Information about Dirk Bogarde

Sir Dirk Bogarde
Birth name	Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogarde
Born	March 28 1921(1921--) West Hampstead, London
Died	May 8 1999 (aged 78) Chelsea, London
Awards BAFTA Awards BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role 1963 The Servant 1965 Darling

Sir Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde (28 March, 1921 – 8 May, 1999), better known by his stage name Dirk Bogarde, was an actor and author.

Early years and war service

Bogarde was born in West Hampstead, London, of mixed Flemish and Scottish ancestry. His father Ulric van den Bogaerde (born in Perry Barr, Birmingham) was the art editor of The Times and his mother Margaret Niven was a former actress. He attended the former Allan Glen's School in Glasgow, a time he described in his autobiography as unhappy, although others have disputed his account [1]. Bogarde served in World War II, reaching the rank of Captain and served in both the European and Pacific theatres, principally as an intelligence officer. In April 1945 he claimed he was one of the first Allied officers to reach the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, an experience that had the most profound effect on him and about which he found it difficult to speak for many years afterward. His horror and revulsion at the cruelty and inhumanity that he witnessed in Belsen left him with a deep-seated hostility towards Germany; he wrote in the 1990s that he would disembark from an elevator rather than ride with a German. Nevertheless, three of his more memorable film roles were as Germans, one of them as a former SS officer.

Film career

After the war, Bogarde's good looks helped him begin a career as a film actor, contracted to The Rank Organisation. His 1950 appearance as the criminal, Tom Riley, who shoots Police Constable George Dixon in The Blue Lamp launched him as a lead player, but it was the comedy, Doctor in the House (1954), produced by Betty Box, directed by Ralph Thomas and co-starring Kenneth More, Donald Sinden, and James Robertson Justice as his crabby mentor, which made Bogarde a star.

During the 1950s, he also starred as a murderer who befriends a young boy in Hunted (aka The Stranger in Between) (1952); Appointment in London (1953) as a young airman in Bomber Command who, against orders, joins a major offensive against the Germans; The Sea Shall Not Have Them (1954), playing a flight sergeant trapped in a dinghy with Sir Michael Redgrave; The Sleeping Tiger (1954), playing a neurotic criminal with co-star Alexis Smith in fine form, and Bogarde's first film for American expatriate director Joseph Losey; Doctor at Sea (1955), co-starring Brigitte Bardot in one of her first film roles; Cast a Dark Shadow (1955), as a man who marries women for money and then kills them; The Spanish Gardener (1956), co-starring Cyril Cusack and Bernard Lee; Doctor at Large (1957), another entry in the "Doctor series", co-starring Shirley Eaton; A Tale of Two Cities (1958), a faithful retelling of Charles Dickens' classic; The Doctor's Dilemma (1959), by George Bernard Shaw and co-starring Leslie Caron and Robert Morley, not a part of the "Doctor series"; and Libel (1959), playing three separate roles and co-starring Olivia de Havilland. Bogarde quickly became a matinee idol and was Britain's number one box office draw of the 1950s, gaining the title of "The Matinee Idol of the Odeon."

After 1960, Bogarde abandoned his heart-throb image for more challenging parts, such as barrister Melville Farr in Victim (1961); decadent valet Hugo Barrett in The Servant (1963) (directed by Joseph Losey); television reporter Robert Gold in Darling (1965); Stephen, a bored Oxford University professor, in Accident (1967); German industrialist Frederick Bruckman in Luchino Visconti's The Damned (1969); the ex-Nazi, Max, in the chilling and controversial The Night Porter (1974) directed by Liliana Cavani; and, most notably, as Gustav von Aschenbach in Death in Venice (1971) also directed by Luchino Visconti, now probably his best-remembered role.

