Home Page

Humphrey  BOGART

 Humphrey De Forest Bogart, detto anche Bogie è nato a New York il 25 dicembre del 1899 ed è stato una delle icone del cinema statunitense, in particolare di quello hollywoodiano; a distanza di anni dalla sua morte la sua inconfondibile figura viene ancora ricordata dagli appassionati di cinema.

 Nel 1999, l'American Film Institute lo ha proclamato la più grande stella maschile americana di tutti i tempi.

 Humphrey Bogart nacque il giorno di Natale del 1899, da una famiglia agiata di origine britannica, olandese e spagnola: suo padre Belmont De Forest Bogart è stato un noto chirurgo, la madre Maud Humphrey è stata una disegnatrice pubblicitaria.

 Dopo il diploma delle inferiori alla Trinity Grammar School, si iscrive alla Philips Academy di Andover nel Massachusetts, dove tutti sperano si prepari ad affrontare la vita universitaria, magari a Yale. Ma Humphrey delude le aspettative dei suoi guadagnandosi dopo pochi mesi un'espulsione per indisciplina, al che decide di arruolarsi volontario in marina, appena dopo l'entrata degli Stati Uniti nel conflitto mondiale.

 Terminato il servizio militare, un amico d'infanzia figlio di un produttore teatrale gli procura dei lavori dietro le quinte dei palcoscenici di Brooklyn. Di qui a recitare le prime battute sulla scena non passa molto tempo, e nel 1921 ottiene il primo ruolo da professionista.

 Humphrey Bogart incarna certamente uno dei più grandi miti di Hollywood. Le televisioni continuano a riproporre i suoi film, la RAI gli ha dedicato nell'estate del 1975, in prima serata, una delle più vaste e complete retrospettive mai trasmesse, restaurando alcune pellicole, ridoppiandone altre (la tradizionale voce di Bruno Persa e quella dei doppiaggi made in USA, viene rimpiazzata da quella ugualmente efficace di Paolo Ferrari), proponendo addirittura alcuni inediti, e anche le nuove generazioni si appassionano alla sua figura. Il via a questa celebrazione sembrerebbe averlo dato Woody Allen con il suo famoso Provaci ancora, Sam, ma in realtà il culto ha avuto inizio molto prima, forse quando lo stesso Bogart era ancora in vita, forse da Casablanca in poi.

Il suo successo con le donne, il suo fisico non eccezionale in cui chiunque poteva identificarsi, il comune denominatore dei suoi personaggi, tutti nel bene e nel male accomunati da un senso di lealtà, di generosità e di eroismo, hanno fatto col tempo di Humphrey Bogart un personaggio carismatico al di là delle indubbie qualità di recitazione. Anche al di fuori degli schemi correnti, lo scienziato e il gangster, il capitano e la spia incarnavano una nobiltà d'animo che è in fondo il corrispondente moderno dell'ideale romantico.

Humphrey Bogart era un eccellente scacchista. Durante i primi anni trenta, prima di iniziare la carriera di attore, giocava a scacchi per soldi nei parchi di New York e a Coney Island.

Nel film Casablanca si vede una scacchiera con una posizione tratta da una sua partita per corrispondenza (l'immagine è però un po' mossa). Ottenne una patta in una simultanea data da Samuel Reshevsky e giocò anche con George Koltanowski, all'epoca detentore del primato mondiale di simultanee alla cieca. Era un arbitro della USCF (United States Chess Federation) e frequentava spesso l'Hollywood Chess Club.

Nel 1945 lui e la moglie Lauren Bacall apparvero sulla copertina della rivista Chess Review.

Meno nota e meno importante e la sua passioncella per il Bridge che lo portò, però, ad incrociare le carte con il mitico  Charles Goren.

Bogart muore a Hollywood il 14 gennaio del 1957 a causa di un carcinoma all'esofago.

Bogart was born on December 25, 1899 in New York City, the eldest child of Dr. Belmont De Forest Bogart (July 1867, Watkins Glen, New York – September 8, 1934, Tudor City apartments, New York City) and Maud Humphrey (1868–1940).

