Humphrey Bogart is considered the greatest actor of Old Hollywood.
It was almost impossible to go to the cinema in that period without seeing him.
He was as frank and outspoken a character in reality as he was on screen.
He somehow managed to be simultaneously open and intimidating in a way that drew everyone
in.
The early tabloids loved to talk about his love life.
He knew how to have fun but was devoted to his work and kept working when his health
was failing.
Keep watching to learn hidden details that only true fans know about Humphrey Bogart.
Early Life Humphrey Bogar was born in New York City,
New York.
His actual birthdate is either December 25, 1899, or January 23, 1900.
His surgeon father Belmont was descended from New York’s first Dutch colonial settlers.
Bogaert comes from the Dutch word for “keeper of an orchard.”
His mother, known as Lady Maud, was an illustrator, magazine editor, and suffragette.
She liked to dress him in elaborate outfits she sewed herself.
Her drawings of him even featured in a national campaign for Melin’s baby food.
He had two younger sisters, Frances and Catherine.
They lived in an Upper West Side apartment and owned a 56-acre estate in Canandaigua
Lake.
He enjoyed his time there, and it was where he nurtured his three favorite past times;
sailing, chess, and acting.
Humphrey’s parents were both career-obsessed.
They provided for him but weren’t affectionate, and he was mostly taken care of by their servants.
He attended but was expelled from the elite Trinity School because of poor grades and
participation.
He spent his last year of high school at the Phillips Academy in Massachusetts but left
after one semester after failing four of six classes.
Navy Service Humphrey was an intelligent but perpetually
bored student.
He had no career prospects after graduation, so he enlisted in the Navy during WWI.
He left service on June 18, 1919, and tried to reenlist for WWII but was rejected because
of his age.
He then volunteered for the Coast Guard Temporary Reserve in 1944.
Unlike his record at school, he was a model sailor.
He started as a coxswain and then a shipper and salesman after his enlistment ended.
He also joined the Coast Guard Reserve.
His service reportedly left him with a permanent scar.
The story goes that he was working with the military police and a prisoner smashed him
in the face with his handcuffs while trying to escape.
It was also the source of his trademark lisp.
Career Humprhey’s acting career began when he met
stage actress Alice Brady.
She made him the company manager of a touring production of The Ruined Lady.
He made his stage debut in 1921 in a production of the play Drifting.
He had only one line, delivered in a fake Japanese accent, but even his father realized
he had talent.
He acted in 17 Broadway shows from 1922-1935.
His film debut came in 1929’s The Dancing Town.
Spencer Tracy supplied his famous nickname Bogie when they worked together on 1930’s
Up the River.
His chance to become a serious actor came after his supporting role in the 1935 Broadway
production of The Petrified Forest.
Warner Brothers had wanted to turn it into a film with Edward G. Robinson as the lead.
Leslie Howard owned the rights and refused to make it unless Humphrey was in it.
He earned a studio contract after that, and his first 34 films from 1934-1940 were gangster
movies.
He joked that he was "shot in 12, electrocuted or hanged in 8, and was a jailbird in 9."
His dream of top-billing came true in the 1940s.
He was in High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon in 1941.
He appeared in his most famous film, Casablanca, in 1942.
The set of To Have and To Have Not in 1944 was where he met Lauren Bacall.
They starred again together i The Big Sleep in 1946, Dark Passage in 1947, and The Treasure
of the Sierra Madre in 1948.
The Committee for the First Amendment Humphrey was a liberal Democrat and what he
deemed an “againster.”
He was never afraid to speak his mind and didn’t believe anyone else should be, either.
He organized the Committee for the First Amendment as an opposition to the House Un-American
Activities Committee and what it did to limit screenwriters and actors.
Humphrey also knew when to step back.
He wrote an article titled I’m No Communist for the March 1948 issue of Photoplay magazine.
He wanted to distance himself from the Hollywood Ten, the first ten men to be put on the House
Committe’s Blacklist.
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Keep watching for more details about his fascinating life.
Santana Productions/Final Roles Humphrey took his stance against the industry
one step further by founding his own production company in 1948.
It was called Santana Productions, named after his beloved yacht and the cabin cruiser in
Key Largo.
His final films with Warner Bros. were Chain Lightning in 1950 and The Enforcer in 1951.
Santana Productions released its films through Columbia Pictures, except for 1953’s Beat
the Devil.
Humphrey had a string of films with the company, including Knock on Any Door in 1949, Tokyo
Joe, in 1949, In a Lonely Place in 1950, and Sirocco in 1951.
