Which actor played private investigator Philip Marlowe in the 1946 film The Big Sleep?

Humphrey Bogart played private investigator Philip Marlowe in the 1946 film The Big Sleep.

Directed by Howard Hawks, the film adapts Raymond Chandler’s 1939 novel. Bogart’s Marlowe is hired by General Sternwood to deal with a blackmail problem, but the case expands into a tangled investigation involving gambling, murder, pornography, and competing criminal interests.

Lauren Bacall played Vivian Rutledge, creating a central romantic and verbal partnership with Bogart. The film was released after the two actors had already appeared together in To Have and Have Not, and their screen chemistry became one of The Big Sleep’s defining features.

The plot is famous for its complexity, including points that even the filmmakers found difficult to resolve. That complexity does not change the central casting fact: Bogart is Marlowe in the 1946 film, while later adaptations featured actors including Robert Mitchum.