Other films during the 1960s and 1970s were The Angel Wore Red (1960), playing an unfrocked priest who falls in love with cabaret entertainer Ava Gardner during the Spanish Civil War; Song Without End (1960), playing Franz Liszt and directed by George Cukor; The Singer Not the Song (1961), as a Mexican bandit and co-starring Sir John Mills as a priest; HMS Defiant (aka Damn the Defiant!) (1962), playing sadistic Lieutenant Scott-Padget and stealing the movie from co-star Sir Alec Guinness; I Could Go On Singing (1963), playing surgeon David Donne and co-starring Judy Garland in her final screen role; The Mind Benders (1963), an off-beat film about sensory deprivation experiments at Oxford University (precursor to Altered States (1980)) playing Dr. Henry Longman; Hot Enough For June, (aka Agent 8 3/4) (1964), a James Bond-type spy spoof playing bumbling secret agent Nicholas Whistler; King And Country (1964), playing Army lawyer Captain Hargreaves, reluctantly defending deserter Tom Courtenay in a great role; Modesty Blaise (1966), a camp spy send-up playing archvillain Gabriel; Our Mother's House (1967), an off-beat film playing good-for-nothing Charlie Hook as the estranged father of seven children and directed by Jack Clayton; The Fixer (1968), based on Bernard Malamud's novel playing Bibikov, co-starring Alan Bates; Sebastian (1968), playing brilliant British intelligence code breaker and Oxford professor Mr. Sebastian and co-starring Sir John Gielgud, Susannah York, and Lilli Palmer; Oh! What A Lovely War (1969), playing Stephen, co-starring Sir John Gielgud and directed by Sir Richard Attenborough; Justine (1969), playing Pursewarden and directed by George Cukor; Le Serpent (1973), playing Boyle, co-starring Henry Fonda and Yul Brynner; A Bridge Too Far (1977), in a rather controversial performance as Lieutenant General Frederick "Boy" Browning and co-starring Sir Sean Connery, among an all-star cast; Providence (1977), playing Claude Langham and co-starring Sir John Gielgud; Despair (1978), as Hermann Hermann; and Daddy Nostalgie (1991) playing Daddy and co-starring Jane Birkin, Bogarde's final film role.

While a contract performer at the Rank Organisation, Bogarde was considered for a screen version of Lawrence Of Arabia, to be directed by Anthony Asquith. The role of Lawrence eventually went to Peter O'Toole and was directed by David Lean. Not getting the role of Lawrence of Arabia was Bogarde's greatest screen disappointment. ^[1] Bogarde was also reportedly considered for the title role in MGM's Doctor Zhivago (1965). While he was working in Darling with Julie Christie, she received the news of her selection as Lara in Zhivago, but not so Bogarde. Earlier he declined Louis Jourdan's role as Gaston in MGM's Gigi (1958).

Bogarde was nominated six times as Best Actor by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), winning twice, for The Servant in 1963, and for Darling in 1965. He also received the London Film Critics Circle Lifetime Award in 1991. He made a total of 63 films between 1939 and 1991.

Later career and private life

In 1977, Bogarde embarked on his second career - as an author. Starting with a first volume A Postillion Struck by Lightning, he wrote a series of autobiographical volumes, novels and book reviews. As a writer Bogarde displayed a witty, elegant, highly literate and thoughtful style, though some find his style to be somewhat precious at times.

Bogarde was a life-long bachelor and during his life, was reported to be homosexual.^[2] For many years he shared his homes, first in Amersham, England, then in France with his manager Anthony (Tony) Forwood (a former husband of the actress Glynis Johns and the father of her only child, actor Gareth Forwood), but repeatedly denied that their relationship was anything other than friendship. However, after his death his family admitted that he was indeed gay. Bogarde's most serious relationship with a female was with the bisexual French actress Capucine.

Bogarde starred in the landmark 1961 film Victim, playing a prominent homosexual barrister in London who fights the blackmailers of a young man with whom he had an emotional relationship, and who commits suicide after being arrested for embezzlement, rather than ruining the attorney's reputation. In the process of exposing the ring of extortionists, Bogarde's character puts at risk his successful legal career and marriage in order to see that justice is served. Victim was the first mainstream British film to treat the subject of homosexuality seriously and the film helped lead to the changing of the law.



