Humphrey Bogart (1899–1957) was an American actor and producer whose 36-year career began with live stage productions in New York in 1920. He had been born into an affluent family in New York's Upper West Side, the first-born child and only son of illustrator Maud Humphrey and physician Belmont DeForest Bogart. The family eventually came to include his sisters Patricia and Catherine. His parents believed he would excel academically, possibly matriculate at Yale University and become a surgeon. They enrolled him in the private schools of Delancey, Trinity, and Phillips Academy, but Bogart was not inclined as a scholar and never completed his studies at Phillips, joining the United States Navy in 1918.
On the completion of his military service, Bogart began working in theatrical productions. He was initially employed as a manager behind the scenes for the plays Experience and The Ruined Lady, before trying his talents on stage in the 1922 play Drifting. A recurring legend about Bogart is that his dialog in the 1925 play Hell's Bells was "Tennis anyone?", but Bogart denied it, saying his line was, "It's forty-love outside. Anyone care to watch?" His body of stage work included more than a dozen plays, and lasted a little over a decade. He began to pursue a career in film by 1928, first appearing in the short film The Dancing Town, and then in the 1930 short film Broadway's Like That. Bogart appeared in 75 feature films, and initially believed he was on the road to stardom when he secured a 1929 contract with Fox Film. The resulting productions of A Devil with Women, Up the River, Body and Soul, Women of All Nations and A Holy Terror for Fox, as well as Bad Sister for Universal Pictures, were collectively a disappointment to him, and he returned to stage work in New York.
Bogart's break-out role was that of escaped murderer Duke Mantee whom he played in 197 performances of the 1935 Broadway theatre production of The Petrified Forest, with actor Leslie Howard in the lead. The play, and his subsequent casting in the movie version, propelled him to stardom, and secured him a movie contract with Warner Bros. He made 48 films for them, including The Maltese Falcon, To Have and Have Not, Key Largo, and Casablanca, the last of which earned Bogart his first nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Bogart won the award on his second nomination, for his 1951 performance in the United Artists production The African Queen. His third Oscar nomination was for his performance in the 1954 Columbia Pictures production The Caine Mutiny. In addition to his film work, Bogart guest-starred in numerous radio and television programs, primarily reprising his film roles. He formed Santana Productions in 1948; the company's 1950 production of In a Lonely Place was chosen by the National Film Registry in 2007 for permanent preservation as "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant. Santana Productions also created the 1951–1952 Bold Venture half-hour radio series as a vehicle for Bogart and his wife Lauren Bacall. He died of cancer in early 1957 at age 57.
Broadway theatre (1920–1935)
After Bogart completed his World War I service with the United States Navy, he found theatrical employment in New York. He stage-managed the 1920 play Experience, and later became a road manager for The Ruined Lady. When he began to pursue an acting career, his debut role was in the 1922 play Drifting.
He appeared in 18 productions on Broadway, including the role that would propel him to fame and success in the movie industry; from January through June 1935, he appeared in 197 performances of The Petrified Forest as Duke Mantee, a murderer fleeing across the Arizona-Mexico border to evade capture by law enforcement. Leslie Howard appeared in the lead role as intellectual idealist Alan Squier. With the exception of The Petrified Forest, the sources do not indicate whether or not Bogart was in the entire run of any production.
+ Broadway theatre credits of Humphrey Bogart Title Year Role Theatre Notes Drifting 1922Multiple rolesPlayhouse TheatreSwiftyMeet the Wife1923Klaw TheatreNerves1924Comedy TheatreHell's Bells1925 Wallack's TheatreCradle SnatchersMusic Box TheatreBaby Mine1927Chanin's 46th Street TheatreSaturday's ChildrenBooth Theatre1928Forrest TheatreSkyrocket1929Lyceum TheatreIt's a Wise Child1929–1930Belasco TheatreAfter All1931Booth TheatreI loved you Wednesday1932Sam H. Harris TheatreChrysalisMartin Beck Theatre Our Wife1933Booth TheatreGuild TheatreInvitation to a Murder1934Theatre Masque1935Broadhurst Theatre197 performances, with Leslie Howard in the lead role of Alan Squier
Short films (1928–1930)
Bogart always believed that the future of his profession was ultimately in the burgeoning film industry. After signing with Charles Frohman Productions, he was cast as the male lead opposite stage actress Helen Hayes in a two-reel silent The Dancing Town (1928) for Paramount Pictures. He appeared in a Vitaphone short musical Broadway's Like That (1930), which also featured Joan Blondell and Ruth Etting.
+ Film short credits of Humphrey Bogart Title Year Role Notes 1928 Man in Doorway at DanceParamount PicturesBroadway's Like That1930 Ruth's FiancéSoundtrack lostVitaphone
Feature-length films (1930–1956)
He made 75 feature-length films during his career. Two serendipitous events helped pave a path for his career ambitions. During the last half of the 1920s, the film industry's transition from the silent era to sound shifted focus towards stage actors whose vocal talents had been honed in front of live audiences. When the 1929 stock market crash triggered the Great Depression in the United States, funding for stage shows became precarious. Bogart's brother-in-law, Stuart Rose, had become an employee of Fox Film, and was able to arrange a screen test for him with Fox executive Al Lewis. After viewing the test, the Hollywood home office of Fox sent Lewis a directive that Bogart was to be signed to a $750 per week contract, with an option of raising it to $1,000 per week if he performed as expected:
The films made in Hollywood under his Fox contract were Up the River (1930), A Devil with Women (1930), A Holy Terror (1931), Body and Soul (1931), and Women of All Nations (1931; all Bogart's scenes were cut). While still in California, he also made Bad Sister (1931) for Universal Pictures. Bogart was less than impressed with the end products, and returned to his stage career in New York.
