In 1935, a young actor named Humphrey Bogart (his real name) got his first starring role on Broadway in a play called "Petrified Forest" with costar Leslie Howard at the Broadhurst Theater. Lance Goss directed the play at Millsaps several times, with the last one in the 90s with Paul Hough as Duke Mantee. It would be Bogar's last major role on stage.
Bogart played a few small roles in films, some so small they were uncredited, but in 1936 he returned to Hollywood with a triumphant contract with Warner Brothers and shot "The Petrified Forest," again with Leslie Howard and introducing Bette Davis as Gabby, a role played by Christine Swannie at Millsaps.
Over the next five years, Bogart made almost fifteen films, all variations on the criminal he played in Petrified Forest, including his stint as a crooked lawyer in "Angels with Dirty Faces," and the Science Fiction thriller "The Return of Doctor X." Bogart never doubted his abilities and fought with Warner Brothers to let him try roles that weren't criminals.
In 1941, Bogart received the big break he wanted playing a new kind of character, dubbed the "anti-hero" he played the hard-boiled detective in "The Maltese Falcon" based on the hit novel by the same name by Dashiell Hammett and also introduced Sydney Greenstreet who would act against Bogart again.
Sam Spade reinvented Bogart as an actor and reinvented the entire genre of crime drama. There are just a few films you can point to and say, "This changed the direction of the art form," "The Maltese Falcon" is one of those. Again, Bogart would spend the next several films mostly typecast again, this time as the anti-hero detective, but his career was starting to be on his own terms.
The success of Sam Spade did allow Bogart his first chance to really act against type. In 1942, a small play called "Everybody Comes to Ricks" was the subject of the rising patriotism and anti-fascism in America as a result of the Pearl Harbor invasion. Bogart was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for playing Rick Blaine in "Casablanca."
In 1944, Bogart won the role of Harry "Steve" Morgan in the screen adaptation of Hemmingway's "To Have and To Have Not." Hemmingway refused to write the script himself, so director Howard Hawks hired Jules Furthman to pen the first script. Not pleased with the final product, Hawks hired Mississippi novelist William Faulkner to mend the script. This film is perhaps most notable for introducing a nineteen-year-old Lauren Bacall to the world as Slim. In his forties, a spark between Bacall and Bogart struck up that became a Hollywood legend. Humphrey Bogar and Lauren "Baby" Bacall made an unlikely love affair for the ages.
Bogart went on to play many more anti-heroes, but 1951's "African Queen" with John Houston and Katharine Hepburn, shot on location in Africa, remains one of Bogar's most memorable films. Bogart finally got his Best Actor statue for playing Charlie Allnut.
In 1955, Bogart released "We're No Angles," still playing an anti-hero, but this time a comedy. Co-starring Aldo Ray, Peter Ustinov, and Basil Rathbone, "We're No Angles" has been one of my Christmas tradition films since I first saw it on TNT in 1980.
Bogart would make three more films, but a heavy smoker and a heavy drinker, he would die of esophageal cancer in 1957.
Baby Bacall was thirty-two when Bogart died. Bogart was fifty-seven. Bacall bore Bogart two children. A son named Stephen, named for Bogart's character in "To Have and To Have Not." and a daughter named Leslie Howard for Bogart's co-star and friend. Hepburn and Spencer Tracy would visit Bogart in his final days.
Bogart and Bacall were both liberal democrats and fiercely anti-fascists. Like many Hollywood liberals, Bogart was called before the Committee on Unamerican Activities to defend his political viewpoints. Afterward, he wrote an article entitled "I'm No Communist," defending not only himself but those found in contempt of the hearings.
I've profiled a lot of actors, but Bogart is one of my favorites. His is a very American story.
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