Hollywood couple Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall are most well-known for films they starred in during the 1940s, but their son, Stephen Humphrey Bogart, is still shocked that his parent’s legacy is lost on much of today’s youth.
“I go to the doctors and the assistant comes in and I’m asking her, and the doctor says, ‘Hey, you know who this is? He’s Humphrey Bogart’s son.’ And she goes, ‘Who?’” Bogart, 75, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting his new documentary Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes. “This is, like, two months ago. And this is a smart woman.”
Stephen added that when asked if the names Lauren Bacall, Marlon Brando, or Dustin Hoffman rang a bell, the answer remained the same. “So kids don’t really know because it’s tough when you’re looking at your phone and you want to see the latest Marvel,” he explained. “Not that I have anything against Marvel. I used to collect the comic books, but they’re not aware of the past at all.”
Clarifying that his surprise about the lack of Hollywood knowledge isn’t just about his parents but about any movie star of years past, he quipped that the “lack of awareness” from younger generations “boggles his mind” regularly.
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Those who are well-versed in the history of cinema, of course, will recognize Stephen’s parents’ names immediately: Humphrey is known for films like Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Sabrina and The African Queen — which won him the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 1952 — among many others. Bacall, meanwhile, won two Tony Awards for Applause and Woman of the Year and starred in films like Murder on the Orient Express, The Fan and The Portrait. Together, the couple also shared the screen in films like To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Key Largo and Two Guys from Milwaukee, making them an iconic silver-screen duo of the ’40s.
Offscreen, the couple was married for 12 years, welcoming Stephen in 1949. Humphrey passed away due to esophageal cancer in 1957 when he was 57 years old and Stephen was 8 years old. Bacall died in 2014 after suffering from a stroke at age 89.
Now, Stephen is looking to explore more than just his parents’ romance in Life in Flashes. Directed by Kathryn Ferguson, the film also dives into Humphrey’s relationships with all four of his wives, as well as his mother, and how they influenced the trajectory of his career.
Stephen, for his part, hopes the doc “will allow people to look back on their lives and trace the arc of the people in their lives that continued to bring them forward to where they are today.”
While reflecting on his dad’s career of working with directing greats like John Huston and Michael Curtiz, Stephen gave Us some insight into what director in today’s generation he thinks his dad would have worked well with.
“Maybe Greta Gerwig [if she was] doing the right thing,” Stephen said. “I think thoughtful directors and people … he wasn’t [an] action film kind of guy. He was into the thought process.” Another possibility? “Spielberg probably,” he said. “Just because he’s not into the CGI and all that sort of stuff, people like that.”
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There were other directors whom Stephen thinks his dad would not mesh with. “Not James Cameron, I don’t think,” he quipped, before noting that, for Humphrey, it was more about the quality of the script.
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“George Raft didn’t want to do Maltese Falcon because he didn’t want to work with a first-time director,” Stephen added before joking, “Well, the first-time director was John Huston. Screwed up there, George, didn’t you?”
Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes is now in theaters and streaming on Apple TV.