# Do you think Humphrey Bogart is attractive? If so, how and why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 21, 2020, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217 "2020-05-21T02:07:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217/21 "2020-05-21T17:12:22Z")
He died at 57 so we never saw how he would have looked in his 60s and beyond. ---
**Author:** ![DaveRaver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daveraver/32/1078_2.png) [@DaveRaver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveRaver)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217/22 "2020-05-21T17:24:20Z")
He was said to be particularly attractive while discussing pork chops and apple sauce. ---
**Author:** ![Kelby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a587f6/32.png) [@Kelby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelby)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217/23 "2020-05-21T17:24:55Z")
Physically attractive, no. But he had a very compelling style and presence. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217/24 "2020-05-21T17:26:48Z")
To those who say that Bogart always played Bogart I would recommend [In a Lonely Place](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042593/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_16). Its about as dark a film as it gets. You can watch for free here [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv4iVbBXHsLjUKEQ9LbQKBasW9L5Hzz6i](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv4iVbBXHsLjUKEQ9LbQKBasW9L5Hzz6i) ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217/25 "2020-05-21T17:36:08Z")
By the mid Fifties, he was ill and looked like it, too. The movies always found a way to make even ordinary players look attractive if they wanted to, whether from lighting them in a certain way, or casting other players who didn’t obviously tower over them. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217/26 "2020-05-21T17:39:28Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Well, the script of African Queen had to be rewritten for Bogart because he was unable to perform the Cockney accent that was originally intended. Not saying that reproducing accents is required to be a good actor, but no, to me his acting in it wasn’t anything special. It was just Bogart being Bogart again. Take a random scene from African Queen, from The Maltese Falcon, and from Casablanca and I don’t see a big difference in his characterization. I mean, it’s a great character, but it’s always the basically same character. Not in Treasure of the Sierra Madre, where he goes nuts, Roaring Twenties or Petrified Forest, where he is just a Bad Guy. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217/27 "2020-05-21T17:51:33Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Yeah, unless you’re like 100 years old or grew up without ever watching TV or going to a movie, Bogart has always looked like Bogart. I suspect he was cast in his earliest films for looking tough not handsome. When it became apparent he had some acting chops he was able to make the extremely rare transition to romantic lead during a time (WWII) when toughness was particularly attractive To the public. His first film was _The Petrified Forest_ where he played a tough guy. And he only got the role because Leslie Howard insisted on it. It’s why Bogie’s daughter was named Leslie. But it typecast him for a decade. He mostly just played bad guys or toughs. Even in the Western (!) he made, he was the “black hat” playing against “white hat” James Cagney (!) – _The Oklahoma Kid._ I always thought Bogie had _tons_ of charisma. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217/28 "2020-05-21T18:03:32Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Like Mick Jagger, mentioned in the OP, Bogart is iconic. Bogart as the manager of your local Denny’s might not be good looking, but Bogart is Bogart. At that level, I think you kind of transcend traditional good looks. Charisma is extremely under-rated. I’ve known guys in low status jobs who were able to date very attractive women based mostly on confidence and charm. These guys weren’t ugly, but they weren’t particularly handsome either, just like Bogart. Add Bogart’s natural Charisma to movie stardom and it doesn’t really matter that he doesn’t have traditional leading man looks. It didn’t hurt that he was also very intelligent. He was a decent chess player and corresponded with Supreme court justices.\* It also didn’t hurt that he came from money. \*Take the last with a grain of salt. I know I’ve read it but didn’t have good luck googling it just now. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217/29 "2020-05-21T18:26:00Z")
He was not the Gerber Baby. His sneering lip came not from WWI shrapnel, but from falling of his bicycle as a child. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217/30 "2020-05-21T20:39:06Z")
I did not find him good-looking. Why? Because of my own, personal taste. Didn’t find him attractive, either. Why? His dour persona did not jibe with me. When he smiled, he looked scary. To me. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217/31 "2020-05-21T20:45:51Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > I did not find him good-looking. Why? Because of my own, personal taste. Didn’t find him attractive, either. Why? His dour persona did not jibe with me. When he smiled, he looked scary. To me. Same with me! When I was a kid, I always found him to be a little frightening, even in sympathetic roles. Plus he reminded me of Moe Howard (Three Stooges), who also scared me. I was a weird kid, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217/32 "2020-05-21T21:07:25Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > He was not the Gerber Baby. > His sneering lip came not from WWI shrapnel, but from falling of his bicycle as a child. Yeah, his mom, a commercial artist, drew the Gerber Baby, but it wasn’t Bogie. I think it was actually a girl? I also heard his family was well off. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217/33 "2020-05-21T21:22:22Z")
