As a biography it's a bit tedious, listings of films and appearances and anecdotes about their making. As a cultural history of the first half of the 20th century it's quite possibly the best book I've read. A nearly perfect encapsulation of the zeitgeist of the times. A real surprise find for me - I didn't expect the nuance and color at all. For history buffs, a must read. ( )

Humphrey Bogart grew up in a progressive family where his parents were successful. They did, however, not lavish him with much attention. Au contraire, Bogart grew up an anti-authorative thespian who played theater before becoming the world-famous movie star and icon that he is known as today.

A libertine and man of his word - while it is argued that he was a serial adulterer - Bogart seems to have stayed true to his friends and work for as long as he lived. Half self destructive, half great at what he did, he believed in being a "man" and having a lot of fun.

The book turns him out as a no-nonsense kind of guy who always went for the truth, except in his most alcoholic moments. It shows his ups and downs, and how he always turned around some really bad situations in his life.

This book is straight-forward. There are no revelations in here, and the contents are put out chronologically in one simple way. There is no personal style to the writing, and towards the end I got the feeling that the author simply wanted to finish it off.

There are a lot of enthralling stories on how Bogie and Hollywood worked in the 1940-1960s, not to mention some comparisons between the man and modern-day actors. ( )

I must have not been in the right frame of mind for this one. Yawn. I thought it was very boring. ( )

Ah, Bogart. His silver-spoon beginnings, his long years climbing up into the spotlight, his penchant for actresses (he married FOUR) and the public's enduring fascination with the take-no-guff characters he portrayed. This is the third biography of Bogie that I've read, so much of it is familiar to me. There's a bit more detail on the studio politics and his final days and some theories about why so many people (like me!) still find him captivating even today. I found it to be a so-so read. I was bored in places and well and truly irritated with all of the name-dropping (mostly in the context of either who was having an affair with who or who was addicted to what substance). I would say if you've read other biographies of Bogart then you can probably skip this one. If you like just books about classic Hollywood then you'll probably enjoy this one too. ( )

more a litany of people, plays, movies and events than the poetic prose I like in bio's but still interesting to learn about the man behind the movies that I have loved. ( )