“If You Need Anything, Just Whistle”

On this date in 1957, Humphrey DeForest Bogart passed into eternity.

I’ve always liked character actors.  He is among one of my favorites, although I was only four when he passed away.  Thank goodness for old film nights on TV, and VHS/DVD recordings!

Petrified Forest, Casablanca, The Caine Mutiny, The African Queen, Sabrina.  The Big Sleep.  If you’ve not seen these films (and many others) you’ve missed something.

He was politically incorrect before such a phrase existed.  A smoker, drinker and brawler, although thin and 5’9″, he was married four times.  The last time to Lauren Bacall, 24 years his junior.  They had two children.

Lauren Bacall as ‘Slim’ to Bogie in To Have and Have Not:

“You know you don’t have to act with me, Steve. You don’t have to say anything, and you don’t have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and… blow.”

He died of esophageal cancer.   His wife placed a gold whistle in his cremation urn.  It reads, “If you need anything, just whistle.”