Humphrey Bogart

On June 24th, 2006, a section of West 103rd Street in the Upper West Side of New York City was renamed "Humphrey Bogart Place" in his honor. He had grown up at 245 W. 103rd Street (which is now public housing), and a plaque was put there to commemorate the event.

Bogart has three films on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time. They are: Dark Victory (1939) at #72, The African Queen (1951) at #48, and Casablanca (1942) at #32.

His performance as Fred C. Dobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) is ranked #2 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

His performance as Rick Blaine in Casablanca (1942) is ranked #19 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

His performance as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon (1941) is ranked #80 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

His performance as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon (1941) is ranked #50 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).

His performance as Fred C. Dobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) is ranked #24 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).

So as to not look short next to co-stars like Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, through most of the shooting of Casablanca (1942) (and in a few of his other films) Bogart wore platforms under his shoes that added nearly 3 inches of height to his frame.

Bogart was voted the 13th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere Magazine.

Almost all of the roles that made him a star (after a decade of toiling in minor films) were roles he got because George Raft had turned them down, from High Sierra (1941), in which Bogie was first noticed as a viable box office draw, to Casablanca (1942), which made him a true international star. Ironically, after having being overshadowed by Raft the whole first half of his career, Bogart is today by far the better-known star and is considered the superior actor of the two.

He was voted the Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

Though a poor student, he was a lifelong reader. He could quote Plato, Pope, Ralph Waldo Emerson and over a thousand lines of Shakespeare. He admired writers, and some of his best friends were screenwriters.

Although usually considered a quiet and accommodating actor by most of his collaborators, he was disliked by William Holden and Billy Wilder while they made Sabrina (1954). A friend before they made the film, Wilder later said that Bogart, near the end of his life, apologized for his behavior on the set and said it was resulting from personal problems. Even so, Audrey Hepburn got along with him despite his criticism of her.

Bogart co-starred not only in Casablanca (1942), the film rated No. 1 on American Film Institute's list of Top 100 U.S. love stories (2002) but in four other films on AFI romance list: The African Queen (1951), Dark Victory (1939) ranked # 32, Sabrina (1954) at #54 and To Have and Have Not (1944) at #60.

Bogart was ranked #1 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest screen actors.

Another story of how Bogart got his trademark lisp: Bogart was a young guard for the Navy, and when a prisoner he was escorting attempted to escape, he hit Bogart in the face with his shackles. Bogart, fearing that he would lose his position and be severely punished for letting a prisoner escape, chased down the prisoner and brought him successfully to the Portsmouth Naval Prison. However because the surgeon who stitched up his face did not do a very good job, Bogart was left with his trademark lisp.

There is some dispute as to how Bogey's lip injury occurred. One version has it that he caught a large wood splinter in his lip at the age of twelve, but the combat story is more exciting, a legend, indeed.

Bogart's speech defect (lisping) does not appear in the German dubbings of his voice which is also lower.

Bogart was ranked ninth in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list.

Bogart usually played smart, playful, courageous, tough, occasionally reckless characters who lived in a corrupt world, anchored by a hidden moral code. That was one of his trademarks.

He was 5' 8 1/2" feet tall (1.74 m).