Humphrey Bogart on stage, screen, radio

and television
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Bogart in Brother Orchid, 1940

Humphrey Bogart (1899–1957)[1][2] 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,[3] the first-born child and only son of
illustrator Maud Humphrey and physician Belmont Deforest Bogart.[1] The family
eventually came to include his sisters Patricia and Catherine. [4] His parents believed he
would excel academically, possibly matriculate at Yale University and become a
surgeon.[5] They enrolled him in the private schools of Delancey, Trinity, and Phillips
Academy, but Bogart was not scholarly inclined and never completed his studies at
Phillips, joining the United States Navy in 1918.[5]
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 that. 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, A Holy Terror, Body and Soul and Women of All Nations 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 stage 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,
with the company's 1950 production of In a Lonely Place 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.

Contents

 1Broadway theatre (1920–1935)

 2Short films (1928–1930)
 3Feature length films (1930–1956)
o 3.1List of feature films
 4Miscellaneous and uncredited film appearances (1944–1954)
 5Radio and television (1939–1955)
 6Awards and honors
 7See also
 8Notes
 9References
 10Bibliography
 11External links

Broadway theatre (1920–1935)[edit]

Bogart and Shirley Booth in Hell's Bells, 1925

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.[1] When he began to pursue an
acting career, his debut role was in the 1922 play Drifting.[6]
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. [7] Leslie Howard
appeared in the lead role as intellectual idealist Alan Squier. [8]
Note that the opening and closing dates of the below productions are not listed. 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[9]

Title Year Role Theatre Notes Ref(s)

Multiple
Drifting 1922 Playhouse Theatre [6]

roles

Swifty 1922 Tom Proctor Playhouse Theatre [10]

 Broadway theatre credits of Humphrey Bogart[9]

Title Year Role Theatre Notes Ref(s)

Gregory
Meet the Wife 1923 Klaw Theatre [11]

Brown

Nerves 1924 Bob Thatch Comedy Theatre [12]

Popular lore says Bogart

delivered the line, "Tennis
anyone?" (or similar phrasing)
Jimmy
Hell's Bells 1925 Wallack's Theatre in this play. Bogart denied it, [13]

Todhunter
saying his line was, "It's forty-
love outside. Anyone care to
watch?"

Cradle Snatchers 1925 Jose Vallejo Music Box Theatre [14]

Chanin's 46th
Baby Mine 1927 Alfred Hardy [15][16]

Street Theatre

Saturday's
1927 Rims O'Neil Booth Theatre [17]

Children

Saturday's
1928 Rims O'Neil Forrest Theatre [18]

Children

Skyrocket 1929 Vic. Ewing Lyceum Theatre [19]

1929– Roger
It's a Wise Child Belasco Theatre [20]

1930 Baldwin
 Broadway theatre credits of Humphrey Bogart[9]

Title Year Role Theatre Notes Ref(s)

After All 1931 Duff Wilson Booth Theatre [21]

I Loved You Randall Sam H. Harris

1932 [22]

Wednesday Williams Theatre

Martin Beck
Chrysalis 1932 Don Ellis [23]

Theatre

Our Wife 1933 Jerry Marvin Booth Theatre [24]

The Mask and

1933 Luciano Spina Guild Theatre [25]

the Face

Invitation to a Horatio
1934 Theatre Masque [26]

Murder Channing

197 performances, with Leslie

The Petrified Broadhurst
1935 Duke Mantee Howard in the lead role of [8]

Forest Theatre
Alan Squier

Short films (1928–1930)[edit]

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.[27] He appeared in a Vitaphone short musical Broadway's Like
That (1930), which also featured Joan Blondell and Ruth Etting.[28]
 Film short credits of Humphrey Bogart

Title Year Role Notes Ref(s)

Paramount Pictures
Man in Doorway at
The Dancing Town 1928 Preserved at the UCLA Film & [29]

Dance
Television Archive

Soundtrack lost
Broadway's Like That 1930 Ruth's Fiancé [30]

Vitaphone

Feature length films (1930–1956)[edit]

Bogart, Leslie Howard and Bette Davis, in The Petrified Forest, 1936
The Maltese Falcon (1941 film poster)

Dooley Wilson and Bogart in Casablanca (1942)

Bacall and Bogart To Have and Have Not (1942)

In a Lonely Place (1950 poster)

Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart,The African Queen (1951)

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. [31] When the 1929 stock market crash
triggered the Great Depression in the United States, funding for stage shows became
precarious.[31] Bogart's brother-in-law, Stuart Rose,[32] 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:[31]
I'm going to become the biggest movie star Hollywood's ever seen.

— Humphrey Bogart after signing his Fox contract in 1929[33]

The films made in Hollywood under his Fox contract were A Devil with
Women (1930), Up the River (1930), A Holy Terror (1931), Body and Soul (1931),
and Women of All Nations (1931). 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. [15]