00:00♪
00:30The man whom the American Film Institute dubbed the greatest male star of all time in 1999
00:36was born exactly 100 years before on Christmas Day 1899.
00:42With wealthy upper middle class parents, Humphrey Bogart's natural milieu was the drawing rooms of Manhattan.
00:48And yet he eventually found fame as Hollywood's favorite gangster and tough guy.
00:53His first real film role was in 1930 in the John Ford directed Up the River
00:58which starred Spencer Tracy.
01:00Bogie then served a long apprenticeship in stage work and minor film roles
01:05making his breakthrough in the 1936 film The Petrified Forest
01:10playing a role based on bank robber John Dillinger.
01:14This set the tone for his long term contract with Warner Brothers
01:17which saw him cast as heavy after heavy in a long series of films
01:21including Raoul Walsh's They Drive by Night in 1940.
01:25♪
01:32Bogart despaired of his type casting although perhaps his looks made it inevitable.
01:36Hey you dirty son of a road hog.
01:38The year after They Drive by Night Bogart's fortunes really began to change.
01:42We were talking about a lot more money than this.
01:44There are more of us to be taken care of now.
01:46That may be but I've got the fork in.
01:48In 1941 he played one of his most memorable roles thanks to George Raft
01:53who turned down the offer to play Sam Spade in John Huston's The Maltese Falcon.
02:00Bogie was a smash hit in the past and his popularity soared.
02:04♪
02:09In 1944 he made To Have and Have Not for Howard Hawks
02:14which introduced him and the world to the 19 year old Betty Persky
02:18known to the public as Lauren Bacall.
02:22When Bacall's Slim posed Bogie's Steve the unforgettable question
02:26you know how to whistle don't you Steve?
02:28You just put your lips together and blow.
02:31The die was cast and despite a 25 year age gap the couple fell madly in love.
02:37They were married the following year and had two children.
02:40Bogie had been married three times before disastrously
02:43but this time it was for keeps.
02:45In 1946 Howard Hawks teamed them together again in The Big Sleep
02:50a noir thriller that even writer Raymond Chandler admitted
02:53had plot points that confused him.
02:55But the electricity between Bogie and Bacall made any such quibbles utterly irrelevant.
03:02In 1947 the famously liberal couple became incensed
03:05by the House Un-American Activities Commission
03:08and its witch hunt against perceived communists in Hollywood.
03:11They'll nail anyone who ever scratched his ass during the national anthem said Bogie.
03:17Ian Bacall joined the committee for the First Amendment
03:19along with other left-leaning entertainment figures
03:22such as Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, John Garfield, John Houston and William Wyler
03:27and headed to Washington to make their protests heard.
03:35National sentiment was strong though
03:37driven by post-war paranoia about Reds under the bed
03:40and even Bogie found it difficult to maintain his public standing
03:43while keeping true to his politics.
03:45He found himself on the receiving end of criticism
03:48and was forced to temper his attitude
03:50even writing an article in 1948 entitled I'm No Communist.
03:58He went back to work in 1951
04:01and received a Best Actor Oscar for The African Queen.
04:04Three years later though he was badly cast as the love interest to Audrey Hepburn
04:08in Billy Wilder's Sabrina.
04:10Hepburn was 25, Bogie 55 and in failing health.
04:17A serious drinker and smoker
04:19Bogie died of cancer in January 1957.
04:23He was buried with a little gold whistle
04:26Bacall's reminder that if he ever needed her
04:29all he had to do was blow.
04:33I don't care who loves who I won't play this out for you.
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