Humphrey Bogart’s parents wanted him to be a doctor. It didn’t work out that way, to the benefit of moviegoers everywhere. Instead, he became a top box-office attraction in the 1940s and 1950s, playing tough guys opposite actresses such as Lauren Bacall (whom he married in 1945), Ingrid Bergman, and Katharine Hepburn. Today, he’s often remembered for his role as Morocco nightclub owner Rick Blaine in the all-time classic Casablanca. Read on for a few fascinating facts about Bogie’s childhood, his favorite pastime, and the star who unwittingly helped pave his way.
Humphrey Bogart Was a Christmas Baby
Bogart was born on December 25, 1899, in New York City. His father, a surgeon and heart and lung specialist, descended from New York’s first Dutch colonial settlers. As an adult, Bogart displayed the family coat of arms on his wall. His mother, known as “Lady Maud” for her imperious manner, was a suffragette known for standing on street corners selling balloons with the slogan “Votes for Women.” She worked as an illustrator and a portrait painter, and later as a magazine art director.
His Mother Dressed Him in Elaborate Clothing as a Child
Lady Maud liked to dress her son in Little Lord Fauntleroy suits she made herself. The outfit, named for a character in a novel, included velvet jackets and matching pants with a fancy blouse and a lace or ruffled collar. In his early teens, he wore white kid gloves and patent-leather pumps dancing at formal parties. His mother used him as a model for her drawings, but reportedly was not affectionate, and he was mainly taken care of by servants.
Bogart Was Expelled From Prep School
Young Bogart attended the elite Trinity School in New York City, where he earned poor grades and didn’t participate in social activities. For his last year of high school, his parents sent him to Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, a prep school his father had also attended. His parents hoped he would next study medicine at Yale. But Phillips expelled him for his poor academic performance and all-around bad attitude, and Bogart joined the U.S. Naval Reserve instead.
Bogart Loved Chess
Bogart famously plays chess in Casablanca, and the scenes may have been written into the script to please him. In real life, as a young man, he was said to hustle players for dimes and quarters in New York parks and at Coney Island. Bogart was also a chess tournament director, and active in a Hollywood chess club. In a June 1945 interview, he said that he played chess almost daily, and described the game as one of his main interests.
Bogart Lived in the Shadow of Another Actor
A better-known actor at the time rejected the scripts for Dead End, High Sierra, The Maltese Falcon, and Double Indemnity, giving Bogart the chance to develop the roles in these future classics. The man who overshadowed Bogart back then? George Raft, hardly a household name today. At one point, Raft refused to accept Bogart as his co-star, in the 1941 film Manpower. Ironically, Raft, unlike Bogart, knew the world of tough guys firsthand. He was also born in New York, but in Hell’s Kitchen, then a violent slum. It’s even sometimes said that Raft turned down the chance to play Rick Blaine in Casablanca, but it’s more likely that the studio never offered it to him — despite him campaigning for it.