How Lauren Bacall's Love Saved Humphrey Bogart's Life: 'I Never Was Happy Until I Met That One' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Humphrey Bogart was a late bloomer. Although he started his acting career on Broadway in his early 20s and made his big-screen debut eight years later, he didn’t become a bonafide movie star until he was in his early 40s. And he wouldn’t meet the love of his life until he was 44.

Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart in ‘Key Largo’.John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images

John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images

The secret to his appeal? In a snippet from a vintage interview in the trailer, Bergman suggests, “There’s something mysterious about him.“Lauren Bacall, his frequent costar, fourth wife and the love of his life, gets more personal: “He was the most caring man I’ve ever known.”

Then Bogart chimes in, announcing, “I’m not at ease with women, really. I must obviously like certain women. I married enough of them.” Four, to be exact.

None of those wives would capture Bogart’s — and the world’s — attention quite like Bacall. “I was never happy until I met that one,” we hear him say in the trailer.

Everything changed for Bogart when he met Bacall on the set of the 1944 filmTo Have and Have Not. She was only 19 at the time; he was 25 years older and unhappily married to his third wife, Mayo Methot.

The Big Sleep.Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images

Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images

Sparks flew onscreen and off (“Everyone could see their love right there on celluloid. He was the great love of her life, and she his,” Stephen told PEOPLE in 1996), and the pair married in 1945. Two children, four more movies (including the noir classicsThe Big SleepandKey Largo) and 11 years later, in 1957, Bogart died of esophageal cancer at age 57.

Younger audiences today might not have Humphrey Bogart’s name on the tip of their tongue, but he was iconic enough to come in at No. 1 among the male actors on the American Film Institute’s 1999 list ofThe 50 Greatest American Screen Legends. That was 12 spots aboveJohn Wayneand 21 aboveSidney Poitier.

Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes.Universal Pictures Content Group and Freestyle Digital Releasing

Universal Pictures Content Group and Freestyle Digital Releasing

TheIrish Independenttried to explain his enduring appeal in 2015: “Bogart had extraordinary screen presence and brought something electrifyingly modern and edgy to everything he did.”

“And perhaps that explains why, almost 60 years after his death, he’s far more famous than most of his contemporaries, including such celebrated peers as Spencer Tracy and James Cagney.”

Bogart: Life Comes in Flashesopens on Nov. 15.

source: people.com