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Humphrey Bogart was born Christmas Day in New York City in 1899. Although he would become perhaps the greatest movie star of all time, his early life in no way predicted this, and he was well into his thirties before he had much success at all! His father, a surgeon, intended for him to become a doctor, but he was kicked out of college. He joined the U.S. Naval Reserve and managed a stage company in his early 20s. He began acting on the stage, but to no real success. In 1930 he got a Hollywood contract at Fox Pictures, but he had little success there, and they released him after two years. He returned to the stage, and in 1936 finally was noticed in the small but vital role in the stage production of The Petrified Forest, where he appeared with Leslie Howard. Howard was signed for the movie version of the play, and he insisted, over studio objections, that Bogart be cast as well (he sent a telegram to Warners that read "No Bogart, no Howard"). Bogart never forgot this great kindness, and he much later named his daughter "Leslie". While Bogart was well received in The Petrified Forest, it did not make him a first rank star (likely he was 36 and he had already failed in Hollywood years earlier), so he spent the next five years at Warner Bros appearing in 28 films, almost always in secondary roles, often as a gangster. Twice he played cowboys (in Virginia City and The Oklahoma Kid)! He played the title role in The Return of Doctor X, a second rate horror movie, and a wrestling promoter in Swing Your Lady. He was in the first two "Dead End" movies, but was overshadowed by the Dead End Kids. Bogart was now 40, and it seemed likely he would finish his career playing more and more minor roles. But in 1941 George Raft turned down the role of Roy "Mad Dog" Earle, an escaped legendary bank robber, and that role, along with the role of Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon (which Warners was remaking for the second time in 10 years) FINALLY made Bogart a top star (Warners thought so little of him as these movies were being released that most of the movie paper advertising for The Maltese Falcon showed Bogart with his cropped white hair from High Sierra!). Casablanca followed the next year, along with other patriotic World War II movies. In 1944, Bogart, who was 44 and had been married three times, was cast opposite 19 year old newcomer (and Howard Hawks' protege) Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not, and Bogart left his wife and married Bacall the following year. They would make three more movies together (The Big Sleeo, Dark Passage, and Key Largo) and have two children. Bogart had some of his very finest film roles near the end of his career. In 1948 he starred as Fred C. Dobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, in 1951 he was Charlie Allnut in The African Queen, and in 1954 he was Lt. Cmdr. Queeg in The Caine Mutiny (remember how he used "geometric logic" to prove there was a duplicate key?). I can't see anyone not agreeing that these are among the three finest acting performances ever! Bogart died from throat cancer in 1957. He made many other memorable movies others than the ones noted above, and I urge you to seek them out! But be aware that he also appeared in a goodly number of MUCH lesser movies as well (especially in the first ten years of his career, so be sure to read reviews before starting one of his movies!). AND Lauren Bacall (she was born Betty Joan Perske) was a legendary actress from the 1940s to the 2010s. She was nicknamed "The Look" and married Humphrey Bogart after they starred in their first movie together. Bogart was decades older than she was, but their marriage lasted until his death. Their movies together were The Big Sleep, To Have and Have Not, Key Largo, and Dark Passage, and she made other movie appearances as well, including: The Mirror Has Two Faces (nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for this film), Howl's Moving Castle (as the Witch of the Waste), and The Forger AND Katharine Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1907 to a wealthy family of good lineage. She was a very athletic tomboy as a child. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1928, and that same year had a tiny part in a Broadway play. She also married that same year, to a fellow socialite she met at college. She worked in some stock companies, and in 1932 had a substantial Broadway role, in The Warrior's Husband, and that got her a screen test for A Bill of Divorcement. She received rave reviews for that role, and the next year she won an Oscar for Morning Glory, and also played the lead in Little Women, and Alice Adams (nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for this film). But Hepburn, while a magnificent actress, did not have much sex appeal (she often wore men's clothes, onscreen and off), and many of her later 1930s movies did poorly at the box office, and she was dubbed "box office poison". She had a major comeback in 1939 when she starred in The Philadelphia Story on Broadway (it had been written especially for her) and in the movie adaptation (nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for this film), opposite Cary Grant and James Stewart. In 1942, she made her first movie with Spencer Tracy, Woman Of The Year (nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for this film), and they had an affair (she had been divorced since 1934, and had had a much publicized romance with Howard Hughes). Tracy could not get divorced, but they lived together until he passed away in 1967, and they made many movies together. In the 1950s Hepburn, unlike most actresses, was able to keep playing romantic leads, and she made some of her better movies, including The African Queen (winner of the Best Actress Academy Award for this film), Summertime (nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for this film), Suddenly Last Summer (nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for this film), and The Rainmaker (nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for this film). She also had many strong performances in the 1960s and 1970s, including Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (winner of the Best Actress Academy Award for this film), Long Day's Journey Into Night (nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for this film), Lion In Winter (winner of the Best Actress Academy Award for this film), and in 1981 she won an Oscar for On Golden Pond! Hepburn passed away in 2003 at the age of 96. AND Spencer Tracy was an actor from the 1930s to the 1960s. Some of his best films were those he made with Katharine Hepburn (his love of many years). Some of his movies include: Judgment At Nuremberg (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), Inherit the Wind (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), Libeled Lady, Bad Day At Black Rock (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), Fury, Boys Town (winner of the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), The Old Man & The Sea (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), San Francisco (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), Father Of The Bride (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), Captains Courageous (winner of the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), and scores of others! He passed away in 1967 at the age of 67.

Important Added Info: Note that we would think this great candid is surely from during the filming of The African Queen, when Bogart and Hepburn's equally famous better halves showed up on the set to visit. What an amazing assemblage of talent in a single photo! Also note that this is a deluxe still printed on double weight paper stock.

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