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Humphrey Bogart
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Humphrey DeForest Bogart
(December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957)
I came out here with one suit and everybody said I looked like a bum. Twenty years later Marlon Brando came out with only a sweatshirt and the town drooled over him. That shows how much Hollywood has progressed.
Humphrey Bogart
On June 24th, 2006, a section of West 103rd Street in the Upper West Side of New York City was renamed "Humphrey Bogart Place" in his honor. He had grown up at 245 W. 103rd Street (which is now public housing), and a plaque was put there to commemorate the event.
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Trivia
The older of two children with Lauren Bacall, Stephen H. Bogart, discussed his relationship with Bogie in 1996 book, "Bogart: In Search of My Father".
New York Times reported on 12/25/2000 that "Humphrey Bogart was born on 23 January 1899, but Warner Brothers publicity decided that a Christmas birthday would be far more advantageous because 'a guy born on Christmas can't be all bad.'" However, copies of two 1900 census forms prove this to be incorrect.
Ranked #9 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]
Bogart's speech defect (lisping) does not appear in the German dubbings of his voice, which is also lower.
There is some dispute as to how Bogey's lip injury occurred. One story is that when Bogart was in the Navy, a prisoner he was escorting attempted to escape and hit Bogart in the face with his shackles. Bogart, fearing that he would lose his position and be severely punished for letting a prisoner escape, chased down the man and brought him successfully to the Portsmouth Naval Prison. However, because the surgeon who stitched up his face did not do a very good job, Bogart was left with his trademark lisp. Another version has it that he caught a large wood splinter in his lip at the age of 12, but the combat story is more exciting - a legend, indeed.
Named his daughter Leslie to show his gratitude to Leslie Howard, who got him his big break in The Petrified Forest (1936).
Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, CA, in the Garden of Memory, Columbarium of Eternal Light (not accessable to the general public).
Played chess by mail with GIs during WWII.
In Key Largo (1948), Bogie takes the helm of a boat called the Santana. In real life, Santana was the name of Bogie's yacht, which he purchased from June Allyson and Dick Powell.
His coffin contains a small, gold whistle, put there by his wife, Lauren Bacall.
Was nicknamed "The Last Century Man" because he was born on Christmas Day 1899 (based on the popular belief that the 19th Century ended in 1899, not 1900 as it really was).
Decades after his death, Bogie made a guest appearance on the TV horror series "Tales from the Crypt" (1989). Footage from several movies was computer enhanced and combined with a voice and body double to allow Bogart to receive top billing for the episode "You, Murderer." Guest starring with "Bogie" were John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini, performing an eerie (and hilarious) parody of her mother, Ingrid Bergman.
Related to screenwriter Adela Rogers St. Johns; his grandfather and her grandmother were brother and sister.
Distantly related to the late Princess Diana, Princess of Wales, through her American relations.
Ranked #1 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest screen actors.
Maud Bogart's drawing of her baby Humphrey appeared in a national advertising campaign for Mellin's Baby Food, not as often erroneously reported, for Gerber.
Pictured on a 32¢ US commemorative postage stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series, issued 31 July 1997.
Co-starred not only in Casablanca (1942), the film rated No. 1 on American Film Institute's list of Top 100 U.S. love stories (2002), but in four other films on AFI romance list: The African Queen (1951), ranked at #xx; Dark Victory (1939), ranked at #32; Sabrina (1954),ranked at #54; and To Have and Have Not (1944), ranked at #60.
Starred with his wife Lauren Bacall in the syndicated radio program "Bold Venture" (1951-1952). His character's name was Slate Shannon.
Was of English, Dutch, Spanish and Welsh heritage.
His preferred brand of cigarettes was Chesterfield.
Although usually considered a quiet and accommodating actor by most of his collaborators, he became disliked by William Holden and Billy Wilder during the filming of Sabrina (1954). A good friend before they made the film, Wilder later said that Bogart, near the end of his life, apologized for his behavior on the set and said it was due to his personal problems. Even so, Audrey Hepburn got along with him despite his criticism of her.
At 5' 8 1/2", he was almost exactly the same height as his beloved wife Lauren Bacall.
He had just turned 57 and weighed only 80 pounds when he died on January 14, 1957.