As Great Britain's leading box-office star of the 1950s, Bogarde displayed enormous personal courage in appearing in such a controversial film as Victim, which could have destroyed his career at that time. However, his performance opened a path to more challenging roles that gained him respect as one of the leading actors in the intellectual ("art house") film genre. Bogarde's decision to appear in Victim appears even more daring today, given that many contemporary film stars are afraid to portray a serious gay character because of the perceived public reaction and effect on their career that such a role could have.

Despite the stereotyping his performance in Victim could have brought him, during his career Bogarde mostly portrayed heterosexual single or married men in the majority of his films, with the exception of his roles in Victim; The Servant; Modesty Blaise; and Death in Venice, although even those roles could be considered as being more bisexual than homosexual in nature.

Bogarde's controversial film choices later in his career led him to have something of a cult following. The singer Morrissey was a fan, and, according to Charlotte Rampling^[3], Bogarde was approached in 1990 by Madonna to appear in her video for Justify My Love, citing The Night Porter as an inspiration: Bogarde declined the offer.

In 1984, Bogarde served as President of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival. This represented an immense honor for Bogarde, and thus became the first Briton ever to serve in that capacity. Dirk Bogarde was knighted in 1992 for his services to acting, and was the recipient of several honorary doctorates, including from St. Andrews and Sussex universities.

Formerly a heavy smoker, Bogarde suffered a minor stroke in November 1987, while Anthony Forwood was dying of liver cancer and Parkinson's disease. Never afraid of voicing his opinion, after witnessing Forwood's protracted death he became active in promoting voluntary euthanasia for terminally ill patients in Britain, and toured the UK giving lectures and answering questions from live audiences on the subject. It was a cause, he stated, that had been important to him since the war, during which he had witnessed severely injured men pleading to be put out of their misery^[4].

In September 1996, he underwent angioplasty to widen arteries leading to his heart, and suffered a pulmonary embolism following this operation. For the final three years of his life Bogarde was paralyzed on one side of his body, which affected his speech. However, he managed to complete a final volume of autobiography, which covered the stroke and its effect on him. He spent some time the day before he died with his good friend Lauren Bacall. Sir Dirk Bogarde died in London from a heart attack on May 8, 1999, age 78. His ashes were scattered at his former beloved estate of "Le Haut Clermont", in Grasse, Southern France.

