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Bogart started
working in the theatre during the 20's. His big
success came
when the playwright Robert Sherwood
chose him to play Duke Mantee
in his play "The Petrified Forest". He played a hard
and completely evil man called Duke Mantee. The play was
brought to the cinema in 1936 by Warner Brothers.
However, Bogart
remained a number two character until 1941 with the release
of High Sierra. Later, his fame continued to
grow
with The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca andThe Big Sleep.
Bogart usually
played the part of a gangster/bad man until the early 1940's
when his screen characters became more fully developed, he
was a tough guy, often portraying
men with dubious pasts, he brought each of them a rich and
complex personality that has stood for the gangster era of
Hollywood.
On the other side,
his character in The African Queen (1951) showed the
variety of his abilities and he won the Oscar for the best
actor.
His last film "The Harder They Fall" was
released in 1956. In that same year Humphrey Bogart was
diagnosed with and treated for cancer of the oesophagus,
undoubtedly caused by his chain smoking habits. Complications
arose and he died on January 14, 1957.
His work
stands the
test of time as his popularity remains very high with each
new generation of movie fans. Humphrey Bogart is now a myth
in the history of the cinema. |
