Bogie

Before there was Harrison Ford, before Mel Gibson and Arnold Schwarzenegger, even before Sean Connery, there was Bogie, the greatest of them all. the prototype, the true star. No one was better than Humphrey Bogart at balancing sheer masculinity with stirring sensitivity. The Leopard's favorite Bogie performances - Dixon Steele in A Lonely Place, Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon,  Fred C. Hobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre -- all featured tough, weathered men who always had a  certain vulnerability.

Bogart's best known role - Rick Blaine in Casablanca -- showed this unique talent most eloquently. He was a man's man and a woman's man at the same time. Something that very few actors have been able to achieve -- and he did this without conventional movie star good looks. He didn't look like Montgomery Clift, Gregory Peck or Cary Grant.  He didn't have to. His beautiful, sad, face was all he needed.