German postcard by UFA/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 305. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941).

Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957) is an icon of the Hollywood cinema. His private detectives, Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Phillip Marlowe in The Big Sleep (1946), became the models for detectives in other Film-Noirs. Bogart and 19-year-old Lauren Bacall fell in love when they filmed To Have and Have Not (1944), the first of a series of films together. He won the best actor Oscar for The African Queen (1951). He was also nominated for Casablanca (1942) and as Captain Queeg in Mutiny on the Caine (1954).

Humphrey DeForest Bogart was born in New York City, New York, in 1899. His mother was Maud Humphrey, a famed magazine illustrator and suffragette, and his father Belmont DeForest Bogart, a moderately wealthy surgeon who was secretly addicted to opium. He had two younger sisters, Frances and Catherine 'Kay' Bogart. Maud Bogart's drawing of her baby Humphrey appeared in a national advertising campaign for Mellin's Baby Food. 'Bogie' was educated at Trinity School, NYC, and was sent to Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, in preparation for medical studies at Yale. He was expelled from Phillips and joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1918. During the First World War, he served on the troopship USS Leviathan in the North Atlantic. From 1920 to 1922, he managed a stage company owned by family friend William A. Brady (the father of actress Alice Brady), performing a variety of tasks at Brady's film studio in New York. He then began regular stage performances. Alexander Woollcott described his acting in a 1922 play as inadequate. In 1930, he gained a contract with Fox. He had his film debut in a ten-minute short, Broadway's Like That (Arthur Hurley, 1930), co-starring Ruth Etting and Joan Blondell. Fox released him after two years. After five years of stage and minor film roles, he had his breakthrough role in The Petrified Forest (Archie Mayo, 1936) from Warner Bros. He won the part over Edward G. Robinson only after the star, Leslie Howard, threatened Warner Bros. that he would quit unless Bogart was given the key role of Duke Mantee, which he had played in the Broadway production with Howard. The film was a major success and led to a long-term contract with Warner Bros. From 1936 to 1940, Bogart appeared in 28 films, usually as a gangster and twice in Westerns. He even played in a horror film, The Return of Doctor X (Vincent Sherman, 1939), in which he played a rejuvenated, formerly-dead scientist. He averaged a film every two months between 1936 and 1940, sometimes working on two films at the same time. His only substantial role during this period was in Dead End (William Wyler, 1937), as a gangster modeled after Baby Face Nelson. Bogart used these years to begin developing his film persona: a wounded, stoical, cynical, charming, vulnerable, self-mocking loner with a code of honour.

Humphrey Bogart's landmark year was 1941 with roles in classics such as High Sierra (Raoul Walsh, 1941) with Ida Lupino and as Sam Spade in one of his most fondly remembered films, The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941) with Mary Astor and Peter Lorre. Thus, he often capitalised on parts George Raft had rejected. Raft had also passed Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) with Ingrid Bergman, for which Bogart won his first Oscar nomination and which made him a true international star. In 1944, Bogart fell in love with the 19-year-old Lauren Bacall when they filmed To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks, 1944). They married in 1945. They also co-starred in the classic Film Noir The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946), Dark Passage (Delmer Daves, 1947), and Key Largo (John Huston, 1948). Bogart, despite his erratic education, was incredibly well-read and he favoured writers and intellectuals within his small circle of friends. In 1947, he joined wife Lauren Bacall and other actors protesting the House Un-American Activities Committee witch hunts. They both eventually succumbed to pressure and distanced themselves from the Hollywood Ten in a March 1948 Photoplay Magazine article penned by Bogart titled 'I'm No Communist'. That year, he made The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948) with Walter Huston. He also formed his own production company, and produced the Film-Noir Knock on Any Door (Nicholas Ray, 1949). Ray also directed him in one of his best roles in another Film-Noir In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950) with Gloria Grahame. Bogie won the Best Actor Academy Award for his part as a cantankerous river steam launch skipper in The African Queen (John Huston, 1951) opposite Katharine Hepburn. He was nominated for another Oscar for his part as Captain Queeg in Mutiny on the Caine (Edward Dmytryk, 1954), a film made when he was already seriously ill. Other significant roles included The Barefoot Contessa (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1954) with Ava Gardner and his on-screen competition with William Holden for Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina (Billy Wilder, 1954). In 1957, Humphrey Bogart died in his sleep at his Hollywood home following surgeries and a battle with throat cancer (he usually smoked 40 cigarettes a day). He had just turned 57. Bogart is interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, CA, in the Garden of Memory, Columbarium of Eternal Light. He was four times married and all of his wives were actresses: Helen Menken (1926-1927), Mary Philips (1928-1938), Mayo Methot (1938-1945), and Lauren Ball (1945-1957). Bogart and Bacall, had two children, Stephen H. Bogart (1949) and Leslie Bogart (1952). Stephen discussed his relationship with Bogie in the book, 'Bogart: In Search of My Father' (1996).

