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Actor Humphrey Bogart Served in the Sea Services During World Wars I and II

A sailor in uniform poses for a photo.
Humphrey Bogart
Navy sailor Humphrey Bogart is pictured in his Navy uniform in 1918.
Credit: Navy
VIRIN: 181110-O-D0439-002

Actor Humphrey Bogart is best known for his leading roles in the films "The Maltese Falcon" (1941), "Casablanca" (1942), "The African Queen" (1951), "The Caine Mutiny" (1954) and more. 

Lesser known is that Bogart also served in World War I in the Navy and during World War II in the Coast Guard. 

In the Spring of 1918 during World War I, Bogart, 18, enlisted in the Navy, training on the sailing warship USS Granite State, a 74-gun ship-of-the-line, docked in the Manhattan borough of New York City and then at Naval Training Camp in Pelham Bay Park, New York City. 

Later he served as a signalman aboard the troop transport ship USS Leviathan, which carried troops home from Europe after the war ended, Nov. 11, 1918. 

A sailing ship is docked in the bay.
USS Granite State
The sailing warship USS Granite State, a 74-gun ship-of-the-line, docked in the Manhattan borough of New York City, is the ship that Navy seaman Humphrey Bogart trained on at the start of World War I.
Credit: Navy
VIRIN: 201110-O-D0439-001A
A ship steams across the ocean.
USS Leviathan
The Navy troop transport ship USS Leviathan is pictured in 1918. Actor Humphrey Bogart served aboard this ship during World War I.
Credit: Navy
VIRIN: 181110-O-D0439-001A

Bogart was then assigned as a chaser, ordered to take a Navy prisoner to Portsmouth Naval Prison, in Kittery, Maine. In Bogart's telling, when they changed trains in Boston, the prisoner asked Bogart for a cigarette. While he was fumbling for matches, the prisoner smashed him in the mouth with his handcuffs and ran off. 

On June 18, 1919, Bogart separated from the Navy, having attained the rank of petty officer 2nd class. 

During World War II, Bogart tried again to enlist in the Navy but was rejected due to his age. In 1944, he volunteered and was accepted in the Coast Guard Temporary Reserve. 

A man and woman are on a yacht.
Bogart and Bacall
Actors Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart are on his yacht, the Santana, during World War II.
Credit: Courtesy of the Sausalito Historical Society
VIRIN: 450110-O-D0439-002

While in the Coast Guard, he patrolled the California coast in his yacht, the Santana, looking for suspicious enemy activity such as submarines. 

Many years later, Bogart's son, Stephen, said that most people know about Bogart's movies but "probably fewer know about my father's other great loves, sailing. Specifically, it was with his 55-foot sailing yacht, Santana. The sea was my father's sanctuary." 

Bogart's passion for the sea, extended not just from his time in the Navy, Coast Guard and sailing his yacht, but also in some of the films he starred in. 

In "The African Queen," Bogart and actress Katharine Hepburn sail down a river in a small steam vessel in German East Africa in 1914, just as World War I breaks out. They learn that the German armed steam, the Louisa, is at the mouth of Lake Tanganyika, where it is positioned to block British forces. 

A lady and man sit on the side of a boat on a river.
African Queen
Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart are aboard the African Queen, in the 1951 film by that name.
Credit: Courtesy of United Artists Corporation
VIRIN: 511110-O-D0439-001A
A man and woman hug.
Bogart and Bergman
Actors Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman are pictured in the film “Casablanca” in 1942.
Credit: Courtesy of Warner Brothers
VIRIN: 421110-O-D0439-002A

The two craft makeshift torpedoes and sail into the lake, where they successfully destroy the German vessel and make their getaway. 

In the film "The Caine Mutiny," Bogart plays Navy Lt. Cmdr. Philip Francis Queeg, the captain of the Navy minesweeper USS Caine, operating in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. 

Queeg exhibited mental illness during the cruise, resulting in a mutiny and later court martial. 

Sailors inside a ship look distraught.
Caine Mutiny
Humphrey Bogart, playing Navy Lt. Cmdr. Philip Queeg, (left) is relieved of his command as captain of the minesweeper USS Caine, during filming of “The Caine Mutiny.”
Credit: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures
VIRIN: 541110-O-D0439-001
 

In the 1948 film "Key Largo," Bogart plays World War II Army veteran Frank McCloud, who arrives at the Hotel Largo in Key Largo, Florida, where mobsters are staying. A boat and gunfight scene are highlights of the film. 

The boat used in the final sequence is named the Santana, which was also the name of Bogart's real sailing yacht. 

Bogart, who was born in New York City on Christmas, 1899, died from cancer in January 1957 in Los Angeles. 

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