Humphrey Bogart: biography, personal life, roles and films, photos

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Humphrey Bogart is a Hollywood actor, proclaimed by the Film Institute the best in the history of American cinema. He is best known for his leading roles in such cult films as Casablanca, The African Queen, Riot on the Cane, Sabrina. Biography, personal life and creative path of Humphrey Bogart further in this article.

Early years

Humphrey DeForest Bogart was born December 25, 1899 in New York (USA), in a we althy family of artist Maude and surgeon Belmont. Humphrey and his younger sisters were provided with everything except parental love. According to Bogart himself, in their family, parents with children "did not almond", and the kiss was considered a real event. The sisters - Francis and Catherine Elizabeth - for a long time were the only friends of little Humphrey, because they were not friends with him in the yard and school because of we alth, long curls and smart clothes in the style of Lord Fauntleroy. Humphrey Bogart's childhood photo is shown below.

At school, the future actor was unsociable, showed no interest in anything. His parents paid for his studies at the prestigious Phillips Academy, hoping that after school he would go to Yale University, but a year before graduation, Humphrey was expelled for disorderly conduct and poor academic performance. In 1918, to the dismay of his parents, he decided to join the US Navy. The sea interested the young man much more than scientific research. During the service, the future actor received his characteristic scar above his upper lip, which became his hallmark.

Career start

After demobilization, exemplary sailor Humphrey Bogart was enlisted in the Naval Reserve and returned home. Not wanting to be dependent on his parents again, he worked as a salesman and loader for a while, but soon an old friend, the son of a theater producer, invited Humphrey to work as a stage manager.

In 1921, he made his acting debut as a butler, he even spoke one line of text from the stage. His bright appearance attracted the attention of directors, and soon he was already playing several roles, and by 1930 he was involved in more than 17 Broadway performances, playing romantic supporting characters.

Humphrey Bogart's first film was the 1928 short "Dancing City". The stock market crash, the divorce of his parents, the sudden death of his father and problems with his wife fell upon Bogart in the early 30s. He had just landed a lucrative contract with Fox (modern-day 20th Century Fox), butdue to depression and constant binges, he starred in inconspicuous films, including "Up the River" (1930), "Bad Sister" (1931) and others.

The first success was the role of the criminal Duke Manty, which Humphrey Bogart performed first in the play (1935), and then in the film (1936) called "Petrified Forest". His game was called brilliant, with an exact hit in the image. Then Bogart performed several more similar roles in the films "Dead End" (1937), "Black Legion" (1937), "Angels with Dirty Faces" (1938), continuing to hone the film image of a courageous, cynical, vulnerable and tired of being a loner.

In 1941, Humphrey Bogart finally got the chance to play a deeper character than before, appearing in High Sierra, based on a screenplay by Bogart's good friend and drinking buddy John Huston. It was he who insisted on inviting Humphrey to this picture, and no one else. The actor justified the director's hopes, for the first time showing himself as a thoughtful artist, capable of complete immersion in the role. Bogart was elevated to the top of the acting Olympus after the premiere of John Huston's directorial debut The M altese Falcon (1941), where he played detective Sam Spade. The actor himself said the following about this picture:

This is practically a masterpiece. I don't have many things I'm proud of… but I'm proud of them.

However, no one knew that the picture, which became the main film in the filmography of Humphrey Bogart, was yet to come,is about to hit the screens.

Casablanca

After playing Rick Blaine in the 1942 cult film Casablanca, Bogart was a real triumph. He instantly became the main actor of the studio, came out on top among Hollywood stars in general, both in popularity and in terms of the amount of fees offered. Bogart was even nominated for an Oscar for this role, but lost the prize to another actor. It was thanks to "Casablanca" that Bogart became the highest paid actor in Hollywood by 1946.

At the peak of fame

Following the smashing success of Casablanca, Bogart was cast in a similar 1944 film, To Have or Not to Have, in which he was first partnered with aspiring actress Lauren Bacall, who later became his wife. Their noir acting duet was very popular with the public, so Humphrey and Lauren starred together in several more similar films: Deep Sleep (1946), Black Stripe (1947), Key Largo (1948). These paintings did not diminish the success of Bogart after "Casablanca", but, on the contrary, strengthened it.

Further career

In 1951, Humphrey Bogart starred in the film "The African Queen", receiving his first and only Oscar for the role of Charlie Allnut. Until the end of his life, the actor called this character the best in his entire filmography.

For a role in a 1954 film"Riot on the Kane" Bogart lowered his fee, feeling he was obligated to fulfill the role of Captain Quig. In the same year, he co-starred with Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina, playing his second most popular character after Rick Blaine from Casablanca. Bogart's last career was the role of Eddie Willis in the 1956 film The Harder the Fall.

Other hobbies

Despite poor school performance, Humphrey Bogart read a lot and was known for his quotations of Plato and Shakespeare. In addition, the actor was seriously fond of chess. It was at his insistence that an episode with chess was added to Casablanca, which was not in the original script.

Private life

In May 1926, Bogart married actress Helen Menken, who was his partner in minor roles on the Broadway stage. The marriage did not last long, and already in November 1927, the young people divorced, while remaining friends for life. Humphrey's second wife was the then-famous Broadway actress Mary Philips. The marriage was very difficult, in 1935 one of the reasons for Bogart's depression was his wife's unwillingness to leave the stage and move to Hollywood. In 1937, Humphrey and Mary divorced. In August 1938, Bogart married actress Mayo Meto, whose marriage reminded the actor of a theater of war. Mayo suffered from alcoholism and paranoia, constantly quarreled with Bogart and even fought with him. She was jealous of her husband for every actress with whom he appeared in the frame. Afterfilming "Casablanca" Mayo hired a detective to investigate the alleged romance of Humphrey and his co-star Ingrid Bergman. Confident in her speculation, Mayo overlooked the real romance that arose between Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall during the filming of To Have or Not to Have. In February 1945, the actor divorced his third wife, already in May of the same year he married Lauren.

With this woman, the actor found real family happiness and lived with her for 12 years, until his death. In January 1949, the couple had a son, Stephen Humphrey, who later became a television news producer, writer and director of documentaries. In August 1952, Bogart's daughter, Leslie Howard, was born. She did not follow in the creative footsteps of her parents, choosing the profession of a nurse.

Death

Humphrey Bogart died on January 14, 1956 from esophageal cancer caused by cigarette and alcohol abuse. The body of the actor was cremated in the California city of Glendale, where, at the Forest Lawn Cemetery, the ashes were buried. Many Hollywood celebrities, with whom Bogart maintained friendship throughout his career, came to honor the famous actor.