It even released two without him; And Baby Makes Three in 1949 and The Family Secret
in 1951.
In a Lonely Place is a classic because his character, Dixon Steele, is often considered
the one that’s “closest to the real Bogart.”
Beat the Devil was his final work with John Huston and a tongue-in-cheek parody of The
Maltese Falcon.
Most of the other Santana Productions films lost money at the box office.
He was forced to sell to Columbia for over $1 million in 1955.
Katherine Hepburn recommended him for the lead in The African Queen in 1951.
His wife Lauren Bacall joined him and tended to the cast.
Everyone but them caught dysentery during the excruciating filming.
His attitude became more difficult to deal with as he aged.
He complained and got along poorly on set during two films in 1951, The Caine Mutiny
and Sabrina.
He could also show his softer side, though.
He helped blacklisted actor Gene Tierney seek treatment for depression during the filming
of The Left Hand of God in 1955.
He also insisted on having Joan Bennet as his costar in 1955’s We’re No Angles when
no studio would hire her.
His final film was 1956’s The Harder They Fall.
Love Life Humphrey Bogart had the name, the face, and
the voice to attract Hollywood’s ladies.
He met his first wife Helen Menken acting in a production of Drifting in 1922.
They were married in 1926.
They divorced after less than a year due to neglect and abuse but remained friends.
He married Mary Phillips in 1928.
They divorced after she moved from New York to Hollywood.
Humphrey married Mayo Mehot in 1938.
They were both heavy drinkers and had an unhappy marriage.
They earned the nickname “The Battling Bogarts” before divorcing in 1945.
Two weeks later, he married Lauren Bacall when she was 19 and he was 44.
They had two children, a son named Stephen and a daughter named Leslie.
The pair were happy but incompatible.
He loved staying at home or on a boat.
She was a night owl who got seasick.
They had numerous torrid affairs with other celebrities but never stopped loving each
other.
Humphrey the Chess Champion One of Humphrey’s only chances to indulge
his passion for chess on-screen was in Casablanca.
The scenes may have even been written in at his request.
He reportedly hustled players in New York and Coney Island as a child.
As an adult, he was a tournament director and member of a Hollywood chess club.
He said in a June 1945 interview that he played almost every day and said it was one of his
favorite activities.
Rat Pack Humphrey was part of and one of the leaders
of the original Hollywood Rat Pack.
He gave them the nickname after a party in Las Vegas in 1955.
The name stuck.
Frank Sinatra was the president, Humphrey was the director of public relations, and
Sid Luft was the cage manager.
Columnist Earl Wilson asked what they were doing, and they said they formed to “drink
a lot of bourbon and stay up late.”
Death and Legacy Humphrey’s declining health forced him to
refuse film roles, including a play in 1955.
Lauren Bacall had to persuade him to see a doctor who diagnosed him with throat cancer
in 1956.
He had surgery to remove his esophagus, two lymph nodes, and a rib on March 1.
It was unsuccessful and followed up by chemotherapy.
The cancer metastasized in 1956 and required additional surgery.
The Rat Pack gave him a final visit before he succumbed to the disease in his sleep.
Humphrey Bogart died at the age of 56 of esophageal cancer on January 14, 1957.
A simple funeral at All Saints Episcopal Church featured music by his famous composers.
Many of the world’s biggest stars attended.
Lauren asked his friend Spencer Tracy to give the eulogy, but he was too emotional and John
Huston stepped in.
He was cremated and interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park’s Columbarium of Eternal Light.
A gold whistle that he’d given to Lauren before they’d been married was placed by
him with an inscription reading “if you want anything, just whistle.”
His estate was valued at $7.7 million in today’s money.
The years that followed were dubbed the Bogart Bloom.
A “Bogie Cult” formed at the Brattle Theater in Cambridge, Massachusets.
His popularity skyrocketed.
Entertainment Weakly and The American Film Institute both rated him the greatest actor
of all time.
103 Street between Broadway and West End Avenue in New York was renamed Humphrey Bogart Place.
He was also posthumously inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a star at 63322
Hollywood Boulevard.
Humphrey’s many memorable roles have been referenced in pop culture time and time again.
The Bugs Bunny Cartoons Slick Hare and 8 Ball Bunny were based on The Treasure of the Sierra
Madre.
The Man with Bogart’s Face was made in honor of him and starred a lookalike, Robert Sacchi.
Bertie Higgin’s 1981 song Key Largo has lyrics that reference Key Largo and Casablanca.
What’s your favorite Humphrey Bogart film?
Let us know in the comments.