Humphrey Bogart: Hollywood’s Lovable Tough Guy
Humphrey Bogart’s characters smoked, drank, fought and almost always got the girl (Casablanca notwithstanding). His film image was that of a stoic, cynical loner with a personal moral code. Born on Christmas Day in 1899, his father was a renowned heart surgeon and his mother Maud a famous commercial artist. An illustration of Bogart as a baby was used in an ad for baby food making him a national sensation. Bogart was raised in affluence but he despised pretension, snobs and phonies.
He was expelled from prep school for throwing the headmaster into a lake. He enlisted in the US Navy at age 17 to fight in World War I. While escorting a handcuffed prisoner, the captive smashed Bogart in the face and attempted unsuccessfully to flee. Bogart acquired a scar above his lip that became the defining feature of his tough guy persona.
Bogart made his stage debut in 1921 and struggled in New York theater for ten years. In 1929, he lost his savings in the stock market crash. He was reduced to making money by playing chess for 50 cents a game in local bars and coffee houses. His first big stage role came in 1934 playing escaped murderer Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest. He reprised the role for the film adaptation. Between 1936–1940, Bogart averaged six movies a year for Warner Brothers, most of them mediocre. These was his B-Movie era and Bogart was…
