Mayo Methot

Mayo Jane Methot (March 3, 1904 – June 9, 1951) was an American film and stage actress. She appeared in over 30 films, as well as in various Broadway productions, and attracted significant media attention for her tempestuous marriage to actor Humphrey Bogart.

Methot appeared in numerous Broadway musicals and plays, including the Vincent Youmans musical Great Day (1929). She then appeared in various supporting roles for Warner Brothers, often portraying hard-edged women. Her film credits include the mystery film The Night Club Lady (1932), the comedy Jimmy the Gent (1934), and the crime drama Marked Woman (1937).

Methot met Bogart on the set of Marked Woman and the two became romantically involved, marrying in 1938. Methot struggled with severe alcoholism, and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia following a suicide attempt in 1943. She divorced Bogart in 1945 after numerous reconciliations. Unable to gain traction in her film career, she returned to her childhood home of Portland, and her alcoholism and depression worsened. She died of complications stemming from alcoholism in 1951, aged 47.

Life and career 1904–1922: Early life and career beginnings

Mayo Jane Methot was born March 3, 1904, in Chicago, Illinois, the only child of Beryl Evelyn (née Wood) and John Dillon "Jack" Methot, a ship captain. Around this time, she told reporter Fay King of The Spectator: "I'm going to be a fine actress, if I can."

Methot was subsequently chosen to travel with selected Portland delegates to Washington, D.C., where she presented President Woodrow Wilson with a bouquet of flowers. Methot began performing with the Portland-based Baker Stock Company at age nine, In 1914, she made her film debut alongside several Baker Stock Company players in a serial short titled Forgotten Songs, produced by the Portland-based American Lifeograph Studios. In January 1916, she starred as the lead in a Baker Stock Company production of The Littlest Rebel.

After Methot graduated from Miss Catlin's School in 1919, she pursued a full-time career with the Baker Stock Company, appearing in an August 1919 production of Come Out of the Kitchen opposite Verna Felton. as a bride's sister seeking a lover in Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (October 1920); and in the comedy That Girl Patsy, in May 1921. Methot met cameraman Jack Lamond, a war veteran, and the two began a whirlwind romance in the summer of 1921. On September 21 of that year, they married at Saint Luke's Episcopal Church in Vancouver, Washington. Methot continued to perform in local productions with the Baker Stock Company, including Linger Longer Letty in November 1921, and in a revival of Parlor, Bedroom and Bath in March 1922. In November 1922, Methot and Lamond relocated to New York City, where Lamond was employed at Cosmopolitan Productions. Though the play received unfavorable reviews from critics, Mayo was the lone member of the cast to not receive criticism for her performance. This was followed by a 1927 production of The Medicine Man, staged by Sam H. Harris at the New Cort Theatre in Queens, New York City. She subsequently originated a role in the Vincent Youmans/Billy Rose musical Great Day (1929), introducing the standard "More Than You Know" and several others. Her subsequent performance in Half Gods (also 1929) at the Plymouth Theatre earned critical praise, with Alvin Kayton of The Brooklyn Citizen writing: "As Hope Ferrier, Mayo Methot, recently in Youmans' Great Day, was extraordinarily capable, expressing her part with an emotion and understanding which made Hope seem almost lifelike. We doubt if the role could have been bettered."

1930–1937: Move to Hollywood

Methot moved to Hollywood in 1930, hoping to transition from stage to a career in film. She had her first major speaking role in United Artists's gangster film Corsair (1931). Methot married Percy T. Morgan, an oil tycoon and the co-owner with John "Jack" Morgan, of the Cock n' Bull restaurant on Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard, birthplace of the Moscow Mule.

In 1932, after signing a contract with Warner Bros., Methot starred as the female lead in The Night Club Lady, a murder mystery co-starring Adolphe Menjou. What followed was a long line of roles as unsympathetic second leads and tough-talking "dames" in many of Warner's contemporary crime melodramas, such as The Mind Reader and William Wyler's Counsellor at Law (both 1933), as well as Jimmy the Gent (1934) opposite Jimmy Cagney and Bette Davis.

1938–1944: Marriage to Humphrey Bogart

Methot became romantically involved with Humphrey Bogart after co-starring with him in Marked Woman. The couple were married on August 28, 1938, in Beverly Hills. Bogart had been married to actresses Helen Menken and Mary Philips before marrying Methot, and blamed his previous divorces on his wives' careers and their long separations. Two years after Methot and Bogart were married, Methot gave up acting. The two became a high-profile Hollywood couple, but it was not a smooth marriage. Both drank heavily, and Methot gained a reputation for her violent excesses when under the influence. They became known in the press as "The Battling Bogarts", with Methot known, due to her combativeness, as "Sluggy". Bogart later named his motor yacht Sluggy in her honor. including one in which Methot stabbed Bogart in the shoulder, and another in which the two hit one another in the head with whiskey bottles. Actress Gloria Stuart—a friend of Bogart and Methot—recalled, in her later years, attending a dinner party at which Methot drunkenly brandished a pistol and threatened to shoot Bogart. Stuart also recalled seeing Methot with bruises on her face on several occasions, and witnessing physical fights between the couple, including one in which Bogart tore Methot's dress off of her. The couple separated and reconciled several times over the course of their marriage.

While filming To Have and Have Not in 1943, Bogart fell in love with his 19-year-old co-star Lauren Bacall and the couple began an affair. Methot caught wind of it and visited the set often. Bogart attempted to save the marriage, but Methot's alcoholism intensified, as did their fighting. Bogart announced that he had moved out of the couple's home on October 19, 1944. The reconciliation proved short-lived; Methot announced that Bogart had moved out of their home yet again on December 3, 1944.

1945–1951: Career decline and return to Oregon Methot filed for divorce on May 10, 1945, in a Las Vegas court, which was granted one hour after she filed for the decree. Bogart married Lauren Bacall on May 21, 1945 and had 2 children. After the divorce, Methot retreated from the public eye for several months, and spent a period at the Malabar Farm State Park

In August 1945, Methot attempted to resume a stage career in New York. However, she was unsuccessful, and became locked into a pattern of alcoholism and depression. In the late 1940s, she moved back to Oregon, where her mother helped take care of her.

Death Methot died on June 9, 1951, at Holladay Park Hospital in Portland. Although it was reported in the press at the time that Methot died of complications from an unspecified surgery, her actual cause of death was attributed to acute alcoholism. Methot left her estate, totaling $50,000 to her mother Evelyn. Additionally, she bestowed her personal library of classic books to the Catlin Gabel School, her alma mater, as well as a scholarship fund for the institution.

Methot's remains are interred at the Portland Memorial Mausoleum in the Sellwood neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, alongside her parents. Bogart continued to send flowers to Methot's crypt until his death in 1957.

Filmography Year Title Role Notes 1916 Forgotten Songs Serial short 1922 And Women Must Weep Serial short 1930 Taxi Talks Short film 1931 Corsair Sophie 1932 The Night Club Lady Lola Carewe 1919 Come Out of the Kitchen Claudia Daingerfield Baker Stock Company, Portland, Oregon 1920 Parlor, Bedroom and Bath Angelica Irving Baker Stock Company, Portland, Oregon 1921 Linger Longer Letty Nancy Baker Stock Company, Portland, Oregon 1922 Parlor, Bedroom and Bath Angelica Irving Baker Stock Company, Portland, Oregon 1923 The Song and Dance Man Leola LaneHudson Theatre 1925 Alias the Deacon Phyllis HallidaySam H. Harris Theatre 1927 What Ann Brought Home Ann Wallack's Theatre 1935 Strip Girl Dixie Potter Longacre Theatre

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