Off the set, he and Ingrid Bergman hardly spoke during the filming of Casablanca (1942). She said later, "I kissed him, but I never knew him." Years later, after Ingrid Bergman had become involved with Italian director Roberto Rossellini, and borne him a child, he bawled her out for it. "You used to be a great star," he said. "What are you now?" "A happy woman," she replied. Bogart's coolness towards Bergman was later revealed to have been caused by the violent jealousy of his wife at the time, Mayo Methot, whose fears were realized when Bogart entered an affair with future wife Lauren Bacall.
Though a poor student, he 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.
He was voted the Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
Almost all of the roles that made him a star (after a decade of toiling in minor films) were roles he got because George Raft had turned them down, from High Sierra (1941), in which Bogie was first noticed as a viable box office draw, to Casablanca (1942), which made him a true international star. Ironically, after having been overshadowed by Raft the whole first half of his career, Bogart is today by far the better-known star and is considered the superior actor of the two.
His marriage to Lauren Bacall occurred at the Pleasant Valley area of Richland County, Ohio, known as Malabar Farm, the home of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louis Bromfield (now within Lucas Township). The home is now an Ohio State Park.
He had many famous visitors as he grew ill from cancer during the year before he died, including but not limited to Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, George Cukor, Peter Ustinov, Billy Wilder and Kirk Douglas.
Although Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack had a very different group of members, Bogart was the official founder and leader of the Holmby Hills Rat Pack, as he called them, comprising a group of hard-drinking buddies in Hollywood. Sinatra, a friend, was a member and, when Bogart died in 1957, borrowed the title for his own Rat Pack, which (of course) had Sinatra as their Chairman.
He was voted the 13th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere Magazine.
So as to not look short next to co-stars like Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, through most of the shooting of Casablanca (1942) (and in a few of his other films) Bogart wore platforms under his shoes that added nearly 5 inches of height to his frame.
Is mentioned, along with wife Lauren Bacall, in the hit 1980s song "Key Largo" ("We had it all, just like Bogie and Bacall").
Father: Belmont Bogart (1867-1934), mother: Maud Bogart (1865-1940), sisters: Frances Bogart (1901-?) and Catherine "Kay" Bogart (1903-?).
His performance as Fred C. Dobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) is ranked #24 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
His performance as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon (1941) is ranked #50 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
Thomasville Furniture launched a line of classic furniture which draws inspiration from Bogart's films, known as The Bogart Collection.
His performance as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon (1941) is ranked #80 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
His performance as Rick Blaine in Casablanca (1942) is ranked #19 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
Has three films on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time. They are: Dark Victory (1939) at #72, The African Queen (1951) at #48, and Casablanca (1942) at #32.
Is portrayed by Kevin O'Connor in Bogie (1980) (TV).
Is portrayed by Jerry Lacy in Play It Again, Sam (1972).
For years, a 16mm print of the Janet Gaynor/Fredric March version of A Star Is Born (1937) would be screened at the Bogart household each and every Christmas Day (Bogart's birthday) while Bogart would sit watching the film and weeping. Finally, one year, director Richard Brooks, a long-time friend of Bogart's asked him why. "Because," Bogart explained, "I expected a lot more of myself. And I'm never going to get it.".
Frank Sinatra's group of friends known as The Rat Pack was actually originally a group of Bogart's friends, including Sinatra, who enjoyed drinking heavily. They referred to themselves as The Holmby Hills Rat Pack, derived from the Holmby Hills section of Hollywood where the Bogarts lived. The origin of the term The Rat Pack was this: One morning, after a night of heavy drinking by Bogart and his friends, Bogart's wife Lauren Bacall walked into the room, looked at the group and flatly stated, "You look like a God-damned rat pack." Bogart enjoyed the term, and a legend was born.
Like his friends John Huston and Spencer Tracy, Bogart was a heavy smoker and a heavy drinker, allegedly sustaining up to five packs of Chesterfields a day.
He was involved in a serious automobile accident late in the production of Beat the Devil (1953). Several of his teeth were knocked out in the accident, hindering his ability to speak clearly. Director John Huston hired a young British actor noted for his mimicry skills to re-record some of Bogart's dialog during post-production looping. And although the talent of the young impersonator is such that the difference is undetectable while viewing the film today, it is a young Peter Sellers who provides Bogart's voice during some of the scenes.