Belmont and Maud married in June 1898. Bogart is a Dutch name meaning “orchard”.

Bogart's father was a Presbyterian; his mother was an Episcopalian. Bogart was raised in his mother's faith.

Bogart's birthday has been a subject of controversy. It was long believed that his birthday on Christmas Day 1899, was a Warner Bros. fiction created to romanticize his background, and that he was really born on January 23, 1899, a date that appears in many references. However, this story is now considered baseless: although no birth certificate has ever been found, his birth notice did appear in a New York newspaper in early January 1900, which supports the December 1899 date, as do other sources, such as the 1900 census. Bogart's father, Belmont, was a cardiopulmonary surgeon. His mother, Maud Humphrey, was a commercial illustrator, who received her art training in New York and France, including study with James McNeill Whistler, and who later became artistic director of the fashion magazine The Delineator. She was a militant suffragette.
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, then a vast sum, far more than her husband's $20,000 per year. The Bogarts lived in a fashionable Upper West Side apartment, and had an elegant cottage on a fifty-five acre estate in upstate New York on Canandaigua Lake. As a youngster, Humphrey's gang of friends at the lake would put on theatricals.

Humphrey was the oldest of three children; he had two younger sisters, Frances and Catherine Elizabeth (Kay).His parents were very formal, busy in their careers, and frequently fought—resulting in little emotion directed at the children, "I was brought up very unsentimentally but very straightforwardly. A kiss, in our family, was an event. Our mother and father didn’t glug over my two sisters and me."

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."

From his father, Bogart inherited a tendency for needling people, a fondness for fishing, a life-long love of boating, and an attraction to strong-willed women.

The Bogarts sent their son to private schools. Bogart began school at the Delancey School until fifth grade, when he was enrolled in Trinity School. He was an indifferent, sullen student who showed no interest in after-school activities. Later he went to the prestigious preparatory school Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts, where he was admitted based on family connections. They hoped he would go on to Yale, but in 1918, Bogart was expelled.

The details of his expulsion are disputed: one story claims that he was expelled for throwing the headmaster (alternatively, a groundskeeper) into Rabbit Pond, a man-made lake on campus. Another cites smoking and drinking, combined with poor academic performance and possibly some inappropriate comments to the staff. It has also been said that he was actually withdrawn from the school by his father for failing to improve his academics, as opposed to expulsion. In any case, his parents were deeply dismayed by the events and their failed plans for his future.

With no viable career options, Bogart followed his love for the sea and enlisted in the United States Navy in the spring of 1918. He recalled later, “At eighteen, war was great stuff. Paris! French girls! Hot damn!” Bogart is recorded as a model sailor who spent most of his months in the Navy after the Armistice was signed, ferrying troops back from Europe.

Bogart was an excellent chess player, almost of master strength. Before he made any money from acting, he would hustle players for dimes and quarters, playing in New York parks and at Coney Island. The chess scenes in Casablanca had not been in the original script, but were put in at his insistence. A chess position from one of his correspondence games appears in the movie, although the image is a little blurred. He achieved a draw in a simultaneous exhibition given in 1955 at Beverly Hills by the famous chess Grandmaster Samuel Reshevsky and also played against George Koltanowski in San Francisco in 1952 (Koltanowski played blindfolded but still won in 41 moves).

Bogart was a United States Chess Federation tournament director and active in the California State Chess Association, and a frequent visitor to the Hollywood chess club. The cover of the June–July 1945 issue of Chess Review showed Bogart playing with Charles Boyer, as Lauren Bacall (who also played) looks on. In June 1945, in an interview in the magazine Silver Screen, when asked what things in life mattered most to him, he replied that chess was one of his main interests. He added that he played chess almost daily, especially between film shootings. He loved the game all his life.

Less known and less important, and his flirtations that led him to the Bridge, however, to fold their cards with the legendary Charles Goren.

Bogart, a heavy smoker and drinker, contracted cancer of the esophagus.

Bogart had just turned 57 and weighed 80 pounds (36 kg) when he died on January 14, 1957 after falling into a coma. He died at 2:25 am at his home at 232 Mapleton Drive in Holmby Hills, California.