Sources: Ed Stephan (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

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French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 269, 1950. Photo: Paramount Pictures Inc.

Alan Ladd (1913-1964) had his big break as a killer in the film noir This Gun For Hire (1942). Throughout the 1940s, his tough-guy roles packed audiences, but he is best known for his title role in the classic Western Shane (1953)

Alan Walbridge Ladd was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, USA in 1913. His mother, Ina Raleigh. had emigrated from England at age 19, and his accountant father, Alan Ladd, died when his son was only four. At age five, Alan burned his apartment playing with matches, and his mother moved them to Oklahoma City, where she married Jim Beavers, a housepainter. Alan was malnourished, undersized and nicknamed 'Tiny', and the family moved to California. Alan picked fruit, delivered papers, and swept stores. In high school he discovered track and swimming. By 1931 he was training for the 1932 Olympics, but an injury put an end to those plans. He opened a hamburger stand called Tiny's Patio, and later worked as a studio carpenter (as did his stepfather) at Warner Brothers Pictures. He married his friend Midge in 1936, but couldn't afford her, so they lived apart. In 1937, they shared a friend's apartment. They had a son, Alan Ladd Jr., and his destitute alcoholic mother moved in with them, her agonizing suicide from ant poison witnessed a few months later by her son. For a short time, Ladd was part of the Universal Pictures studio school for actors. His size and blond hair were regarded by Universal as not right for movies, so he worked hard at radio. There talent scout and former actress Sue Carol discovered him early in 1939. He appeared in a string of bit parts in B-pictures - and an unbilled part as a newspaper reporter in Orson Welles' classic Citizen Kane (1941). Late in 1941, he got his big break when he tested for This Gun for Hire (Frank Tuttle, 1942) based on the novel by Graham Greene. His fourth-billed role as psychotic hitman Raven made him a star.

Alan Ladd and his co-star in This Gun for Hire, Veronica Lake, made seven films together. These included The Glass Key (Stuart Heisler, 1942), The Blue Dahlia (George Marshall 1946), and Saigon (Leslie Fenton, 1948). Ladd was drafted in January 1943 and discharged in November with an ulcer and double hernia. His cool, unsmiling tough-guys proved popular with wartime audiences, and he was one of the top box office stars of the decade. In an adaptation of Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (Elliott Nugent, 1949), Ladd had the featured role of Jay Gatsby. Four years later he appeared in what many regard as his greatest role, Shane (George Stevens, 1953). The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. From then on he was performing in lucrative but unrewarding films . By the end of the 1950s liquor and a string of so-so films had taken their toll. In November 1962 he was found unconscious lying in a pool of blood with a bullet wound near his heart. In 1963 Ladd's career looked set to make a comeback when he filmed a supporting role in The Carpetbaggers (Edward Dmytryk, 1964), which became one of the most popular films of the year. He would not live to see its release. In January 1964 Alan Ladd was found dead, apparently due to an accidental combination of alcohol and sedatives. Ladd was only 50. He was married twice. After his divorce from Marjorie Jane Harrold in 1941, he married former film actress Sue Carol in 1942. Carol was also his agent and manager. The couple had two children, Alana Ladd and David Ladd. He was the grandfather of Jordan Ladd.

Sources: Ed Stephan (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

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French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 214. Photo: Eugene Robert Richee / Paramount. Publicity still for I Wanted Wings (Mitchell Leisen, 1941).

During the 1940s, Veronica Lake (1922-1973) was Hollywood' s Peek-a-boo Girl. We love her for Sullivan's Travels (Preston Sturges, 1942), I Married a Witch (Rene Clair, 1942) and for her femme fatale roles opposite Alan Ladd in the film noirs This Gun for Hire (Frank Tuttle, 1942), The Glass Key (Stuart Heisler, 1942) and The Blue Dahlia (George Marshall, 1946).

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Swiss-German-British postcard by News Productions, Baulmes / Filmwelt Berlin, Bakede / News Productions, Stroud, no. 56495. Photo: Warner Bros / Collection Cinémathèque Suisse, Lausanne. Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941).

Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957) is an icon of the Hollywood cinema. His private detectives, Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Phillip Marlowe in The Big Sleep (1946), became the models for detectives in other Film-Noirs. Bogart and 19-year-old Lauren Bacall fell in love when they filmed To Have and Have Not (1944), the first of a series of films together. He won the best actor Oscar for The African Queen (1951). He was also nominated for Casablanca (1942) and as Captain Queeg in Mutiny on the Caine (1954).

