In honor of Humphrey Bogart: Great character actor and movie star

Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey Bogart was and is a very unconventional movie star.

He was short and had bad teeth. He was interesting looking but in no way traditionally handsome. He had an irritable delivery that was in no way comforting or cathartic. And he always looked older than he actually was.

And yet he remains one of the most iconic Hollywood stars of all time, and his influence can still be felt today in some more recent generations of male actors.

What was it about Bogart that made his such a dynamic and fascinating film presence?

He was a character actor for decades, largely playing second bananas or foils for the likes of James Cagney (another unlikely leading man) in great movies like Angels With Dirty Faces.

He didn't become a star in his own right until he was already in his 40's and his career ended prematurely when he died at the young age of 57.

Bogart was one of the first movie stars to master the art of playing against type. So what if he was a craggy, sad-faced little guy, he could still be a romantic lead. Casablanca made him a matinee idol. Even though the role was initially offered to the likes of Ronald Reagan, today it's impossible to think of anyone but Bogart uttering "play it again, Sam" (even though he never actually does in the film).

In a Lonely Place

That part also cemented his anti-hero persona. Not only is his Rick character kind of a jerk, he doesn't get the girl in the end. That kind of thing would never happen to Cary Grant. Now that he was a bonafide A-lister, Bogart was not one to rest on his laurels. He continued to play cool iconoclasts in classics like To Have and Have Not, but he also delved into his own dark side with unforgettable performances in films like The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

In that 1948 masterpiece, Bogart plays Fred C. Dobbs a man driven mad with paranoia when a prospecting mission leads to a potential fortune. Bogart wasn't afraid to be unlikable and show vulnerability on screen, traits we take for granted in film actors now, but it was downright radical in his day.

In the under-seen noir classic In a Lonely Place (1950) he plays what can only be described as a manic depressive character. He is a screenwriter who becomes the suspect in the murder of a young girl. Although he's innocent, he shows flashes of anger and madness, leading the other characters in the film and the audience watching to believe his character is truly capable of killing. This uncompromising, dark movie still has the power to shock today.

And in The Caine Mutiny (1954), Bogart gave one of his last great performances as the eccentric, and ultimately rather pathetic Captain Queeg, an old navy man who loses the confidence of his crew aboard a battleship because of unorthodox behavior. Bogart's final scenes, wilting under cross examination during a court martial, is acting of the highest order. His worn face and nervous delivery are heartbreaking.

My personal favorite movie star era is the 1970s, when Nicholson, Pacino, DeNiro and Hoffman were doing some of the best stuff. But all of those stars might not ever have been able to rise to the level they did had it not been for Bogart, who broke the mold of the macho, gorgeous He-Men who used to strut around our movie screens without a care in the world.

Don't get me wrong, there's room for that kind of hero too. But Bogart was the kind of star who was a more realistic reflection of his audience, which is probably why his films still hold up so well.