Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American screen and stage actor. His performances in 1940s film noir movies such as The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and The Big Sleep earned him status of a cultural icon.
Background
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was born on December 25, 1899 in New York, to Belmont DeForest Bogart and Maud Humphrey. Belmont and Maud married in June 1898; he was a Presbyterian, of English and Dutch descent, and she was an Episcopalian of English heritage, and a descendant of Mayflower passenger John Howland.
Belmont was a cardiopulmonary surgeon and Maud was a commercial illustrator who received her art training in New York and France, including study with James McNeill Whistler. Later she became art director of the fashion magazine The Delineator and a militant suffragette. She used a drawing of baby Humphrey in a well-known advertising campaign for Mellins Baby Food. In her prime, she made over $50,000 a year, then a vast sum and far more than her husband's $20,000.
The Bogarts lived in a fashionable Upper West Side apartment, and had an elegant cottage on a 55-acre estate on Canandaigua Lake in upstate New York. As a youngster, Humphrey's gang of friends at the lake would put on theatricals.
Humphrey had two younger sisters, Frances ("Pat") and Catherine Elizabeth ("Kay"). His parents were busy in their careers and frequently fought. Very formal, they showed little emotion towards their children.
As a boy, Bogart was teased for his curls, tidiness, the "cute" pictures his mother had him pose for, the Little Lord Fauntleroy clothes she dressed him in, and even for the name "Humphrey".
Education
Bogart attended the private Delancey School until fifth grade, then the prestigious Trinity School. He was an indifferent, sullen student who showed no interest in after-school activities. Later he went to the equally elite boarding school Phillips Academy, where he was admitted based on family connections. His parents hoped he would go on to Yale, but in 1918 Bogart was expelled. Several reasons have been given: one claims that it was for throwing the headmaster (or a groundskeeper) into Rabbit Pond on campus. Another cites smoking, drinking, poor academic performance, and possibly some inappropriate comments made to the staff. A third has him withdrawn by his father for failing to improve his grades. Whatever caused his premature departure, his parents were deeply dismayed and rued their failed plans for his future.
Bogart spent several years with the U.S. Navy and worked briefly as a Wall Street clerk before entering the competitive world of Broadway theater. After a considerable struggle he achieved stature with his two most important stage appearances: in Maxwell Anderson's comedy Saturday's Children and Robert E. Sherwood's gangster morality play, The Petrified Forest. His characterization of the psychotic killer, Duke Mantee, in the latter, as well as in the popular film version with Bette Davis and Leslie Howard, led to typecasting him as a mobster in such movies as Dead End (1937), Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), and The Roaring Twenties (1940).
Not until his performance as the cold, uncommitted private detective, Sam Spade, in John Huston's adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon (1941), did Bogart reveal his potential as a screen personality. He projected, as one critic remarked, "that ambiguous mixture of avarice and honor, sexuality and fear." His co-starring role with Ingrid Bergman as Rick Blaine in Michael Curtiz's war drama Casablanca (1943) added to his legend and led to his first Academy Award nomination. He lost, but the film won Best Picture honors. To Have and Have Not (1944), Hemingway's novel of the Depression transformed into a comedy of social consciousness by William Faulkner and Howard Hawks, cast Bogart with Lauren Bacall.
Although Bogart appeared in several poor movies, most of his films were above the standard Hollywood level, and The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948) may be one of the greatest films ever released. His best motion pictures of the 1940s include Sahara (1943), a realistic World War II drama; The Big Sleep (1946), Hawks's sophisticated detective thriller based on the Raymond Chandler novel; and Key Largo (1948), Huston's toughened filming of the Maxwell Anderson play. Of Bogart's portrayal of the pathetic psychopath in Huston's study of human greed, The Treasure of Sierra Madre, Pauline Kael wrote, "In a brilliant characterization, Humphrey Bogart takes the tough-guy role to its psychological limits—the man who stands alone goes from depravity through paranoia to total disintegration." What in Duke Mantee was mere melodramatic villainy had been transformed into grim psychological reality. In a very different film, the Huston/James Agee adventure comedy, The African Queen (1951), Bogart won an Academy Award for his humorously expressive depiction of the earthy, ginguzzling skipper who brings life to a straight-laced Katharine Hepburn.
In Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Hollywood exposé The Barefoot Contessa (1953), Bogart gave depth to his role as a shattered, alcoholic film director. In Beat the Devil (1954), he portrayed a disreputable adventurer. The Caine Mutiny (1954) provided Bogart with one of his finest roles, as the deranged Captain Queeg. In his last film Bogart gave a strong performance as an investigator of sports corruption in the sharp-edged boxing drama The Harder They Fall (1956). A year later, after a long struggle with throat cancer, he died in Hollywood.
Bogart’s mother was Episcopalian and his father was Presbyterian. Neither were very religious, though they officially raised Bogey as an Episcopalian.
He never really became religious at any point in his life, according to the accounts of his friends and family.
His son, Stephen, wrote: "Neither of my parents had any strong belief in God, but, like many parents, they sent their children to Sunday school, out of a vague sense that religion was a good thing for a kid."
Bogart’s friends described him as instilled with Christian values. For example, actor and writer Nat Benchley said: "His moral code was strict, and was based on, and almost indistinguishable from, the Ten Commandments. He didn’t always obey them, but he believed in them."
Views
Quotations:
"The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind."
"I was born when you kissed me. I died when you left me. I lived a few weeks while you loved me."
"I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis."
"A hot dog at the ballgame beats roast beef at the Ritz."
"Things are never so bad they can't be made worse."
"The only point in making money is, you can tell some big shot where to go."
"I don't mind if you don't like my manners. I don't like them myself. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them on long winter evenings."
Membership
Bogart was a founding member and the original leader of the so-called Hollywood Rat Pack. In the spring of 1955, after a long party in Las Vegas attended by Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, her husband Sid Luft, Mike Romanoff and wife Gloria, David Niven, Angie Dickinson and others, Lauren Bacall surveyed the wreckage and declared, "You look like a goddamn rat pack." The name stuck and was made official at Romanoff's in Beverly Hills. Sinatra was tabbed Pack Leader; Bacall, Den Mother; Bogie, Director of Public Relations; and Sid Luft, Acting Cage Manager. When asked by columnist Earl Wilson what the group's purpose was, Bacall stated: "To drink a lot of bourbon and stay up late."
Personality
Bogart was a heavy smoker and drinker.
Quotes from others about the person
At his funeral, Bogart's long-time friend Huston paid him tribute: "He is quite unreplaceable. There will never be anybody like him."
Interests
From his father, Bogart inherited a tendency to needle, fondness for fishing, lifelong love of boating, and an attraction to strong-willed women.
Connections
Humphrey Bogart married actress Helen Menken on May 20, 1926 after four years of courtship. However, the marriage did not last long and they divorced on November 18, 1927.
Next on April 3, 1928, Bogart married actress Mary Philips. Subsequently, Bogart moved to Hollywood; but Philips, who had an established career in New York, refused to accompany him. Finally, they divorced in 1938, but remained on good terms.
Bogart next married actress Mayo Methot on August 21, 1938. She suspected Bogart of infidelity and the two fought to such an extent that friends called them ‘The Battling Bogarts’. Ultimately, they divorced in 1945.
On May 21, 1945 Bogart tied the knot for the fourth and final time with actress Lauren Bacall. In spite of the difference in age, the marriage lasted till Bogart’s death in 1957. The couple had two children; Stephen Humphrey Bogart and Leslie Bogart.