Humphrey DeForest Bogart was born in New York City, New York, in 1899. His mother was Maud Humphrey, a famed magazine illustrator and suffragette, and his father Belmont DeForest Bogart, a moderately wealthy surgeon who was secretly addicted to opium. He had two younger sisters, Frances and Catherine 'Kay' Bogart. Maud Bogart's drawing of her baby Humphrey appeared in a national advertising campaign for Mellin's Baby Food. 'Bogie' was educated at Trinity School, NYC, and was sent to Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, in preparation for medical studies at Yale. He was expelled from Phillips and joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1918. During the First World War, he served on the troopship USS Leviathan in the North Atlantic. From 1920 to 1922, he managed a stage company owned by family friend William A. Brady (the father of actress Alice Brady), performing a variety of tasks at Brady's film studio in New York. He then began regular stage performances. Alexander Woollcott described his acting in a 1922 play as inadequate. In 1930, he gained a contract with Fox. He had his film debut in a ten-minute short, Broadway's Like That (Arthur Hurley, 1930), co-starring Ruth Etting and Joan Blondell. Fox released him after two years. After five years of stage and minor film roles, he had his breakthrough role in The Petrified Forest (Archie Mayo, 1936) from Warner Bros. He won the part over Edward G. Robinson only after the star, Leslie Howard, threatened Warner Bros. that he would quit unless Bogart was given the key role of Duke Mantee, which he had played in the Broadway production with Howard. The film was a major success and led to a long-term contract with Warner Bros. From 1936 to 1940, Bogart appeared in 28 films, usually as a gangster and twice in Westerns. He even played in a horror film, The Return of Doctor X (Vincent Sherman, 1939), in which he played a rejuvenated, formerly-dead scientist. He averaged a film every two months between 1936 and 1940, sometimes working on two films at the same time. His only substantial role during this period was in Dead End (William Wyler, 1937), as a gangster modeled after Baby Face Nelson. Bogart used these years to begin developing his film persona: a wounded, stoical, cynical, charming, vulnerable, self-mocking loner with a code of honour.

Humphrey Bogart's landmark year was 1941 with roles in classics such as High Sierra (Raoul Walsh, 1941) with Ida Lupino and as Sam Spade in one of his most fondly remembered films, The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941) with Mary Astor and Peter Lorre. Thus, he often capitalised on parts George Raft had rejected. Raft had also passed Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) with Ingrid Bergman, for which Bogart won his first Oscar nomination and which made him a true international star. In 1944, Bogart fell in love with the 19-year-old Lauren Bacall when they filmed To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks, 1944). They married in 1945. They also co-starred in the classic Film Noir The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946), Dark Passage (Delmer Daves, 1947), and Key Largo (John Huston, 1948). Bogart, despite his erratic education, was incredibly well-read and he favoured writers and intellectuals within his small circle of friends. In 1947, he joined wife Lauren Bacall and other actors protesting the House Un-American Activities Committee witch hunts. They both eventually succumbed to pressure and distanced themselves from the Hollywood Ten in a March 1948 Photoplay Magazine article penned by Bogart titled 'I'm No Communist'. That year, he made The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948) with Walter Huston. He also formed his own production company, and produced the Film-Noir Knock on Any Door (Nicholas Ray, 1949). Ray also directed him in one of his best roles in another Film-Noir In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950) with Gloria Grahame. Bogie won the Best Actor Academy Award for his part as a cantankerous river steam launch skipper in The African Queen (John Huston, 1951) opposite Katharine Hepburn. He was nominated for another Oscar for his part as Captain Queeg in Mutiny on the Caine (Edward Dmytryk, 1954), a film made when he was already seriously ill. Other significant roles included The Barefoot Contessa (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1954) with Ava Gardner and his on-screen competition with William Holden for Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina (Billy Wilder, 1954). In 1957, Humphrey Bogart died in his sleep at his Hollywood home following surgeries and a battle with throat cancer (he usually smoked 40 cigarettes a day). He had just turned 57. Bogart is interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, CA, in the Garden of Memory, Columbarium of Eternal Light. He was four times married and all of his wives were actresses: Helen Menken (1926-1927), Mary Philips (1928-1938), Mayo Methot (1938-1945), and Lauren Ball (1945-1957). Bogart and Bacall, had two children, Stephen H. Bogart (1949) and Leslie Bogart (1952). Stephen discussed his relationship with Bogie in the book, 'Bogart: In Search of My Father' (1996).

Sources: Ed Stephan (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Tags:   Humphrey Bogart Humphrey Bogart American Actor Acteur Schauspieler Darsteller Hollywood Movie Star Cinema Cine Kino Film Picture Screen Movie Movies Filmster Star Vintage Postcard Carte Postale Carte Cartolina Tarjet Postal Tarjet Postkarte Postkaart Briefkarte Briefkaart Ansichtskarte Ansichtkaart News News Productions The Maltese Falcon 1941 Cigarette Smoker Film Noir Shadow Sculpture Falcon

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British hand-coloured postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. PC 300. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). William Powell and Myrna Loy in Another Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1939).

William Powell (1892-1984) was an American actor, whose career began in silent film. He is best known for the Thin Man film series in which he starred opposite Myrna Loy. Powell was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Leading Actor a total of three times.

Myrna Loy (1905-1993) was an American film, television and stage actress. She was originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, but her career prospects improved greatly following her portrayal of Nora Charles in The Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1934). Suddenly she was 'Queen of the Movies' and remained so until the late 1940s.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

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