Humphrey Bogart Warner Bros. wanted to cast the then much better known Edward G. Robinson for the film adaptation; however Leslie Howard, who played the protagonist in both the play and the film, insisted on Bogart being given the part. His breakthrough came in 1941 when his performances in "High Sierra" and "The Maltese Falcon" made him a star. His first true romantic lead role came in 1942's "Casablanca", breaking his typecasting as a gangster. He and Lauren Bacall starred together in "To Have and Have Not" (1944). After they married, she also played his love interest in "The Big Sleep" (1946),
Humphrey Bogart Bogart's protagonist, with the camera seeing what his character sees. After his plastic surgery, the rest of the film is shot in the usual manner. Bogart is intent on finding the real murderer in a crime for which he was blamed and sentenced to prison. The couple next starred in the future classic, "Key Largo" (1948). Directed by John Huston, the film highlighted Edward G. Robinson as gangster "Johnny Rocco," a seething older synthesis of many of his vicious early bad guy roles. The characters are trapped during a spectacular hurricane in a hotel owned by Bacall's screen father-in-law, played