Humphrey Bogart
Where does one begin with Humphrey Bogart. A
true legend. Humphrey Bogart, known to his friends as Bogie,
was as larger a character in real-life as he was in all his
films.
Humphrey Bogart tried various jobs before acting.
He began acting in 1921 and became regular on Broadway productions.
The 1929 stock market crash reduced the demand for plays so
Bogart turned to film, together with a host of actors. In
his first film he played Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest.
He had received acclaim for his performance of the same character
in the Broadway play. It was his friend, Leslie Howard, who
saw to it he reprised the role in the 1936 film version. Bogart
received rave reviews, but found himself typecast as a gangster
in B-movies. It wasn't until 1941 with with his role in High
Sierra that Bogart made his big break through, although he
was still stuck playing a criminal. Next he made another massive
Bogart classic, The Maltese Falcon, a cleverly written film,
with Bogart appearing to relax into the flawed hero role,
and the next year he gave the performance of his life in Casablanca,
a film that surpasses the adjective "classic" and
a film that raised Humphrey Bogart to the peak of his profession...
And still more triumphs followed, classics such as: The Big
Sleep, made in 1946; Key Largo, made in 1948 where he played
opposite his wife Lauren Bacall; The Treasure of the Sierra
Madre, mafe in 1948; The African Queen, made in 1951 and for
which he won his only Academy Award for Best Actor and lastly
but by no means least, The Caine Mutiny, made in 1954. Altogether,
Humphrey Bogart appeared in 75 feature motion pictures.
One of the great Hollywood romances is Humphrey
Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Bogie met Lauren Bacall while filming
To Have and Have Not in 1944. The movie has many similarities
with Casablanca — the same enemies, the same kind of
hero, even a piano player in Hoagy Carmichael. They met when
Bacall was still only nineteen and Humphrey Bogart was forty-five.
His nickname for her was "Baby." She had been a
model since she was sixteen and had acted in two failed plays.
Bogart was drawn to Bacall's high cheekbones, green eyes,
tawny blond hair, and lean body, as well as her poise and
earthy, outspoken honesty. The truth is he found her damned
sexy... And so she was...
Tim Rees
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