Humphrey DeForest Bogart

 Humphrey DeForest Bogart (December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957)

He is widely regarded as an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema. Bogart's first great success was as Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest (1936), and his breakthrough as a leading man came in 1941, with High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon. The next year, his performance in Casablanca raised him to the peak of his profession and, at the same time, cemented his trademark film persona. He was also known for such films as To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), In a Lonely Place (1950), Sabrina (1954), and The Caine Mutiny (1954). Oddly enough, despite his overwhelming success, Humphrey's only Academy Award was from The African Queen (1951), with Katharine Hepburn. Once, after signing a long-term deal with Warner Bros., Bogart had predicted with glee that his teeth and hair would fall out before the contract ended. By 1955, though he was well established as an independent producer, the sometime actor's health was failing. In the wake of Santana Productions he had formed a new company and had anxious plans for a film, Melville Goodwin, U.S.A., in which he would play a General and Bacall a press magnate. However, his persistent cough and difficulty eating became too serious to ignore and he dropped the project. He almost never spoke of his failing health and refused to see a doctor until January 1956 after much persistence from his wife, Lauren Bacall. A diagnosis of cancer was made several weeks later. He underwent a surgical operation on March 1, 1956, where his entire esophagus, two lymph nodes, and a rib were removed but, by then, it was too late to halt the disease, even with chemotherapy. Humphrey Bogart died on January 14, 1957 at age 57, from cancer of the esophagus. Bogart was cremated, and his remains interred at Forest Lawn-Glendale.