> [@Crane](#): > > Bogart looked like someone you might actually know. He was believable. Could any of the roles mentioned above have been filled by John Wayne, Rock Hudson or Clark gable? My father’s looks reminded me of Bogart. Per my mother, he was regarded as quite the catch back in the day. It’s a tough-guy “look” that was more popular in the 1940s and 1950s, and sort of out of date today. Back then a guy like [Joe DiMaggio](https://usatftw.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/ap-d-lline-dimaggio-14-950x1024.jpg?w=951&h=1024)was good looking enough to marry the likes of Marilyn Monroe. Frank Sinatra, also more a tough guy than matinee idol, [also made them swoon.](https://d3hp8xnxb3lun4.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/obit-sinatra.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217/34 "2020-05-21T22:06:57Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Yeah, I don’t know that Bogart was generally considered handsome. Despite already having a successful acting career behind him, _Casablanca_ was really his first role as a romantic lead. If he’d been thought of as the “leading man type,” he would have done more traditional romantic drama roles before that. As **Elmer J. Fudd** suggests, it may have helped that _Casablanca_ was released during the war, at a time when people liked their leading men to have a bit of a rough edge to them. It also helped that Bogart worked for Warner Brothers at the time. During the 30s and 40s, Warner Brothers was different than other major studios in that they made into stars actors and actresses who were considered too “unconventional” looking to be leads elsewhere. Along with Bogart, this was the case with Warner’s other major stars like James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, Paul Muni, and Bette Davis. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217/35 "2020-05-21T22:46:57Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Well, the script of African Queen had to be rewritten for Bogart because he was unable to perform the Cockney accent that was originally intended. Not saying that reproducing accents is required to be a good actor, but no, to me his acting in it wasn’t anything special. It was just Bogart being Bogart again. Take a random scene from African Queen, from The Maltese Falcon, and from Casablanca and I don’t see a big difference in his characterization. I mean, it’s a great character, but it’s always the basically same character. The Academy begs to differ. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217/36 "2020-05-21T22:57:45Z")
He was WAY before my time and I haven’t really seen many of his movies. I’m a 33 year old, straight, male. But I’m just scrolling down on Google Images looking at a million pictures of him and I’m baffled by the idea that he was NOT handsome. I know there are a lot of different ways that a man can look handsome, and I know that everyone’s tastes are different, but…how could he not be considered at least within the normal range of what a handsome male face looks like? It has all the right proportions. For those who think he was outright unattractive, can you explain why? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217/37 "2020-05-21T23:39:17Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > His first film was _The Petrified Forest_ where he played a tough guy. And he only got the role because Leslie Howard insisted on it. It’s why Bogie’s daughter was named Leslie. But it typecast him for a decade. He mostly just played bad guys or toughs. Even in the Western (!) he made, he was the “black hat” playing against “white hat” James Cagney (!) – _The Oklahoma Kid._ > > I always thought Bogie had _tons_ of charisma. Not his first film or even his first starring role, which was Two Against the World released earlier the same year. It’s true his early movie career had not been successful which is why he went back to Broadway between 1934 and 1936. As for being typecast, there was at least one exception, his role as the Irish horse trainer Michael O’Leary in Dark Victory, 1939 (3rd billing over poor Geraldine FitzGerald). Considering that The Petrified Forest came out in 1936, saying he was typecast as the villain for a decade goes about 5 years too far. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217/38 "2020-05-21T23:42:38Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > He’s ugly. No two ways about it. Which is not really the same thing as attractive. I’ve been deemed less attractive than much uglier men plenty of times. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217/39 "2020-05-21T23:47:24Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > My father’s looks reminded me of Bogart. Per my mother, he was regarded as quite the catch back in the day. > > It’s a tough-guy “look” that was more popular in the 1940s and 1950s, and sort of out of date today. Back then a guy like [Joe DiMaggio](https://usatftw.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/ap-d-lline-dimaggio-14-950x1024.jpg?w=951&h=1024)was good looking enough to marry the likes of Marilyn Monroe. Frank Sinatra, also more a tough guy than matinee idol, [also made them swoon.](https://d3hp8xnxb3lun4.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/obit-sinatra.jpg) I agree but also think this overlooks the fact that status and wealth play into the attractiveness of people, especially men. Almost any pop or rock star can have millions of ladies swooning and very few of them are handsome. I’m not going to say this only applies to male celebrities, either. I can think of several TV actresses and movie stars who are considered exceptionally beautiful but I can walk down the street in any major city and find several more stunning looking women flying completely under the radar (at least pre-Tinder/Instagram era). ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217/40 "2020-05-22T11:47:26Z")
Mrs, Plant found him quite attractive in the 1980s. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-humphrey-bogart-is-attractive-if-so-how-and-why/854217.md?page=3)