Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall: A Timeline of Their Hollywood Romance (2024)

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall were two of the most famous actors of their time, and their love story was one for the ages.

Despite the fact that Bogart was married when he met a 19-year-old Bacall in 1943, the two soon began a relationship that included meeting up secretly amid Bogart's divorce.

Between 1943 and 1948, Bacall and Bogart costarred in three movies together, including their first and most memorable, To Have and To Have Not. While Bacall almost lost her studio contract after the movie's director found out about their affair, the two persevered. They married on a friend's farm in Ohio in 1945.

Bogart and Bacall's son Stephen was born in 1949, and they welcomed their daughter Leslie in 1952. Bogart was diagnosed with cancer in 1956, and despite Bacall's support and care, he died in January 1957.

From meeting and shooting a movie together to losing one another a little over ten years later, here is a look at Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall's relationship timeline.

1943: Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart meet for the first time

Bacall was 19 years old when she met Bogart for the first time. The veteran actor was more than two decades older than his young costar when they were both cast in To Have and To Have Not, but that didn't stop their relationship from developing.

Though Bogart was still married to actress Mayo Methot, he and Bacall began to meet in secret as he awaited his divorce. Bacall later admitted she didn't like Bogart at first, later writing that at that first meeting, "There was no clap of thunder, no lightning bolt."

Bacall also admitted to being nervous around Bogart on set due to her inexperience. As she put it when describing her experience of filming their first scene together: "I realized that one way to hold my trembling head still was to keep it down, chin low, almost to my chest, and eyes up at Bogart. It worked."

1944: Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart costar in their first movie together

Despite the fact that they weren't immediately drawn to one another, filming 1944's To Have and to Have Not brought Bacall and Bogart together. Bacall later admitted that Bogart kissed her for the first time three weeks into shooting the movie. In her 1978 autobiography, Lauren Bacall: By Myself, she wrote: "He was standing behind me—we were joking as usual—when suddenly he leaned over, put his hand under my chin and kissed me."

The movie was also Bacall's silver screen debut. In one memorable scene, her character asks Bogart's, "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow."

The couple's son, Steve Bogart, later told PEOPLE that in that scene, "Everyone could see their love right there on celluloid. He was the great love of her life, and she his."

1944: Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart begin an affair

Bogart was married to Methot when he met Bacall, but that didn't stop him from beginning an affair with his much younger costar. At the time, his marriage was already breaking down, and he and Bacall moved quickly.

Bogart and Methot were known as the "Battling Bogarts" by many, and the two were said to keep a carpenter on call to fix things around their home after their notorious fights, according to The Guardian. He and Bacall saw one another and talked on the phone in secret, in an effort not to anger Methot.

Bacall told Parade in 1997 that her mother had been angry about the relationship at first. She said that after giving Bogart her phone number, "I would get phone calls, occasionally at 3 a.m. My mother used to say, 'Where do you think you're going so early in the morning? That man, he's a married man!' She was furious."

1944: Lauren Bacall almost loses her studio contract because of their relationship

Bacall's mother wasn't the only one who was upset about the relationship between the actress and Bogart. Years later, Bacall said that Howard Hawks, who directed the two in To Have and To Have Not, threated to sell her contract to a Poverty Row studio, according to The Hollywood Reporter, when he found out about the affair.

Bacall later admitted, per The Hollywood Reporter, that Hawks “had quite a crush on me, but of course he was tangling with the wrong people because there was no way he was going to get anywhere, with Bogie and me involved. He wanted to be my Svengali.”

“He finally forgave me, but he couldn’t handle it,” Bacall said of Hawks reaction to her relationship with Bogart.

May 21, 1945: Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart get married

Bacall and Bogart got married in May 1945 on a friend's farm in Ohio, shortly after the actor's divorce from Methot was finalized. Bacall told Parade that marrying Bogart came with an important clause.

She said, "When I married Bogie, I agreed to put my career second, because he wouldn't marry me otherwise. He'd had three failed marriages to actresses, and he was not about to have a fourth. He said, 'If you want a career more than anything, I will do everything I can to help you, and I will send you on your way, but I will not marry you. I've been through it, and I know it doesn't work.' He was right."

1946: Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart costar in The Big Sleep

Bacall and Bogart returned to the big screen as costars a year after their marriage when The Big Sleep was released in 1946. For the movie, which is an adaptation of the Raymond Chandler novel of the same name, the pair also reunited with their director from To Have and To Have Not, Howard Hawks.

1947: Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart costar in Dark Passage

The married couple were seen on screen together once again a year later when they costarred in the Delmer Daves directed thriller, Dark Passage.

1948: Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart costar in Key Largo

Bacall and Bogart made their final movie appearance as a couple when Key Largo was released in 1948.

January 6, 1949: Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart welcome their first baby

Bacall and Bogart became parents in January 1949 when their son Stephen Humphrey Bogart was born. Humphrey Bogart was 46 years old when he became a father for the first time, while Bacall was 24 when Stephen was born.

August 23, 1952: Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart welcome their second baby

Bacall and Bogart became parents for a second time when Leslie Bogart was born in August 1952. , "Whenever I think of the word 'happy' now, I think of then," Bacall later wrote of the period following the birth of her two children.

1956: Humphrey Bogart is diagnosed with cancer

In late 1956, Bogart received a devastating diagnosis of esophageal cancer. Bacall spent the following months nursing Bogart to the best of her ability.

January 14, 1957: Humphrey Bogart dies

Bogart died of cancer in January 1957. According to a report from The New York Times, the actor's death occured in his sleep while he was at his Holmby Hills home. Bacall was devastated by his death, and later wrote that, "No one has ever written a romance better than we lived."

She went on to tell The Guardian in 2005 that she and Bogart never spoke about him dying. She said, "When a person who is very ill decides to treat it like a slight virus, you play that game. If you make a big scene, I think it is yourself you are doing it for, not the person who's ill."

January 29, 1979: Lauren Bacall admits that Humphrey Bogart was traditional

Over 20 years after his death, Bacall opened up about her marriage to Bogart in her 1978 memoir, Lauren Bacall: By Myself. She also admitted to PEOPLE the following year that her husband wouldn't have been a fan of the women's liberation movement.

She said, "Bogie was an old-fashioned man. He kidded that a woman's place was in the home, but he was only half kidding. He had divorced three actresses and was convinced that a career and marriage don't mix."

February 12, 1996: Steve Bogart speaks about Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart

In 1996, Stephen briefly spoke to PEOPLE about his parent's relationship. As he put it, it was clear in To Have and To Have Not that his parents had something special. He said, "Everyone could see their love right there on celluloid. He was the great love of her life, and she his."

April 2, 2005: Lauren Bacall says she was happy she put her marriage first

In April 2005, Bacall told The Guardian that even though her marriage to Bogart meant giving up her own career, she didn't regret the choice. She said, "If I'd had just my career, I would have missed out on Bogie, on children, on the very substance of life."

February 10, 2011: Lauren Bacall says she was "lucky" to be married to Bogart

In a February 2011 interview with Vanity Fair, Bacall said she was lucky to be married to Bogart in the first place. She said, "I fairly often have thought how lucky I was. I knew everybody because I was married to Bogie, and that 25-year difference was the most fantastic thing for me to have in my life."

Three years later, in August 2014, Bacall died at her home in New York City. She was 89 years old.