The Hollywood Great Humphrey Bogart

Background

Humphrey Bogart was born in 1899 in New York City. His father was a surgeon and his mother was a well-known society beauty. Bogart began acting on Broadway when he was 19 years old. His first film role was in 1926 as a villain in a silent western called The Battle of the Spurs. His first ‘talkie’ was 1928’s 1928. Bogart married three times but never had any children. He suffered from chronic health problems for much of his life and died of lung cancer in 1957 at the age of 58. Bogart’s most recognized films are Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, and The African Queen. He won three Oscars for Best Actor, including two for portraying Rick Blaine in Casablanca.

Top 10 Humphrey Bogart Movies

Career Before Stardom

Throughout his early career, Bogart played a variety of odd jobs. It is probably fair to say that none of them were very glamorous. He worked as a commercial fisherman, a cotton picker, a gold miner, a lumberjack, a race car driver, and an oil field worker before finally pursuing a career in acting. Bogart tried his hand at acting as early as 1922 when he was just 23 years old. He landed a part in a touring production of the play “Tall Timber.” Unfortunately, the show closed after just one week. Over the next several years, Bogart worked odd jobs while performing in low-paying theater productions. He toured with several stock companies and performed in the summer stock theater.

Film noir and The Big Sleep

Humphrey Bogart’s character Sam Spade in the film noir The Big Sleep epitomized a cynical and disillusioned detective who had seen it all and suffered a loss in his personal life. He was a man who had difficulty trusting, and yet he was willing to make a personal sacrifice to protect others. He was, as one character said, “a poor man who doesn’t have enough money to be a rich man.” And he was a man who would not be pushed around or taken advantage of. Bogart’s character was a hard-boiled detective who had seen a lot of the seedy side of life and wasn’t naive about the motives of others. He knew the difference between right and wrong, but he wasn’t always willing to do what was ‘right’ if it meant sacrificing his interests or well-being.

Becoming a Star

Bogart’s first major film role came in 1936 when he was cast in the film adaptation of “The Petrified Forest.” This was the first time he worked with actress Bette Davis, and it would mark the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration. In the film, Bogart played a character named Duke Manatee, an escaped criminal who hides out in a forest with two other fugitives. The film was not a commercial success; however, it was critically acclaimed. Bogart made his next film appearance in the 1938 films “Blackwater” and “Saratoga.” These films were not particularly well received, but they did lead to his next big role.

Key lessons from Sam Spade

Sam Spade had a wounded heart and soul. He was a man who had been betrayed by his partner, lover, and best friend and had been left with nothing but his cynical outlook on life. Although he was a private person, he was willing to trust and open up to others when there was a strong reason to do so. He was a man who would not be pushed around, and he was willing to sacrifice his interests for someone else. Bogart’s character in The Big Sleep embodied these qualities, and they were present in other Bogart roles such as the down-on-his-luck detective in The Big Sleep and the opportunistic Southern lawyer defending a black man accused of murder in In a Lonely Place.

Last words: “I’ll always have Paris”

In the end, Bogart’s characters always sacrificed everything for love. In Casablanca, Rick Blaine stayed when he could have left with his true love, Ilsa. He stayed because he knew that he would regret leaving the city and helping the oppressed resist the Nazis. In The African Queen, Charlie Allnut stayed with the woman he loved, even though it could cost him his life. And in The Big Sleep, Sam Spade sacrificed his interests for the woman he loved. And these final words of his are as true now as they were then.