Humphrey Bogart

If you know more information about Humphrey Bogart help us to improve this page

Birthday:

25 December 1899, New York City, New York, USA

Birth Name:

Humphrey DeForest Bogart

Height:

173 cm

Humphrey DeForest Bogart was born in New York City, New York, to Maud Humphrey, a famed magazine illustrator and suffragette, and Belmont DeForest Bogart, a moderately wealthy surgeon (who was secretly addicted to opium). Bogart was educated at Trinity School, NYC, and was sent to Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, in preparation for medical studies at Yale. He was expelled from Phillips and joined the U.S. Naval Reserve. From 1920 to 1922, he managed a stage company owned by family friend William A. Brady (the father of actress Alice Brady), performing a variety of tasks at Brady's film studio in New York. He then began regular stage performances. Alexander Woollcott described his acting in a 1922 play as inadequate. In 1930, he gained a contract with Fox, his feature film debut in a ten-minute short, Broadway's Like That (1930), co-starring Ruth Etting and Joan Blondell. Fox released him after two years. After five years of stage and minor film roles, he had his breakthrough role in The Petrified Forest (1936) from Warner Bros. He won the part over Edward G. Robinson only after the star, Leslie Howard, threatened Warner Bros. that he would quit unless Bogart was given the key role of Duke Mantee, which he had played in the Broadway production with Howard. The film was a major success and led to a long-term contract with Warner Bros. From 1936 to 1940, Bogart appeared in 28 films, usually as a gangster, twice in Westerns and even a horror film. His landmark year was 1941 (often capitalizing on parts George Raft had stupidly rejected) with roles in classics such as High Sierra (1941) and as Sam Spade in one of his most fondly remembered films, The Maltese Falcon (1941). These were followed by Casablanca (1942), The Big Sleep (1946), and Key Largo (1948). Bogart, despite his erratic education, was incredibly well-read and he favored writers and intellectuals within his small circle of friends. In 1947, he joined wife Lauren Bacall and other actors protesting the House Un-American Activities Committee witch hunts. He also formed his own production company, and the next year made The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). Bogie won the best actor Academy Award for The African Queen (1951) and was nominated for Casablanca (1942) and as Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny (1954), a film made when he was already seriously ill. He died in his sleep at his Hollywood home following surgeries and a battle with throat cancer. Show less «

The trouble with the world is that it's always one drink behind.

Acting is experience with something sweet behind it.

It's been misspelt a lot. He decided on it. It's not Bog-ey. He signed with an -ie. And that's good enough for me. -

[on Lauren Bacall] "She's a real Joe. You'll fall in love with her like everybody else."

[attributed last words] "I should never have switched from scotch to martinis."

[on the House Un-American Activities Committee] "They'll nail anyone who ever scratched his ass during the National Anthem."

I came out here with one suit and everybody said I looked like a bum. Twenty years later Marlon Brando came out with only a sweatshirt and t...Show more »

I came out here with one suit and everybody said I looked like a bum. Twenty years later Marlon Brando came out with only a sweatshirt and the town drooled over him. That shows how much Hollywood has progressed. Show less «

A hotdog at the ballpark is better than a steak at the Ritz.

When the heavy, full of crime and bitterness, grabs his wounds and talks about death and taxes in a husky voice, the audience is his and his...Show more »

When the heavy, full of crime and bitterness, grabs his wounds and talks about death and taxes in a husky voice, the audience is his and his alone. Show less «

[about himself] "Democrat in politics, Episcopalian by upbringing, dissenter by disposition."

I can't say I ever loved my mother, I admired her.

I don't approve of the John Waynes and the Gary Coopers saying 'Shucks, I ain't no actor -- I'm just a bridge builder or a gas station atten...Show more »

I don't approve of the John Waynes and the Gary Coopers saying 'Shucks, I ain't no actor -- I'm just a bridge builder or a gas station attendant.' If they aren't actors, what the hell are they getting paid for? I have respect for my profession. I worked hard at it. Show less «

The only good reason to have money is this: so that you can tell any SOB in the world to go to hell.

I hate funerals. They aren't for the guy who's dead. They're for the guys who are left alive and enjoy mourning.

The whole world is three drinks behind. If everybody in the world would take three drinks, we would have no trouble.

Acting is like sex: you either do it and don't talk about it, or you talk about it and don't do it. That's why I'm always suspicious of peop...Show more »

Acting is like sex: you either do it and don't talk about it, or you talk about it and don't do it. That's why I'm always suspicious of people who talk too much about either. Show less «

The only thing you owe the public is a good performance.

You're not a star until they can spell your name in Karachi.

I made more lousy pictures than any actor in history.

