| Humphrey Bogart Hollywood Legend |
| Bogie was the name, talent was the game. Few have ever garnered the reputation Bogie created for himself in Hollywood. His legend is larger than life! His charactors typically played a smart, playful, courageous, tough, occasionally reckless person who lived in a corrupt world, anchored by a hidden moral code. Racking up 77 films in his life, This is his story ... He was a gift to the world, born Christmas day, 1899. Bogart's father, Belmont, was a successful surgeon. His mother, Maud Humphrey, was a very successful commercial illustrator. Indeed, she used a drawing of baby Humphrey in a well-known ad campaign for Mellins Baby Food. In her prime, she made over $50,000 a year as an illustrator, then a vast sum. The Bogarts lived in a fashionable Upper West Side apartment, and had a cottage in upstate New York. "I can't say I ever loved my mother," Bogart once said. "I admired her." He was raised mainly by an Irish nurse. "My parents fought," he said another time. "We kids would pull the covers over our ears to keep out the sound of fighting. Our home was kept together for the sake of the children as well as for the sake of propriety." From his father, Bogart inherited a tendency for needling people, a fondness for fishing and a life-long love of sailing. Humphrey was the oldest child of three. When Bogart fell in love with Lauren Bacall and she introduced him to her large family, he said, "Christ, you've got more goddamn relatives than I've ever seen." As a boy, Bogart was teased for his curls, his tidiness, the "cute" pictures his mother had him pose for, the Little Lord Fauntleroy clothes she dressed him in�and the name "Humphrey." He was also teased for his lisp; caused by an accident in which a splinter became embedded in his lower lip. "Goddamn doctor", Bogart later told David Niven, "instead of stitching it up, he screwed it up." The Bogarts sent their son to the Trinity School in New York and then to the prestigious preparatory school Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts. They hoped he would go on to Yale, but in 1918, Bogart was expelled from Phillips Academy. The details of his expulsion are disputed. One story says that he was expelled for throwing the headmaster into Rabbit Pond, a man-made lake located behind the Andover Inn, while others say it was for smoking and drinking. His study habits were erratic and his grades were low, and he may have hastened his departure with some intemperate comments to the staff. He had a lifelong dislike of authority figures. This dislike of authority, led him to explore the facids of theater. There he was a natural, and it came through so well, most directors found themselves asking Bogie for advice on the next take. He lived here, in this house on Maple in L.A. Both he and his Bacall. His career speaks for itself, as you can see here. In the late 50's, Bogie contracted cancer. of the esophagus. He almost never spoke of it and refused to see a doctor until January of 1956, and by then removal of his esophagus, two lymph nodes and a rib was too little, too late. Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy came to see him. Bogart was too weak to walk up and down stairs. He tried to joke about it: "Put me in the dumbwaiter and I'll ride down to the first floor in style. Hepburn has described the last time she and Spencer Tracy saw Bogart: "Spence patted him on the shoulder and said, 'Goodnight, Bogie.' Bogie turned his eyes to Spence very quietly and with a sweet smile covered Spence's hand with his own and said, 'Goodbye, Spence.' Spence's heart stood still. He understood." Bogart had just turned 57 and weighed only 80 pounds (36 kg) when he died on January 14, 1957 after falling into a coma. He died in Hollywood. His funeral was held at All Saints Episcopal Church with musical selections played from Bogart's favorite composers, Johann Sebastian Bach and Claude Debussy. Bacall had asked Spencer Tracy to give the eulogy but Tracy was too upset. John Huston gave the eulogy instead, and reminded the gathered mourners that while Bogart's life had ended far too soon, it had been a rich one. Huston said: "He is quite irreplaceable. There will never be another like him." His cremated remains are interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, California. Buried with him is a small gold whistle, which he had given to his future wife, Lauren Bacall, before they married. In reference to their first movie together, it was inscribed: "If you want anything, just whistle." TRIVIA: "I can't say I ever loved my mother, I admired her." "My parents fought. We kids would pull the covers over our ears to keep out the sound of fighting. Our home was kept together for the sake of the children as well as for the sake of propriety." "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." "The whole world is three drinks behind." His last words were, "I never should have switched from scotch to martinis." |
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