Bogart - Hardcover

Sperber, A M

4.17

432 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297812750 ISBN 13: 9780297812753

Publisher: Trafalgar Square, 1997

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The first definitive biography of a Hollywood legend. More than other actor of his time Humphrey Bogart was an icon. For two eventful decades his screen roles reflected the national mood, from the gangster-ridden 1930s of the petrified forest through the wartime escapism of Casablanca and theMaltese Falcon to the postwar alienation of in a Lonely place.

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Review:

It's the season of battling Bogarts: two biographies, each worthwhile for different reasons. If you want a leisurely, formidably well-documented account of Humphrey Bogart's legendary screen career and four marriages (including a happy final one to Lauren Bacall), this is it. A. M. Sperber conducted some 200 interviews with people who knew the actor before his death in 1994; Eric Lax draws on her seven years of research to create a nuanced, in-depth, elegantly written portrait of the man recently dubbed Hollywood's greatest star by Premiere magazine.

From the Back Cover:

"A heavy before World War II, Humphrey Bogart became a heartthrob and a hero after it, Hollywood 's beau ideal of American masculinity. How did it happen, this unlikeliest of screen evolutions? Bogart shows how, when the moment came, a classic good boy stepped forward to become America's classic good bad man. In short, what Bogie had, where he got it, and where it took him - the last word on a legend." -- Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography

"I loved this book... Beyond Bogart it is a wonderful and intricate history of Hollywood, the actor's trade - and the enduring power of image." -- Richard Reeves, author of President Kennedy

"Bogart is instantly the definitive biography with new and sometimes disturbing information on the early life and Broadway apprenticeship, the booze, the marriages, the rough and tumble Warner years, the politics of Hollywood culminating in the blacklist, and the artistic triumph of a performer who came to represent far more than the roles he played. This is a compelling book for anyone interested in the movies, the personalities, and the issues that swirled around this icon of American popular culture. " -- Walter Hill, director

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