Humphrey Bogart stage name, but Bogart declined it. The film version of "The Petrified Forest" was released in 1936, and Bogart's performance was called "brilliant", "compelling", and "superb". The film was highly successful, earning $500,000 at the box office, and making Bogart a star. He never forgot Howard's favor, and in 1952 named his only daughter "Leslie Howard Bogart" after Howard, who had died in World War II when a civilian plane he was flying in was shot down under mysterious circumstances. Robert E. Sherwood remained a close friend of Bogart's. Despite his success in "The Petrified Forest," an "A movie", Bogart
Humphrey Bogart received a tepid twenty-six-week contract at $550 per week and was typecast as a gangster in a series of "B movie" crime dramas. Bogart was proud of his success, but the fact that it came from playing a gangster weighed on him. He once said: "I can't get in a mild discussion without turning it into an argument. There must be something in my tone of voice, or this arrogant face—something that antagonizes everybody. Nobody likes me on sight. I suppose that's why I'm cast as the heavy." His roles were not only repetitive, but physically demanding and draining (studios