Humphrey Bogart was committed to the art from the time he decided to pursue acting. He appeared in more than 80 films and yet he was never late to the set or unprepared for his lines. He held a deep respect for actors who were serious about their performances, and was professional in every aspect of his own career.
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was born December 25th, 1899. Bogart and his two younger sisters lived comfortably, as his family had a permanent residence in a prominent section near New York City, and a seasonal retreat on Canandaigua Lake. Here his father taught him how to play chess and sail, two activities that Bogart would enjoy for the rest of his life.
In May 1918, after a brief term at the Andover Academy in Massachusetts, Bogart enlisted in the Navy. He was assigned to the Leviathan, his duties at which would result in the famous scar that marked the right corner of his upper lip. A Navy prisoner, whom Bogart was escorting, asked for a cigarette. When he reached for a match, the prisoner smashed Bogart across the mouth with his handcuffs and fled. Bogart’s lip was severely torn, but he pursued and apprehended the man, refusing treatment until the prisoner was securely locked up.
Humphrey Bogart on Broadway
Bogart’s career in entertainment developed slowly. In 1920, established stage actress Alice Brady noticed something special about Bogart and asked her father to hire him. Bogart eventually became a company manager, in charge of a touring play called The ‘Ruined’ Lady, and earned $50 a week. Gradually he became a regular in Broadway shows in the 1920s and 1930s. During his time working in the theater, Bogart married twice. His first wife, Helen Menken, was an accomplished stage actress 10 years his senior who had immediately taken a liking to Bogart. The marriage ended less than a year later, and Helen sailed overseas to star in a London theater production of Seventh Heaven. Bogart’s second wife, Mary Philips, was also a stage actress. Bogart and Mary first met through mutual friends in 1923, and during their relationship they worked together in several theater productions, including Nerves and The Skyrocket. They married in April 1928 and were by most accounts a fun and amicable couple.
In 1934, producer-director Arthur Hopkins contacted him about a part in Robert Sherwood’s The Petrified Forest. When he walked onstage as the vicious Duke Mantee, there was a collective gasp from the audience. Bogart’s icy stare, dangling hands, and stooped convict’s shuffle had the audience convinced the actor was a killer – and he hadn’t even spoken yet.
“When I saw the actor I was somewhat taken aback, for he was the one I never much admired. He was an antiquated juvenile who spent most of his stage life in white pants swinging a tennis racquet. He seemed as far from a cold-blooded killer as one could get, but the voice (dry and tired) persisted, and the voice was Mantee’s.” (Jeffrey Meyers)
The film version of The Petrified Forest was released in 1936. Bogart’s performance was called “brilliant”, “compelling”, and “superb.” Despite his success in an “A movie,” Bogart received a tepid twenty-six-week contract at $550 per week and was typecast as a gangster in a series of “B movie” crime dramas. Bogart was proud of his success, but the fact that it came from playing a gangster weighed on him.
Amazing Casablanca
When the stock market crash of 1929 reduced the demand for plays, Bogart turned to film. After starring in a number of stage productions, as well as several minor screen roles, Bogart’s breakthrough part was just around the corner. His first Hollywood success as a leading man came in 1941 with High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon. The next year, his performance in Casablanca (1943; Oscar nomination) raised him to the peak of his profession and, at the same time, cemented his trademark film persona, that of the hard-boiled cynic who ultimately shows his noble side.
Casablanca tells story of Rick Blaine, a cynical world-weary ex-patriate who runs a nightclub in Casablanca, Morocco during the early stages of WWII. Despite the pressure he constantly receives from the local authorities, Rick’s cafe has become a kind of haven for refugees seeking to obtain illicit letters that will help them escape to America. But when Ilsa, a former lover of Rick’s, and her husband, show up to his cafe one day, Rick faces a tough challenge which will bring up unforeseen complications, heartbreak and ultimately an excruciating decision to make.
Other successes followed, including To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), and Key Largo (1948), all four with his fourth wife Lauren Bacall; The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948); In a Lonely Place (1950); The African Queen (1951; Oscar winner); Sabrina (1954); The Caine Mutiny (1954; Oscar nomination); and We’re No Angels (1955). His last film was The Harder They Fall (1956).
…If we stop breathing, we’ll die. If we stop fighting our enemies, the world will die.
Gone to soon
Unfortunately, in 1957, his amazing career was cut short. Despite undergoing radical surgery to remove a cancerous growth around Bogart’s esophagus, the disease continued to spread. He put up a valiant fight, but in the early morning hours of Monday, January 14, Bogart lost his battle with cancer.
The following Thursday, January 17, Betty held a memorial at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills. Because Bogart wished to be cremated, she placed a glass encased model of his boat, Santana, in lieu of a casket.
Friend and director John Huston gave a simple, heartfelt eulogy, and Reverend Kermit Castellanos presided over the service. In addition to reciting the Ten Commandments, Castellanos also read Alfred Lord Tennyson’s hymn “Crossing the Bar.” It was a fitting and comforting tribute to a man who lived earnestly, spoke openly and in doing so was not afraid of what the future would bring.
After his death, a “Bogie Cult” formed at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York, and in France, which contributed to his spike in popularity in the late 1950s and 1960s. In 1997, Entertainment Weekly magazine named Bogart the number one movie legend of all time. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him the Greatest Male Star of Classic Hollywood.
You know how you sound…? Like a man who’s trying to convince himself of something he doesn’t believe in his heart.
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