABLANCA

Bogart gained his first real romantic lead in Casablanca (1942), playing Rick Blaine, an expatriate nightclub owner hiding from a suspicious past while negotiating a fine line among Nazis, the French underground, the Vichy prefect and unresolved feelings for his ex-girlfriend. As Bosley Crowther explained in his November 1942 New York Times review, Bogart's persona is used "to inject a cold point of tough resistance to evil forces afoot in Europe today". The film was directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Hal Wallis, and featured Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Paul Henreid, Conrad Veidt, Peter Lorre and Dooley Wilson.

The on-screen relationship of Bogart and Bergman was the result of two actors being professional, rather than any real-life rapport, although Bogart's perennially jealous wife assumed more. Off the set, the co-stars hardly spoke. Bergman, who had a reputation for affairs with her leading men,^[92] later said of Bogart, "I kissed him but I never knew him." Because Bergman was taller, Bogart had 3-inch (76 mm) blocks attached to his shoes in certain scenes.

Bogart is reported to have been responsible for the notion that Rick Blaine should be portrayed as a chess player, a metaphor for the sparring relationship he maintained with friends, enemies, and tenuous allies. In real life Bogart, played tournament level chess one division below master, often enjoying games with crew members and cast, but finding his better in the superior Paul Henreid.

Casablanca won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 16th Academy Awards for 1943. Bogart was nominated for an Academy Award Best Actor in a Leading Role, but lost to Paul Lukas for his performance in Watch on the Rhine. The film vaulted Bogart from fourth place to first in the studio's roster, finally overtaking James Cagney. By 1946, he had more than doubled his annual salary to over $460,000, making him the highest-paid actor in the world.

During 1943 and 1944, Bogart went on the United Service Organizations and War Bond tours accompanied by Methot, enduring arduous travels to Italy and North Africa, including Casablanca. Despite Bogart's elevated standing, he still was required to perform in films with weak scripts leading to conflict with the front office. He appeared in the film Conflict (1945). (with Sydney Greenstreet once more) and played the lead, but successfully turned down God is My Co-Pilot (1945