Trivia of Humphrey Bogart

Trivia of Humphrey Bogart

*Bogart often played sailors in films such as The African Queen (1951), The Caine Mutiny (1954) and Action in the North Atlantic (1943). In real life Bogart joined the US Navy during the the First World War and served on the passenger liner converted to troop transport USS Leviathan in the Atlantic.

*Named his daughter, Leslie Bogart, "Leslie" to show his gratitude to Leslie Howard, who got him his big break in The Petrified Forest (1936).

*He was an outstanding chess player. At a time when many stores had a professional chess player who could be challenged by anyone, Bogie would challenge and win almost every game. The challenger would pay 50 cents. If he won, he got $1.00. Many stores wanted Bogie to turn pro, but he declined because he was making more money as a non-pro. Eventually he did turn pro and would beat 40 or more people a day.

*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 5 inches of height to his frame.

*He was involved in a serious automobile accident late in the production of Beat the Devil (1953). Several of his teeth were knocked out in the accident, hindering his ability to speak clearly. Director John Huston hired a young British actor noted for his mimicry skills to re-record some of Bogart's dialog during post-production looping. And although the talent of the young impersonator is such that the difference is undetectable while viewing the film today, it is a young Peter Sellers who provides Bogart's voice during some of the scenes.

*He was a close friend of Richard Burton, and once confessed to the Welsh actor that his ambition had always been to act in a Shakespearean play on stage. He regretted that the public probably would not be able to take him seriously in such a role, due to his screen image as the tough guy.

*Frank Sinatra's friends, known as The Clan, were originally a group of Bogart friends who enjoyed drinking heavily. They referred to themselves as 'The Holmby Hills Rat Pack', since Bogart lived in the Holmby Hills section of Hollywood. The Rat Pack name had originated one morning, after a night of heavy boozing, when Bogart's wife Lauren Bacall came upon the sodden group and flatly stated, 'You look like a God-damned rat pack.' Bogart enjoyed the term, and a legend was born. But Sinatra stopped using the "Rat Pack" name after Bogie died in 1957, and he and his friends hated it when others continued to label them that way.