Dirk Bogarde

Actor

About

Also Known As

Sir Dirk Bogarde, Dirk Van Den Bogaerde, Derek Niven Van Den Bogaerde

Birth Place

Hampstead, England, GB

Born

March 28, 1921

Died

May 08, 1999

Cause of Death

Heart Attack

Biography

Filmography

A Letter to True (2005)

Himself

Daddy Nostalgia (1990)

Daddy

The Vision (1987)

An Act of Love: The Patricia Neal Story (1981)

Despair (1978)

Hermann Hermann

A Bridge Too Far (1977)

Photos & Videos

View All

Victim (1961) -- (Movie Clip) I'd Rather Know Than Guess

Night Porter, The (1974) -- (Movie Clip) Open, Vienna

Family & Companions

Anthony Forwood

Companion

Manager. Together from the 1960s until Forwood's death in 1988; formerly married to Glynis Johns.

Bibliography

"For the Time Being"

Dirk Bogarde, Viking (1998)

"Closing Ranks"

Dirk Bogarde (1997)

"Backcloth"

Dirk Bogarde (1986)

"West of Sunset"

Dirk Bogarde, Viking (1984)

Notes

Bogarde's favorite stage roles: Cliff in "Power Without Glory" and Orpheus in "Point of Departure"

Bogarde worked five times with director Joseph Losey and nine times with Ralph Thomas, director of Rank's popular "Doctor" series

Biography

With the refinement of Britain's national cinema after World War II came the rise of Dirk Bogarde as one of its shining stars. A former stage actor whom playwright Noël Coward begged not to forsake the theatre, Bogarde became a box office powerhouse with his charismatic performances as a cop killer in "The Blue Lamp" (1950) and as the medical school hero of "Doctor in the House" (1954). Equally adept at drama or comedy, Bogarde attracted the attention of Hollywood but his star turn as composer Franz Liszt in "Song Without End" (1960) came close to being a career-killer. At home, Bogarde gambled on his reputation as a romantic lead by accepting edgy roles in films that hinted at his safeguarded homosexuality, among them the fetish Western "The Singer Not the Song" (1960), the courtroom drama "Victim" (1960), and "The Servant" (1963), with Bogarde cast as a scheming valet who manipulates his naive employer. Having worked with such top-flight directors as Basil Dearden, John Schlesinger and John Frankenheimer, and enjoyed a long-running collaboration with American expatriate Joseph Losey, Bogarde capped his career on the Continent, making films in Italy, Austria, Germany, Belgium, and France for Luchino Visconti, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Alain Renais, and Liliana Cavani. Felled by a stroke in 1996, Bogarde devoted his final years to finishing his memoirs, leaving behind at the time of his death in 1999 an admirable body of work and a detailed chronicle of a life lived entirely on his own terms.

Of Flemish, Dutch and Scottish descent, Dirk Bogarde was born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde in West Hampton, London on March 28, 1921. Raised for the better part of his childhood in East Sussex, Bogarde and his sister were encouraged to play-act by their mother, a former actress whose own childhood had been spent traveling the provinces with her father, Scottish actor-artist Forrest Niven. While still a boy, Bogarde was introduced to family friend Lionel Cox, founder of the Newick Amateur Dramatic Society, with whom Bogarde made his stage debut in a production of R.C. Sherriff's World War I drama "Journey's End." Educated at University College School in Hampstead and Allan Glen's School in Glasgow, Bogarde attended London's Chelsea College of Art and Design in London, but acting remained his passion. Though he auditioned successfully for the drama school of the esteemed Royal Victoria Hall Foundation, the outbreak of the Second World War prompted the Old Vic's temporary shuttering. Bogarde made his West End debut in 1939, as Derek Bogarde, in J. B. Priestley's "Cornelius," but his career was put on hold when was called up for wartime service.

