Dooley Wilson and Humphrey Bogart

Dooley Wilson: As Times Goes By Arthur “Dooley” Wilson (1886-1953). Today people know him pretty exclusively for his pivotal role as “Sam” in Casablanca (1942). But there’s much more to his life and career than that! Born in Tyler, East Texas, Wilson was already working professionally as a singer at age seven (the family needed the income after his father died.) From singing in churches he graduated to tent shows and black vaudeville. He’d already been in the business for a decade when he began performing at the pathbreaking Pekin Theatre in Chicago in 1908. It was around this time that he got his professional nickname, due to the fact that he performed a comical Irish character and sang a song called “Mr. Dooley”. In the mid-teens he worked with Charles Gilpin’s and Anita Bush’s theatre companies in Harlem. In addition to singing and acting, Wilson also played the drums. In that capacity he played with James Reese Europe during World War One, and then later started his own band The Red Devils, which toured Europe throughout the Jazz Age. Interestingly, despite the impression he creates in Casablanca he did not actually play piano — just the drums. During the Depression he worked with the Federal Theatre Project under the direction of John Houseman. He had the lead in The Conjur’ Man Dies (1936) on Broadway with the project (go here for an original artwork my wife made in homage to the novel upon which the play was based). With the project he was also in O’Neill’s The Long Voyage Home (1937) and Shaw’s Androcles and the Lion (1938). After The Strangler Fig (1940) he was in the original stage production of Cabin in the Sky (1940-41) in the role that went to Eddie “Rochester” Anderson in the film version. The original production of Bloomer Girl (1944-46) was his last Broadway show. Meanwhile, he’d also broken into movies. His first was the race picture Keep Punching (1939). In total he amassed 20 screen credits, including My Favorite Blonde (1942) with Bob Hope, Stormy Weather (1943), and two episodes of Beulah. His last role was in the western Passage West (1951). Dooley had a major role in Come To The Stable. Published by travsd Writer and performer Trav S.D. (www.travsd.com) is best known for his books "No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous" (2005) and "Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube" (2013). He has written for the NY Times, the Village Voice, American Theatre, Time Out NY, Reason, the Villager and numerous other publications.

Famous Actor. Born December 25, 1899 in New York City, New York, USA Died January 14, 1957 in Los Angeles, California, USA (esophageal cancer) Birth Name Humphrey DeForest Bogart Nickname Bogie Height 5' 8" (1.73 m) Mini Bio (1) Humphrey DeForest Bogart was born in New York City, New York, to Maud Humphrey, a famed magazine illustrator and suffragette, and Belmont DeForest Bogart, a moderately wealthy surgeon (who was secretly addicted to opium). Bogart was educated at Trinity School, NYC, and was sent to Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, in preparation for medical studies at Yale. He was expelled from Phillips and joined the U.S. Naval Reserve. From 1920 to 1922, he managed a stage company owned by family friend William A. Brady (the father of actress Alice Brady), performing a variety of tasks at Brady's film studio in New York. He then began regular stage performances. Alexander Woollcott described his acting in a 1922 play as inadequate. In 1930, he gained a contract with Fox, his feature film debut in a ten-minute short, Broadway's Like That (1930), co-starring Ruth Etting and Joan Blondell. Fox released him after two years. After five years of stage and minor film roles, he had his breakthrough role in The Petrified Forest (1936) from Warner Bros. He won the part over Edward G. Robinson only after the star, Leslie Howard, threatened Warner Bros. that he would quit unless Bogart was given the key role of Duke Mantee, which he had played in the Broadway production with Howard. The film was a major success and led to a long-term contract with Warner Bros. From 1936 to 1940, Bogart appeared in 28 films, usually as a gangster, twice in Westerns and even a horror film. His landmark year was 1941 (often capitalizing on parts George Raft had stupidly rejected) with roles in classics such as High Sierra (1941) and as Sam Spade in one of his most fondly remembered films, The Maltese Falcon (1941). These were followed by Casablanca (1942), The Big Sleep (1946), and Key Largo (1948). Bogart, despite his erratic education, was incredibly well-read and he favored writers and intellectuals within his small circle of friends. In 1947, he joined wife Lauren Bacall and other actors protesting the House Un-American Activities Committee witch hunts. He also formed his own production company, and the next year made The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). Bogie won the best actor Academy Award for The African Queen (1951) and was nominated for Casablanca (1942) and as Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny (1954), a film made when he was already seriously ill. He died in his sleep at his Hollywood home following surgeries and a battle with throat cancer.