Filmography

Film	Year	Character
Come on George!	1939 [5]	Extra
Dancing with Crime	1947	Policeman
Once a Jolly Swagman	1948	Bill Fox
Esther Waters	1948	William Latch
Boys in Brown	1949	Alfie Rawlins
Quartet	1949	George Bland (segment "The Alien Corn")
Dear Mr. Prohack	1949	Charles Prohack
The Woman in Question	1950	R.W. (Bob) Baker
The Blue Lamp	1950	Tom Riley
Blackmailed	1950	Stephen Mundy
So Long at the Fair	1950	George Hathaway
Appointment in London	1952	Wing-Commander Tim Mason
Hunted	1952	Chris Lloyd
Penny Princess	1952	Tony Craig
The Gentle Gunman	1952	Matt Sullivan
They Who Dare	1953	Lt. Graham
The Sea Shall Not Have Them	1954	Flight Sgt. MacKay
For Better, for Worse	1954	Tony Howard
Doctor in the House	1954	Dr Simon Sparrow
The Sleeping Tiger	1954	Frank Clemmons
Simba	1955	Alan Howard
Doctor at Sea	1955	Dr. Simon Sparrow
The Spanish Gardener	1956	Jose
Cast a Dark Shadow	1957	Edward "Teddy" Bare
Ill Met by Moonlight	1957	Maj. Patrick Leigh Fermor aka Philedem
Doctor at Large	1957	Dr. Simon Sparrow
Campbell's Kingdom	1957	Bruce Campbell
A Tale of Two Cities	1958	Sydney Carton
The Wind Cannot Read	1958	Flight Lt. Michael Quinn
The Doctor's Dilemma	1958	Louis Dubedat
Libel	1959	Sir Mark Sebastian Loddon/Frank Welney/Number Fifteen
Song Without End	1960	Franz Liszt
The Angel Wore Red	1960	Arturo Carrera
Victim	1961	Melville Farr
We Joined the Navy	1962	Cameo appearance (Dr. Simon Sparrow)
The Singer Not the Song	1961	Anacleto
H.M.S. Defiant	1962	1st Lt. Scott-Padget
The Password is Courage	1962	Sgt. Maj. Charles Coward
The Mind Benders	1963	Dr. Henry Longman
I Could Go On Singing	1963	David Donne
The Servant	1963	Hugo Barrett
Doctor in Distress	1963	Dr. Simon Sparrow
King & Country	1964	Capt. Hargreaves
Hot Enough for June	1964	Nicholas Whistler
The High Bright Sun	1964	Maj. McGuire
Darling	1965	Robert Gold
Modesty Blaise	1966	Gabriel
Blithe Spirit	1966 (TV)	Charles Condomine
Accident	1967	Stephen
Our Mother's House	1967	Charlie Hook
Sebastian	1968	Sebastian
The Fixer	1968	Bibikov
La Caduta degli dei (The Damned)	1969	Frederick Bruckmann
Oh! What a Lovely War	1969	Stephen
Justine	1969	Pursewarden
Upon This Rock	1970 (TV)	Bonnie Prince Charlie
Morte a Venezia (Death in Venice)	1971	Gustav von Aschenbach
Night Flight from Moscow	1973	Philip Boyle
Il Portiere di notte (The Night Porter)	1974	Maximilian Theo Aldorfer
Permission to Kill	1975	Alan Curtis
A Bridge Too Far	1977	Lt. Gen. Frederick 'Boy' Browning
Providence	1977	Claude Langham
Despair	1978	Hermann Hermann
The Patricia Neal Story	1981 (TV)	Roald Dahl
May We Borrow Your Husband?	1986 (TV)	William Harris
The Vision	1988	James Marriner
Daddy Nostalgie	1990	Daddy

Other works

Autobiography/memoirs

• A Postillion Struck by Lightning, 1977
• Snakes and Ladders, 1978
• An Orderly Man, 1983
• Backcloth, 1986
• A Particular Friendship, 1989
• Great Meadow, 1992
• A Short Walk from Harrods, 1993
• Cleared for Take-Off, 1995
• For the Time Being: Collected Journalism, 1998
• Dirk Bogarde: The Complete Autobiography
• Dirk Bogarde: The Complete Career Illustrated with Robert Tanitch

Novels

• A Gentle Occupation, 1980
• Voices in the Garden, 1981
• West of Sunset, 1984
• Jericho, 1991
• A Period of Adjustment, 1994
• Closing Ranks, 1997

Biography

Dirk Bogarde, Rank Outsider, by Sheridan Morley, appeared in 1996.

Dirk Bogarde, The Authorised Biography, by John Coldstream, appeared in 2004.

References

External links

• Official Dirk Bogarde website
• Dirk Bogarde at the Internet Movie Database
• Dirk Bogarde at the BFI's Screenonline. Biography and credits
• Dirk Bogarde Fyne Times article
• Dirk Bogarde Dirk Bogarde by Neil McNally
• Dirk Bogarde Dirk Bogarde at glbtq encyclopedia

Awards
Preceded by Peter O'Toole for Lawrence of Arabia	BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role 1963 for The Servant	Succeeded by Richard Attenborough for Guns at Batasi & Seance on a Wet Afternoon
Preceded by Richard Attenborough for Guns at Batasi & Seance on a Wet Afternoon	BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role 1965 for Darling	Succeeded by Richard Burton for The Spy Who Came in from the Cold & Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?