Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey DeForest Bogart (January 23 1899 - January 14 1957) was one of the greatest American [film actors]? of his day, and remains a legend almost 50 years after his death.

Some of his famous roles include Casablanca, [The Big Sleep]?, [Angels With Dirty Faces]?, [The Maltese Falcon]?, [The Treasure of the Sierra Madre]?, [Key Largo]?, [The African Queen]? (For which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor), and [The Caine Mutiny]?.

Bogart remains something of a cult figure overseas, especially in France. In 1997, he was featured in the U.S. Postal Service "Legends of Hollywood" series.

Bogart's exalted standing in the Hollywood pantheon would have astonished most of the agents and casting directors who knew him in the 1930's as a good but hardly great New York stage actor and a B-movie player in Hollywood.

A sterling performance as "Duke Mantee" in Robert Sherwood's play "The Petrified Forest" brought Bogart out to Hollywood. But after reprising his role in the 1936 film version of "The Petrified Forest," Bogart was stuck in a series of crime dramas for Warner Brothers, almost always cast in a conventional tough guy role, with little acting range.

Bogart's father was a successful doctor and his mother, Maud Humphrey, was a popular illustrator. Indeed, she used a drawing of her baby Humphrey Bogart in a well-known ad campaign for Mellin baby food. But she was a very distant woman, her husband was not well-suited to her, and the Bogarts' marriage was a troubled one.

From his childhood, Bogart learned to stage manage appearances, to hate hypocrisy, and to channel his pain into caustic wit. All of these things played a part in his movie image.

Starting with The Maltese Falcon, (1941) directed by his friend and drinking partner [John Huston]?, audiences saw Bogart play leading characters with far more complexity.

And as America entered World War Two, it began to turn to a new kind of leading man, less conventionally handsome, less polished, but tougher and more willing to use violence to get what he wanted.

After several others passed on the role, Bogart got his first romantic lead: playing Rick Blaine, the nightclub owner in Casablanca (1942). This remains, almost 60 years later, a fresh, riveting performance. Bogart brought a natural intensity and humor to the role. He had learned how to convey pain in his eyes, and how to show emotion with subtle shadings of his voice. With a superb cast around him that included [Ingrid Bergman]?, [Claude Rains]? and [Peter Lorre]?, his work was not wasted. Casablanca is ranked by many the greatest Hollywood movie ever, and Bogart is at its center.

Bogart was married four times, but only the fourth marriage, to [Lauren Bacall]?, was a happy one. They met while making To Have and Have Not and their collaboration in The Big Sleep is a Hollywood classic.