When Warner Bros. purchased the film rights for The Petrified Forest, the studio retained Leslie Howard in the lead role he had performed on Broadway, but replaced Bogart with Edward G. Robinson in the role of Mantee. Howard intervened on Bogart's behalf to reclaim the role for him. Following the success of Bogart's performance in the 1936 film, Jack L. Warner put him under contract for $550 a week, with a morals clause, and financial options which could potentially more than triple Bogart's weekly salary.
He continued to appear in feature films for the rest of his life, and claimed that "at Warner Bros. in the 30s, I became a one-man film factory." He made 48 films for Warner Bros. (including First National Pictures, which Warner Bros. owned at that time), more than any other studio he was affiliated with. His body of work there included some of his most acclaimed films: Dark Victory (1939), High Sierra (1941), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and Key Largo (1948). By comparison, he only made seven films with Fox, five films each with Columbia Pictures and his own Santana Productions, three films for Paramount Pictures, two for United Artists, and one each for United States Pictures, Universal Pictures, Samuel Goldwyn Productions, MGM and Walter Wanger Productions.
Bogart created Santana Productions in 1948. The company produced Knock on Any Door (1949), Tokyo Joe (1949), And Baby Makes Three (1949) starring Robert Young and Barbara Hale, Sirocco (1951), The Family Secret (1951) starring John Derek and Lee J. Cobb, and Beat the Devil (1951), Bogart's spoof of The Maltese Falcon. The company's production of In a Lonely Place (1950) was added to the National Film Registry in 2007, "to be preserved for all time". Inclusion of films in the registry are based on their "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant quality.
List of feature films + Feature-length films of Humphrey Bogart Title Year Director Role Notes 1930 Irving Cummings Fox Film Up the River John Ford Bad Sister1931 Hobart Henley Universal Picturesdistributed through Warner Bros. Irving Cummings Fox Film Body and Soul Alfred Santell Women of All Nations Raoul Walsh Stone (Deleted scenes) Big City Blues1932 Mervyn LeRoy Warner Bros. Three on a Match HarveLove Affair Thornton FreelandColumbia Pictures Midnight1934 Chester Erskine aka Call It Murder,Universal Pictures 1936 Archie Mayo Warner Bros. Bullets or Ballots William Keighley Two Against the World William C. McGann aka One Fatal Hour,Warner Bros. China Clipper Ray Enright Warner Bros. Isle of Fury Frank McDonald Black Legion1937 Archie MayoMichael Curtiz (uncredited) William Dieterle Marked Woman Lloyd BaconMichael Curtiz (uncredited) San Quentin Lloyd Bacon Kid Galahad Michael Curtiz Dead End William WylerSamuel Goldwyn Productions Stand-In Tay GarnettWalter Wanger Productions Swing Your Lady1938 Ray Enright Warner Bros. Crime School Lewis Seiler Men Are Such Fools Busby Berkeley Racket Busters Lloyd Bacon Anatole LitvakAngels with Dirty Faces Michael CurtizKing of the Underworld1939 Lewis Seiler Lloyd Bacon You Can't Get Away with Murder Lewis Seiler Dark Victory Edmund Goulding Raoul Walsh Vincent ShermanInvisible Stripes Lloyd Bacon They Drive by Night1940 Raoul Walsh Virginia City Michael Curtiz It All Came True Lewis Seiler Brother Orchid Lloyd BaconHigh Sierra1941 Raoul Walsh Ray Enright John HustonFirst film appearance of Sydney Greenstreet, Warner Bros.All Through the Night1942 Vincent Sherman Warner Bros. Lewis Seiler Across the Pacific John Huston Casablanca Michael Curtiz Nominated for Best Actor Oscar, Warner Bros. Action in the North Atlantic1943 Lloyd Bacon Raoul Walsh (uncredited),Byron Haskin (uncredited) Warner Bros. Sahara Zoltan Korda Columbia Pictures Thank Your Lucky Stars David Butler Himself Warner Bros. Passage to Marseille1944 Michael Curtiz To Have and Have Not Howard Hawks Lauren Bacall's debut film,Warner Bros.Conflict1945 Curtis Bernhardt Warner Bros.1946 Howard Hawks Dead Reckoning1947 John Cromwell Columbia Pictures Peter Godfrey Warner Bros. Dark Passage Delmer Daves Always Together Frederick de Cordova Himself 1948 John Huston Key Largo Knock on Any Door1949 Nicholas Ray Santana Productions, Bogart's company founded in 1948 Tokyo Joe Stuart HeislerSantana Productions Chain Lightning1950 Warner Bros. In a Lonely Place Nicholas Ray Santana Productions; added to the National Film Registry in 2007, as "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant.1951 Bretaigne Windust,Raoul Walsh (uncredited) United States Pictures Sirocco Curtis Bernhardt Santana Productions John Huston Won the "Best Actor Oscar,United Artists" Deadline – U.S.A.1952 Richard Brooks Fox Film Battle Circus1953 MGM Beat the Devil John Huston Romulus Films,Santana Pictures Corporation 1954 Edward Dmytryk Nominated for Best Actor Oscar,Columbia PicturesSabrina Billy WilderParamount Pictures Joseph L. Mankiewicz Figaro,United Artists We're No Angels1955 Michael Curtiz JosephParamount Pictures Edward DmytrykFox Film William Wyler Paramount PicturesThe Harder They Fall1956 Mark Robson Columbia Pictures
Miscellaneous and uncredited film appearances (1944–1954) Occasionally Bogart made public fund-raising or patriotic appearances on film. He also appeared in cameos, some uncredited, in a small handful of other films.