“The actor is always a ‘man’s man.’ It’s doubtful whether I qualify or not. I don’t hunt big game or mice, because I don’t like to kill things….I don’t fish because I fished for ten years and never caught anything….I’m not a big, hearty eater either, downing two dozen oysters and a haunch of venison as a lesser man would eat a tray of canapes. I hate to handle money. I like to talk when I have stimulating people around me, but not for the sake of hearing my own jaws break. I’m a Liberal-Democrat, and think Roosevelt’s a swell guy.” – Humphrey Bogart
Source: Faith Service (1938)
Photo: 1938
Midnight (1934). Co-starring Sidney Fox.
“Bogart was like Henry Fonda – proud and happy to be an actor.” – Katharine Hepburn
“A sneer. Or a snarl. Bogie loved to give the impression of toughness but I don’t think he was really very tough at heart. He was suave, restrained, cool. The kids dig him again today because he’s cool, standoff. Bogie was a cool cat before the word was known.” — Joan Blondell
Source: Donald Freeman (1968)
Photo: Bullets or Ballots (1936)
Scene from the Stand-In (1937).
Allen Jenkins and Humphrey Bogart meet the Dead End Kids in Dead End (1937)
The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938). Co-starring Edward G. Robinson and Claire Trevor.
Images from Invisible Stripes (1939). With George Raft and William Holden:
“I could drive a car blindfolded. I learned how when I was helping to move booze, and the associate producer of the movie and my old pal, Mark Hellinger, must have known that when he assigned me to They Drive by Night. Some people say I got nothing from Owney Madden but a bad reputation – but the driving skills I acquired when I worked for him in New York years before undoubtedly saved my life and those of the people in the picture with me.
“In this scene, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, and I are highballing down a long hill in an old beat-up truck. Halfway down, the brakes really went out – a situation that wasn’t in the script. Bogart saw me press the pedal and when nothing happened, he began to curse. ‘We’re going to get killed!’ he yelled. Ann screamed and turned her eyes away from the road as I fought the wheel. I couldn’t have been more scared myself. The speedometer hit eighty when I saw a break on the right where a bulldozer had started a new road. I pulled hard on the wheel and the truck went bouncing up the embankment. Thank God – it finally stopped.
Ann was too upset to talk, but Bogart said, ‘Thanks, pal,’ with definite appreciation.
“‘Don’t thank me,’ I thought to myself, because I didn’t have the breath to answer. ‘Write a letter to Owney Madden or Feets Edson.'” — George Raft
Source: George Raft by Lewis Yablonsky
“Nobody’s going to tell me how to live. I go by the rules of decent behavior. The most important rule to live by is the Golden Rule. I don’t do anything to anybody I wouldn’t want done to me. I drink, but I’m not tough and rough. I don’t brawl outside of movies. I act tough in movies but that’s what I get paid to do. Despite what they say, I don’t go around in restaurants waving guns and picking fights. I live my own life and I do want I want. That’s Bogart.” – Humphrey Bogart
Source: Kay Sullivan and Sid Ross (1954)
According to a couple of George Raft biographies, High Sierra (1941) was originally intended to be a Raft vehicle, designed to reunite him with Ida Lupino after the success of They Drive By Night.
However, Humphrey Bogart, who was lower in star ranking at Warner Bros. at the time, wanted the role and may have duped Raft into turning it down so that he could play the lead.
Prior to High Sierra, Bogart and Raft had been chummy. In fact, they had worked together in Invisible Stripes (1939) and They Drive By Night (1940). However, Bogart may have still felt the sting of being replaced by Raft in Each Dawn I Die (1939).
As the story goes, Bogart read the script for High Sierra and knew that it was very good. He also knew that Raft didn’t like to read, so he approached Raft and confidentially told him that it was a terrible script, that the dialogue was too wordy, and that having Raft play such a ruthless, unlikable gangster may typecast him permanently. Raft trusted his advice and turned down the part without reading the script. This infuriated Jack Warner, who then handed the part to Bogart. The film became a huge box-office success. Adding to Raft‘s humiliation, a few people at the studio had overheard Bogart boasting about how he had gotten the role. When word got back to Raft, he never spoke to him again and used his influence to kick Bogart off the film Manpower (1941)
“When Humphrey Bogart first came to Hollywood, I predicted he’d never make it because he was short, homely and lisped. What do I know?” — Leonid Kinskey, who played Sascha the bartender in Casablanca (1942).
Source: Myrna Oliver (1998)
“It is the one that jumped him out of the detective, gangster milieu, and put him in another stratosphere. That is probably why he took the part because I think he wanted to show he could do other things and obviously we found out he could with the myriads of characters and the things he could do. I think this is the one that catapulted him to superstardom.” — Stephen Bogart (son of Humphrey Bogart) on Casablanca.
Source: Susan King (2003)
Photo: Casablanca (1942). With Dooley Wilson.
“It didn’t ring true. No man would give up a girl like Miss Bergman to the tune of high-sounding philosophy. But that was the story and I had to let her slide right out of my arms. What the hell? I’m only the actor.” – Humphrey Bogart
Source: John Rosenfeld’s newspaper article, “Love, Law and Order for Humphrey Bogart,” August 1, 1943.
“Bogie is fanatically independent, yet he can’t stand being alone.” — Lauren Bacall
Source: Bob Thomas (1957)
Photo: To Have and Have Not (1944)
“They won’t make a Great Lover out of me if I can help it.” – Humphrey Bogart
Source: George Benjamin (1940)
Photo: The Big Sleep (1946). With Lauren Bacall.
The Bogey/Bogie man will get you if you don’t watch out! Here is a set photo from The Big Sleep (1946). Either Humphrey Bogart, or his stand-in, is double exposed, giving the photo an unintentional, but appropriate, air of mystery.
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall at the Hotel del Coronado in 1948.
“Acting is experience with something sweet behind it.” — Humphrey Bogart
“Democrat in politics, Episcopalian by upbringing, dissenter by disposition.” — Humphrey Bogart describing himself.
A French movie poster for Chain Lightning (1950). Co-stars Eleanor Parker.
In a Lonely Place (1950). With Gloria Grahame.
“I never sought publicity in my life. Sure, it’s important. I think 50 per cent of a movie star’s career is based on publicity. But I hate the crummy press releases and phony stunts. That stuff stinks. The only way to get publicity is to be an exciting enough personality. Then people will write about you.” — Humphrey Bogart
Photo: Deadline U.S.A. (1952)
“The only way to find the best actor would be to let everybody play Hamlet and let the best man win.” — Humphrey Bogart
“[Ezra] Goodman is the kind of guy who sits right across the table from you, looks you square in the eyes and asks you what color your eyes are.” — Humphrey Bogart
Source: Bennett Cerf (1956)
Bogey: The Good-Bad Guy by Ezra Goodman was first published in 1965.
Humphrey Bogart. Artist: Richard Headley. Year: 1995. Oil on canvas. 20 x 16 inches.
A clothing mannequin sold at auction in Switzerland in June 2015.
