Hollywood Rivals

James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart had drastically different upbringings: Cagney came from a poor family, while Bogart was the uptown son of wealthy parents. Cagney came to Hollywood to do a screen adaptation of a play done in Broadway and soon after signed with Warner Brothers, becoming a star by his fifth picture. Bogart used family connections to work in the theater, taking on cheerful young romantic leads. But it was Cagney's street-wise characters that were popular at the time. Once in Hollywood, Cagney and Bogart followed similar paths. They became top billed stars after acting in box office hit after box office hit, struggled with being part of the Warner Brothers family, started their own production companies, and won various oscar nominations, but they still were very different men.