Humphrey Bogart - Hollywood actor, proclaimed by the Institute of Motion Picture Arts the best in the history of American cinema. Best known for starring in such cult films as Casablanca, The African Queen, Riot on Kane, Sabrina. Humphrey Bogart’s biography, personal life and career are later in this article.
early years
Humphrey Deforet Bogart was born December 25, 1899 in New York (USA), in a wealthy family of artist Maud and surgeon Belmont. Humphrey and his younger sisters were provided with everything except parental love. According to Bogart himself, in their family, the parents with the children "didn’t go almond", and the kiss was considered a real event. The sisters - Francis and Catherine Elizabeth - were the only friends of little Humphrey for a long time, because they were not friends with him in the yard and school because of wealth, long curls and elegant clothes in the style of Lord Fountleroy. Humphrey Bogart’s baby photo is below.
At school, the future actor was unsociable, showed no interest in anything. Parents paid for his studies at the prestigious Phillips Academy, hoping that after school he would go to Yale, but the year before graduating, Humphrey was expelled for hooliganism and poor performance. In 1918, to the dismay of his parents, he decided to begin his service in the U.S. Navy. The sea was interested in the young man much more scientific research. During the service, the future actor received his characteristic scar over his upper lip, which became his hallmark.
Carier start
After demobilization, the model 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 seller and a loader for some time, 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 pronounced one line of text from the stage. Bright appearance attracted the attention of directors, and soon he already played several roles, and by 1930 he was completely involved in more than 17 Broadway plays, playing romantic characters in the background.
The first film with Humphrey Bogart was the 1928 short film Dancing City. The stock market crash, the divorce of parents, the sudden death of his father and problems with his wife fell on Bogart in the early 30s. He only recently signed a lucrative contract with the Fox film studio (the modern "20th Century Fox"), but due 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 played several more similar roles in the films “Dead End” (1937), “The Black Legion” (1937), “Angels with Dirty Faces” (1938), continuing to hone the cinema of a courageous, cynical, vulnerable and tired of life loner.
In 1941, Humphrey Bogart finally got the opportunity to play a deeper hero than before, appearing in the movie "The High Sierra", scripted by a good friend and drinking buddy of Bogart John Houston. It was he who insisted on inviting Humphrey to this picture, and no one else. The actor lived up to the director's hopes, for the first time proving himself to be a thoughtful artist, capable of complete immersion in the role. Bogart was ascended to the top of the acting Olympus after the premiere of John Houston 's directorial debut, The Maltese Falcon (1941), where he played detective Sam Spade. About this picture, the actor himself said the following:
It is almost a masterpiece. I don’t have many things that I’m proud of ... but I’m proud of them.
However, no one knew that the picture, which became the main one in Humphrey Bogart's filmography, was yet to come, was about to be released.
"Casablanca"
After the role of Rick Blaine in the 1942 cult film Casablanca, Bogart received a real triumph. He instantly became the main actor of the studio, took first place among Hollywood stars in general, both in popularity and in the amount of the proposed fees. Bogart was even nominated for an Oscar for this role, but lost the prize to another actor. It was thanks to Casablanca that by 1946, Bogart became the highest paid actor in Hollywood.
At the peak of fame
After the stunning success of Casablanca, Bogart was invited to a role in a similar film in 1944 entitled To Have or Not To Have, where his partner was the first to act as an aspiring actress Lauren Bacall, who later became his wife. Their noir acting duo really liked the audience, so Humphrey and Lauren starred 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", having received the first and only Oscar for the role of Charlie Allnat. Until the end of his life, the actor called this character the best in his entire filmography.
For the sake of his role in the 1954 film Riot on Kane, Bogart lowered his fee, feeling that he was obliged to fulfill the role of captain Quig. In the same year, he starred with Audrey Hepburn in the film "Sabrina", playing his second most popular character in the audience after Rick Blaine from "Casablanca". The last in the career of Bogart 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, he was known for quoting Plato and Shakespeare. In addition, the actor was seriously interested in chess. It was at his insistence that a chess episode was added to Casablanca that was not in the original script.
Personal life
In May 1926, Bogart married actress Helen Mencken, who was his partner in secondary roles on the Broadway stage. The marriage did not last long, and already in November 1927 the young people divorced, while remaining lifelong friends. Humphrey's second wife was the then-famous Broadway actress Mary Philips. The marriage was very difficult, in 1935, one of the causes of Bogart's depression was the unwillingness of the wife 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 operations. 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. After filming Casablanca, Mayo hired a detective to investigate the alleged romance of Humphrey and his film partner Ingrid Bergman. Confident in her thoughts, Mayo overlooked the real romance that originated between Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall during the filming of the movie "To have or not to have." In February 1945, the actor divorced his third wife, already in May of that 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 the creative footsteps of her parents, choosing the profession of a nurse.
Death
Humphrey Bogart died on January 14, 1956 from cancer of the esophagus caused by the abuse of cigarettes and alcohol. The body of the actor was cremated in the California city of Glendale, in the same place, at the Forest Lawn cemetery, the ashes were buried. Many celebrities of Hollywood came to honor the famous actor, with whom Bogart maintained friendship throughout his career.