Joining the Queen's Royal Regiment in 1943, Bogarde eventually reached the rank of captain while serving as an intelligence officer in both the European and Pacific theaters. He performed in a number of plays during the war, among them Patrick Hamilton's "Rope" (later the source of the 1948 Alfred Hitchcock film) and wrote and directed at least one musical revue in Java to lift the morale of British soldiers freed from Japanese captivity. Upon his demobilization, Bogarde sought work as a journalist but found a more welcome reception from the Reunion Theatre Association, a charitable concern rehabilitating British theatre actors in peacetime England. Billed as Dirk Bogarde for the first time, the 26-year-old actor was appearing in a production of "Power without Glory" that had the good fortune to be moved from the downmarket New Lindsey Theatre Club to the West End's Fortune Theatre, where his performance was praised by no less than playwright Noël Coward. Bogarde was also invited to make a screen test for Gainsborough Pictures and soon found himself in possession of a contract with the J. Arthur Rank Organization. After recreating his performances in "Power without Glory" and "Rope" for British television, Bogarde made his feature film debut as a policeman in the quota quickie "Dancing with Crime" (1947), starring Richard Attenborough as a crime smashing cabbie.

Next, Bogarde replaced a Hollywood-bound Stewart Granger in "Sin of Esther Waters" (1948), playing a caddish Victorian footman who compromises the reputation of servant Kathleen Ryan. Enjoying his first prominent billing, Bogarde would never again have to settle for less. Though Coward had counseled him not to forsake the theatre for the hollow promise of films, Bogarde did just that, and swiftly racked up a string of charismatic performances, from the cop killer of "The Blue Lamp" (1950), to Jean Simmons' hero in "So Long at the Fair" (1950), to calamity-prone medical student Simon Sparrow in "Doctor in the House" (1954), "Doctor at Sea" (1955), and "Doctor at Large" (1957). Bogarde turned his hand again to dastardy as a fortune hunter not averse to murder in "Cast a Dark Shadow" (1955) and was the conflicted Sidney Carlton in "A Tale of Two Cities" (1958), performances that solidified his standing as a major star of postwar British film.

A shot at Hollywood stardom playing composer Franz Liszt in Charles Vidor's musical biopic "Song Without End" (1960) was short-circuited by the film's failure at the box office, though Bogarde made a lifelong friend in co-star Capucine. Also poorly received was his jaw-dropping turn as a leather-clad gaucho in Roy Ward Baker's "The Singer Not the Song" (1961), whose homoerotic overtones fueled rumors about the committed bachelor's sexual orientation. Given the gossip about his private life, Bogarde risked his status as a reliable romantic lead by playing a closeted gay barrister in Basil Dearden's "Victim" (1961), whose bid to bring down a blackmailer of homosexuals exposes his own secret inclinations. The actor played for laughs again as an older, wiser Simon Sparrow in "Doctor in Distress" (1963) and as an amateur spy up to his neck in intrigue in "Agent 8 ¾" (1964), a spoof of espionage thrillers. A deceptively gifted comedian, Bogarde's stock-in-trade remained nervy dramas, the best of which included Lewis Gilbert's maritime adventure "Damn the Defiant!" (1962), Dearden's science-based thriller "The Mind Benders" (1963), and Joseph Losey's "The Servant" (1963), in which Bogarde played a shady valet who undermines insecure employer James Fox.

A bleach-blonde Bogarde breezed his way through Losey's swank spy satire "Modesty Blaise" (1966) without breaking a sweat, but was required to work harder in Losey's quietly discomfiting "Accident" (1967) and in Jack Clayton's "Our Mother's House" (1967), in which he played the untrustworthy absentee father of orphans attempting to make a go of family life following the death of their invalid mother. Bogarde traveled abroad to work with Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti, playing conflicted, flawed aristocrats in "The Damned" (1969) and "Death in Venice" (1971), again courting rumors in the latter by playing a titled composer who falls in love with a teenage boy. Long a talented writer, Bogarde also turned his hand to fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and several volumes of memoirs, resulting in fewer film appearances. Bogarde drew on his wartime experiences for Liliana Cavani's "The Night Porter" (1974), as a former SS officer who enjoys a torrid, tortured affair with a female concentration camp survivor, and Richard Attenborough's sprawling, all-star WWII reenactment "A Bridge Too Far" (1977), as Lieutenant General Frederick "Boy" Browning.

