Tough Guy: Humphrey Bogart in His Own Words and in the Words of Those Who Knew Him - Paperback

by Michael Turback (Author)

Whatever the "something special' is that constitutes a man's man and an actor's actor, he had it - and in abundance. Raised by a genteel East Coast family with a doctor father and a well-known artist mother, Humphrey DeForest Bogart emerged from a minor theatrical career in the 1920s to become one of Hollywood's most distinctive leading men, typically cast as smart, playful, courageous, tough, occasionally reckless characters who lived in a world of dames, mugs, and coppers, yet anchored by a hidden moral code - hard-boiled cynics who ultimately show a noble side. In "The Maltese Falcon," when Sydney Greenstreet's Kasper Gutman, says to Bogart's Sam Spade, "By Gad, sir, you are a character - there's never any telling what you'll say or do next, except that it's bound to be something astonishing," he might just as well have been describing the real-life Humphrey Bogart. Here was a man who could charm the birds off the trees one minute, and tell a producer to go straight to hell the next. They threw away the mold when he moved on. This fizzy cocktail of a book lifts the veil off the movie tough guy to reveal the real-life tough guy. It provides an unvarnished portrait of a hard-drinking, prankish extrovert whose heart was as soft as his screen lines were hard. You get a little history and a bit of sociology. But the fun comes from the abundant helping of irreverence. His contemporaries as well as subsequent observers have plenty to say about Bogie - the good, the bad, and the ugly - and his own brash words provide an affectionate, perceptive portrait of a marvelous, contradictory man.

Author Biography

Known for his versatility and invention as a writer, Michael Turback has taken on, with distinction, such topics as the ice cream sundae, the banana split, hot chocolate, the partnership of chocolate and coffee, creative barista drinks, artisan cocktails, Finger Lakes Wine Country, the Farmers Market movement, Cornell University Who's Who, as well as legendary figures, John Wayne and Toots Shor.