"We’ll Always Have Paris" A Look Back at the Cast of 'Casablanca'

Julianne MacNeill

July 5, 2024 at 5:52 PM·4 min read

Casablanca is easily one of the most memorable romance and war films ever produced, arriving in theaters in 1942 and featuring a stellar cast that includes Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid.

The setting is Casablanca in 1941 at Rick's Cafe Americain, an establishment run by American expatriate Rick Blaine (Bogart), which is a combination nightclub and gambling hall that attracts members of the Vichy French, refugees from different countries who are attempting to reach America, considered neutral in World War II (at that point); and Nazi German officials.

In between all of this walks Rick's former love, Ilsa Lund (Bergman), and her fugitive husband, Victor Laszlo (Henreid), who the Nazis are pursuing. Ilsa pleads with Rick to help the couple get out of the country, though long-buried feelings between them resurface.

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More about ‘Casablanca’

Casablanca was a box office hit, earning $4.6 million (that’s about $859 million today). The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, taking home three of them: Best Picture, Best Director (Michael Curtiz) and Best Writing (Julius J. Epstein). Curtiz was best known for The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and White Christmas (1954), and Epstein for Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).

cast of casablanca — Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid (1943)
moviestillsdb.com/Warner Bros.

Aside from the stellar cast and its massive success, Casablanca is also known for its extremely memorable quotes, one of them being when Rick says to Ilsa, “We’ll Always Have Paris,” acknowledging that they're still in love, but can’t be together.

"Here's looking at you, kid" — one of the most iconic quotes ever put to film — is said twice by Rick, first as part of a toast to Ilsa, and then, carrying far more weight, during the heartbreaking moment when he sends her away with her husband for both their safety.

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Now, learn all about the cast of Casablanca and find out where else you may recognize them from.

If you haven’t checked out this classic 1942 film yet, it is definitely a must-watch, which you can do right now as it's streaming on Max!

Humphrey Bogart: Cast of Casablanca

Character Played: Rick Blaine

Born: December 25, 1899, in New York City

Died: 1957

Best Known For: Films such as The Maltese Falcon (1941), In a Lonely Place (1950) and The African Queen (1951).

Thoughts on Casablanca: The film presented a very different Bogart, an idea he claimed to be wrestling with to The Richmond News Leader in 1943: "Here I am, used to getting out of scrapes with a handy little black automatic. Close-ups of that are a cinch. But these love scenes when I'm not exactly the cuddly type ... well, you know what I mean. I'm in a real dilemma. Shall I emulate the sophisticated type of great lover or revert to the tried and true caveman routine, with the lady in a half-nelson and ... wham?"

Ingrid Bergman

Character Played: Ilsa Lund

Born: August 29, 1915, in Stockholm, Sweden

Died: 1982

Best Known For: Films such as Gaslight (1944), Spellbound (1945) and Notorious (1946)

Thoughts on Casablanca: “Well, Casablanca speaks for itself, and it doesn’t have to shout, just whisper, but a whisper that persists over the years.”