In 1988, Bogarde suffered the loss of his longtime companion and manager Anthony Forwood, the former husband of actress Glynis Johns. Having suffered a minor stroke in 1987, the newly-knighted actor was felled by a massive stroke in 1996, after undergoing an angioplasty. His last film role - as the title character in Bertrand Tavernier's "Daddy Nostalgia" (1990) - long behind him, an incapacitated Sir Dirk Bogarde devoted himself to finishing a final volume of his memoirs. He died of a heart attack on May 8, 1999, at the age of 78. In compliance with his final wishes, Bogarde was cremated and his ashes scattered over the grounds of the estate he had shared with Forwood in the south of France.

By Richard Harland Smith

Filmography

Life Events

1939

Film debut (as an extra) in "Come On George"

1941

Enlisted in British Army; took part in the Normandy Landings

1948

Film acting debut in "Esther Waters"

1948

Received first major notice as Cliff in stage play "Power Without Glory"

1961

Appeared in memorable role as closeted homosexual barrister married to Sylvia Sims in Basil Dearden's ground-breaking "Victim"

1963

Deliviered an award-winning performance in Joseph Losey's "The Servent"

1964

TV acting debut, "Little Moon of Alban" (NBC)

1965

Starred opposite Julie Christie in John Schlesinger's "Darling"

1971

Gave what many consider his finest performance as Gustave von Aschenbach in Luchino Visconti's film of Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice"

1977

Played Lt General Frederick Browning in Richard Attenborough's all-star "A Bridge Too Far"

1978

Starred in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "Despair"

1981

Portrayed Roald Dahl in the CBS TV-movie "Act of Love: The Patricia Neal Story"

1984

Served on Cannes Film Festival Jury

1990

Returned to screen in Bertrand Tavernier's "Daddy Nostalgia"; final film

1992

Received knighthood

1996

Suffered a stroke in October; became a virtual recluse

1998

Resurfaced in the news when it became public he had adopted a "living will"

Photo Collections

So Long at the Fair - British Lobby Cards

Here are a few original-release British Lobby Cards from So Long at the Fair (1950), starring Dirk Bogarde and Jean Simmons. British lobby cards were printed on slick paper stock and were also known as "Front of House Cards."

Libel - Lobby Cards

Here are several Lobby Cards from MGM's Libel (1959), starring Dirk Bogarde and Olivia De Havilland. Lobby Cards were 11" x 14" posters that came in sets of 8. As the name implies, they were most often displayed in movie theater lobbies, to advertise current or coming attractions.

Doctor in Distress - Movie Poster

Here is the American one-sheet movie poster for the British comedy Doctor in Distress (1963), starring Dirk Bogarde. One-sheets measured 27x41 inches, and were the poster style most commonly used in theaters.

Darling - Movie Poster

Here is a British Quad movie poster for Darling (1965), starring Dirk Bogarde, Julie Christie, and Laurence Harvey.

The Servant - Movie Poster

Here is a British Quad movie poster for The Servant (1964), starring Dirk Bogarde and Sarah Miles.

The Angel Wore Red - Movie Poster

Here is the American one-sheet movie poster for The Angel Wore Red (1960), starring Ava Gardner and Dirk Bogarde. One-sheets measured 27x41 inches, and were the poster style most commonly used in theaters.

The Doctor's Dilemma - Publicity Still

Here is a photo taken to help publicize MGM's The Doctor's Dilemma (1958), starring Leslie Caron and Dirk Bogarde. Publicity stills were specially-posed photos, usually taken off the set, for purposes of publicity or reference for promotional artwork.

The Spanish Gardener - Movie Poster

Here is the American one-sheet movie poster for Rank Films' The Spanish Gardener (1956), starring Dirk Bogarde. One-sheets measured 27x41 inches, and were the poster style most commonly used in theaters.