He was a friend of the English actor Jack Hawkins, who also suffered from throat cancer nine years after Bogart's death.
In her essay "Humphrey and Bogie," Louise Brooks, who knew Bogart early in his career, said that the role she felt most closely personified Bogart's personality was Dixon "Dix" Steele in In a Lonely Place (1950): "In a film whose title perfectly defined Humphrey's own isolation among people, In a Lonely Place (1950) gave him a role that he could play with complexity because the film character's, the screenwriter's, pride in his art, his selfishness, his drunkenness, his lack of energy stabbed with lightning strokes of violence, were shared equally by the real Bogart.".
He was a close friend of Richard Burton, and once confessed to the Welsh actor that his ambition had always been to act in a Shakespearean play on stage. He regretted that the public probably would not be able to take him seriously in such a role, due to his screen image as the tough guy.
Salary for 1942: $114,125.
In 1952, he campaigned for Democratic Presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson.
All four of his wives were actresses.
Was an outstanding chess player. At a time when many stores had a professional chess player who could be challenged by anyone, Bogie would challenge and win almost every game. The challenger would pay 50 cents. If he won, he got $1.00. Many stores wanted Bogie to turn pro, but he declined because he was making more money as a non-pro. Eventually he did turn pro and would beat 40 or more people a day. (Source: Paul Harvey, Jr.'s, "The Rest of the Story.").
In late 1947, was to be a partner with producer Mark Hellinger in a proposed new company, Mark Hellinger Productions. Bogart invested $25,000 and was contracted to do two films a year. Hellinger owned the rights to Willard Motley's best selling novel "Knock on Any Door". However, Hellinger died in Dec. 1947. The rights to the novel passed to Bogart, and it became the first film of his own new independent production company, Santana Pictures Corporation: Knock on Any Door (1949).
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Quotes
The trouble with the world is that it's always one drink behind.
Acting is experience with something sweet behind it.
"It's been misspelt a lot. He decided on it. It's not Bog-ey. He signed with an -ie. And that's good enough for me." -
[On Lauren Bacall] "She's a real Joe. You'll fall in love with her like everybody else."
[attributed last words] "I should never have switched from scotch to martinis."
[On the House Un-American Activities Committee] "They'll nail anyone who ever scratched his ass during the National Anthem."
A hotdog at the ballpark is better than a steak at the Ritz.
When the heavy, full of crime and bitterness, grabs his wounds and talks about death and taxes in a husky voice, the audience is his and his alone.
[about himself] "Democrat in politics, Episcopalian by upbringing, dissenter by disposition."
I can't say I ever loved my mother, I admired her.
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.
The only good reason to have money is this: so that you can tell any SOB in the world to go to hell.
I hate funerals. They aren't for the guy who's dead. They're for the guys who are left alive and enjoy mourning.
The whole world is three drinks behind. If everybody in the world would take three drinks, we would have no trouble.
Acting is like sex: you either do it and don't talk about it, or you talk about it and don't do it. That's why I'm always suspicious of people who talk too much about either.
The only thing you owe the public is a good performance.
You're not a star until they can spell your name in Karachi.
I made more lousy pictures than any actor in history.
[On the untrained beefcake stars of the early 1950s, many of them picked up for screen tests from sidewalks and gas stations] "Shout 'gas' around the studios today, and half the young male stars will come running."
Do I subscribe to the [Laurence Olivier] school of acting? Ah, nuts. I'm an actor. I just do what comes naturally.
I don't hurt the industry. The industry hurts itself, by making so many lousy movies - as if General Motors deliberately put out a bad car.
[On Ingrid Bergman] "I didn't do anything I've never done before, but when the camera moves in on that Bergman face, and she's saying she loves you, it would make anybody feel romantic."
[on Warner Brothers] This studio has more suspensions than the Golden Gate Bridge.
[on Katharine Hepburn] She talks at you as though you were a microphone. She lectured the hell out of me on temperance and the evils of drink. She doesn't give a damn how she looks. I don't think she tries to be a character. I think she is one.
[On Bette Davis] Even when I was carrying a gun, she scared the be-jesus out of me.
It is at least worth arguing that there is a modicum of the creative novelist in all of us, and that this absorption with how men get out of difficulties, single-handedly and alone if possible, is the stuff of which we weave the warp and woof of our own better dramatic imaginings.