[on the untrained beefcake stars of the early 1950s, many of them picked up for screen tests from sidewalks and gas stations] "Shout 'gas' a...Show more »

[on the untrained beefcake stars of the early 1950s, many of them picked up for screen tests from sidewalks and gas stations] "Shout 'gas' around the studios today, and half the young male stars will come running." Show less «

Do I subscribe to the [Laurence Olivier] school of acting? Ah, nuts. I'm an actor. I just do what comes naturally.

I don't hurt the industry. The industry hurts itself, by making so many lousy movies - as if General Motors deliberately put out a bad car.

[on Ingrid Bergman] "I didn't do anything I've never done before, but when the camera moves in on that Bergman face, and she's saying she lo...Show more »

[on Ingrid Bergman] "I didn't do anything I've never done before, but when the camera moves in on that Bergman face, and she's saying she loves you, it would make anybody feel romantic." Show less «

[on Warner Brothers] This studio has more suspensions than the Golden Gate Bridge.

[on Katharine Hepburn] She talks at you as though you were a microphone. She lectured the hell out of me on temperance and the evils of drin...Show more »

[on Katharine Hepburn] She talks at you as though you were a microphone. She lectured the hell out of me on temperance and the evils of drink. She doesn't give a damn how she looks. I don't think she tries to be a character. I think she is one. Show less «

[on Bette Davis] Even when I was carrying a gun, she scared the be-jesus out of me.

It is at least worth arguing that there is a modicum of the creative novelist in all of us, and that this absorption with how men get out of...Show more »

It is at least worth arguing that there is a modicum of the creative novelist in all of us, and that this absorption with how men get out of difficulties, single-handedly and alone if possible, is the stuff of which we weave the warp and woof of our own better dramatic imaginings. Show less «

[while visiting the set of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)] This guy [Marlon Brando] - he'll be doing Hamlet when the rest of us are selling...Show more »

[while visiting the set of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)] This guy [Marlon Brando] - he'll be doing Hamlet when the rest of us are selling potatoes. Show less «

[on publicity] As long as they spell your name right and you are not accused of dope or rape, you are all right.

[on screen love] I have absolutely no interest in who gets the girl. I don't care. I don't see any reason to spend two hours to see who gets...Show more »

[on screen love] I have absolutely no interest in who gets the girl. I don't care. I don't see any reason to spend two hours to see who gets the girl especially since you know who's going to get her from the beginning - usually the actor who gets the most money. Show less «

I'm not good-looking. I used to be but not any more. Not like Robert Taylor. What I have got is I have character in my face. it's taken an a...Show more »

I'm not good-looking. I used to be but not any more. Not like Robert Taylor. What I have got is I have character in my face. it's taken an awful lot of late nights and drinking to put it there. When I go to work in a picture, I say, 'Don't take the lines out of my face. Leave them there.' Show less «

[on movie fan magazines] They are the damnedest bilge. They distort everything. I can't stand them. They build up an audience of people who ...Show more »

[on movie fan magazines] They are the damnedest bilge. They distort everything. I can't stand them. They build up an audience of people who read fan magazines. Show less «

[on Katharine Hepburn, during the filming of The African Queen (1951) on location in the Congo] You could argue with her, but she was tough....Show more »

[on Katharine Hepburn, during the filming of The African Queen (1951) on location in the Congo] You could argue with her, but she was tough. When Jack [cinematographer Jack Cardiff] saw her striding into the jungle alone one morning, he thought, "God help the jungle". Show less «

[After viewing 'In Which We Serve' (1942)] Obviously, Noël Coward is the guy Orson Welles thinks he is.

[on Academy Awards] The only honest way to find the best actor would be to let everybody play Hamlet and let the best man win. Of course, yo...Show more »

[on Academy Awards] The only honest way to find the best actor would be to let everybody play Hamlet and let the best man win. Of course, you'd get some pretty funny Hamlets that way. Show less «

[on working with Rod Steiger in The Harder They Fall (1956)] These Actor's Studio types - they mumble their lines. I can't hear their words....Show more »

[on working with Rod Steiger in The Harder They Fall (1956)] These Actor's Studio types - they mumble their lines. I can't hear their words. I miss the cues. This scratch-your-ass-and-mumble school of acting doesn't please me. Show less «

[on the 1952 Oscars] I don't think I have a chance. For one thing, I don't have a big studio behind me to do the campaigning. And there are ...Show more »

[on the 1952 Oscars] I don't think I have a chance. For one thing, I don't have a big studio behind me to do the campaigning. And there are some pretty sharp boys in the race. Show less «

I think Marlon Brando is one of the best young actors in the business, and I think he'll be great as soon as he gets that potato out of his ...Show more »

I think Marlon Brando is one of the best young actors in the business, and I think he'll be great as soon as he gets that potato out of his mouth. Show less «

I'm no Communist, just an American dope.

The only point in making money is, you can tell some big shot where to go.

A hot dog at the game beats roast beef at the Ritz.