In 1955, Humphrey Bogart was at the top of his game. He was the biggest star in Hollywood, had won a Best Actor Oscar for The African Queen in 1951 and finally found happiness in his private life after marrying actress Lauren Bacall and having two children. He’d worked non-stop for the past decade and wanted to take time off with family. But he was under contract with Columbia Pictures and owed them a movie. He reluctantly agreed to travel to New York to star in The Harder They Fall.
When Bogart arrived on set, he wasn’t well. He was thin and sweaty and suffered from coughing fits. He had to sit down between takes and re-shoot closeups because his eyes were watery. In his opening scene, he lights a cigarette. This was a familiar image for Bogart since he’d lit up in nearly all his 75 career films. He was a spokesman for Chesterfield cigarettes and friends say he smoked two–three unfiltered packs a day. Halfway through filming, he stopped smoking on screen. He told director Mark Robson it hurt his throat.
On Christmas Day, 1955, Bogart turned 56. Production ended a week later and he returned to Los Angeles. By this time his coughing was incessant and his throat burned when he drank orange juice. He was having difficulty swallowing and lost his appetite. Lauren Bacall had urged him to see a doctor for over a year. In early January, he relented.
Bogart traveled to the Beverly Hills Clinic. Doctors gave him a sputum test to analyze the mucus he was coughing up. A week later he underwent an endoscopy where a metal tube with optical lenses was inserted down his throat. Bogart was diagnosed with advanced esophageal cancer. He would require surgery to remove his esophagus.
On March 1, 1956, Bogart prepared to go under the knife at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles. He asked for a few minutes with his children. He kissed eight-year- old Stephen’s forehead and then touched his four-year-old daughter Leslie’s hair. He told them, “Take care of your mother. She’s my heart.”
Bogart endured a nine-hour surgery to remove his esophagus, two lymph nodes and one rib. Surgeons opened his chest and repositioned his stomach to connect with a small piece of esophagus they’d left behind. Bacall sat for 10 hours in the waiting room. She reflected on their 12 beautiful years together.
The two met in 1943 on the set of Bacall’s first movie To Have and Have Not. Bogart was 43, Bacall was 19. Bogart was married at the time but they began a clandestine relationship. In 1944, Bogart divorced his wife. A year later he and Bacall married. Bogart and Bacall made four classic movies together and became a Hollywood power couple.
When Bogart came out of surgery, his left arm and hand were swollen due to him lying on his left side for so long. In her memoir, Bacall wrote she couldn’t comprehend all the “tubes, bottles and machines” connected to her husband. She thought, “Poor baby, what was the body under the blanket like?”
Bogart returned home. Over the next few months, he gained back some of the weight he’d lost providing hope for his recovery. The cancer wasn’t gone. Doctors administered a painful and primitive form of chemotherapy pumping nitrogen mustard into Bogart’s veins. The cancer spread as did the pain.
Bacall watched helplessly as Bogart dropped weight from his standard 155, to 130 to 90 pounds. He couldn’t walk, barely spoke and no longer ate solid food. He breathed with the help of an oxygen tank. He still smoked, switching to filtered cigarettes.
In November 1956, Bogart was admitted to St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica for another surgery. Doctors hoped to relieve nerve pressure on his throat caused by the growth of scar tissue. The procedure only caused Bogie more pain.
Bacall knew her husband was dying. This man, beloved by millions of movie fans, a model of male toughness, was withering before her eyes. She invited close friends to come say goodbye. Guests included Frank Sinatra, Mary Astor, Henry Fonda, John Huston and Errol Flynn. Bogart remained stoic, never complaining. His assistant dressed him in a smoking jacket and transported him downstairs in a wheelchair via the kitchen dumb waiter. Bogart was transferred to his favorite chair and sipped sherry while visitors sat with him.
On January 13, 1957, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn drove to Bogart’s home. By this time, Bogart was confined to his bed. Tracy patted Bogart’s shoulder and uttered his familiar farewell: “Goodnight, Bogie.” Bogart placed his hand atop Tracy’s hand and said, “Goodbye, Spence.” Not goodnight, but goodbye. Tracy later said his heart stopped at that moment realizing he’d never see his friend again.
The following day, January 14 at 2:25 a.m., Bogart took his final breath. He was surrounded by family while holding Bacall’s hand. Earlier when Bacall left the room for a moment, Bogart whispered his final words: “Goodbye kid, hurry back.”
Bogart’s son Stephen said his father spent his final hours not lamenting his fate but cherishing photos of his children and professing gratitude for his years with Bacall.
Bogart’s funeral was held on January 18 at the All Saints Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills. Hollywood shut down for the day as stars, directors and producers paid their respects. 650 mourners filled the church while 3000 onlookers gathered outside. The music of Bogart’s favorite composers Bach and Debussy was played. Since Bogart’s body was cremated there was no casket. In its place, a glass-enclosed model of Bogart’s beloved 55-foot yacht Santana was positioned on the altar.
Bacall asked Spencer Tracy to deliver the eulogy but he was too distraught. Director John Huston spoke instead. He gave a moving speech comparing Bogart to a pike fish in a Versailles fountain snapping at the carp to keep everyone active and awake.
Bogart’s ashes were interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. He was buried with the small gold whistle he’d given Bacall early in their relationship. Engraved on the whistle were the words, “If you want anything, just whistle.” This was a reference to their first movie together To Have and Have Not when Bacall uttered her famous quote, “You know how to whistle, don’t you? You just put your lips together and blow.”
Bogart was 57 when he died. Bacall would live another 57 years, dying in 2014 from a stroke. In 2011 at 87, she told a reporter, “No one has ever written a romance better than we lived it.”