Dirk Bogarde
Encyclopedia
Sir
Dirk Bogarde (28 March 1921 – 8 May 1999) was an English
actor and novelist. Initially a matinee idol
in such films as Doctor in the House
(1954) and other Rank Organisation
pictures, Bogarde later acted in art-house
films such as Death in Venice
(1971). He also wrote several volumes of autobiography.
, London, of mixed Flemish
, Dutch
and Scottish
ancestry, and baptised on 30 October at St. Mary's Church, Kilburn. His father, Ulric van den Bogaerde (born in Perry Barr
, Birmingham
; 1892-1972), was the art editor of The Times
and his mother, Margaret Niven (1898-1980), was a former actress;his grand niece is the singer Birdy
. He attended University College School
, the former Allan Glen's School
in Glasgow
(a time he described in his autobiography as unhappy, although others have disputed his account) and later studied at the Chelsea College of Art and Design
.
, being commissioned into the Queen's Royal Regiment in 1943. He reached the rank of captain and served in both the European and Pacific theatres, principally as an intelligence officer. He claimed to have been one of the first Allied
officers in April 1945 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. As John Carey
has summed up with regard to John Coldstream's authorised biography however, "it is virtually impossible that he (Bogarde) saw Belsen or any other camp. Things he overheard or read seem to have entered his imagination and been mistaken for lived experience." Coldstream's analysis seems to conclude that this was indeed the case. Nonetheless, the horror and revulsion at the cruelty and inhumanity that he claimed to have witnessed still left him with a deep-seated hostility towards Germany; in the late-1980s he wrote that he would disembark from a lift
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 in The Night Porter
.
He was most vocal, towards the end of his life, on the issue of voluntary euthanasia, of which he became a staunch proponent after witnessing the protracted death of his lifelong partner and manager Anthony Forwood (the former husband of actress Glynis Johns
) in 1988. He gave an interview to John Hofsess, London executive director of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society:
-acting debut was in 1939, with the stage name 'Derek Bogaerde', in J. B. Priestley
's play Cornelius. After the war his agent renamed him 'Dirk Bogarde' and his good looks helped him begin a career as a film actor, contracted to The Rank Organisation
under the wing of the prolific independent film producer Betty Box
, who produced most of his early films and was instrumental in creating his matinee-idol image.
During the 1950s, Bogarde came to prominence playing a hoodlum who shoots and kills a police constable in The Blue Lamp
(1950) co-starring Jack Warner
and Bernard Lee
; by portraying a murderer who befriends a young boy played by Jon Whiteley
in Hunted
(aka The Stranger in Between) (1952); in 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 Michael Redgrave
; Doctor in the House
(1954), as a medical student
, in a film that made Bogarde one of the most popular British stars of the 1950s, and co-starring Kenneth More
, Donald Sinden
and James Robertson Justice
as their crabby mentor; The Sleeping Tiger
(1954), playing a neurotic criminal with co-star Alexis Smith
, 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 murders them; The Spanish Gardener
(1956), co-starring Cyril Cusack
, Jon Whiteley
and Bernard Lee
; Doctor at Large
(1957), another entry in the "Doctor series", co-starring later Bond girl Shirley Eaton
; A Tale of Two Cities
(1958), a faithful retelling of Charles Dickens
' classic; The Doctor's Dilemma
(1959), based on a play by George Bernard Shaw
and co-starring Leslie Caron
and Robert Morley
, (not a part of the "Doctor series"); and Libel
(1959), playing two 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 leaving the Rank Organisation in the early 1960s, Bogarde abandoned his heart-throb image for more challenging parts, such as barrister
Melville Farr in Victim (1961), directed by Basil Dearden
; decadent valet Hugo Barrett in The Servant (1963), directed by Joseph Losey
and written by Harold Pinter
; television reporter Robert Gold in Darling (1965), directed by John Schlesinger
; Stephen, a bored Oxford University professor, in Losey's Accident, (1967) also written by Pinter; German industrialist Frederick Bruckman in Luchino Visconti
's The Damned (1969); the ex-Nazi, Max Aldorfer, 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 Visconti.
In some of his other roles during the 1960s and 1970s, Bogarde played opposite renowned stars, yet several of the films were of uneven quality. Some of these movies included 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 Hungarian composer and virtuoso pianist Franz Liszt
, a flawed film made under the initial direction of Charles Vidor
(who died during shooting), and completed by Bogarde's friend George Cukor
, in Bogarde's only disappointing foray into Hollywood; the campy The Singer Not the Song
(1961), as a Mexican bandit co-starring John Mills
as a priest; H.M.S. Defiant (aka Damn the Defiant!) (1962), playing sadistic Lieutenant Scott-Padget, in which Bogarde practically steals the movie from his co-star Sir Alec Guinness
; I Could Go On Singing
(1963), co-starring Judy Garland
in her final screen role; The Mind Benders
(1963), an off-beat film where Bogarde plays an Oxford professor conducting sensory deprivation experiments at Oxford University
(precursor to Altered States
(1980)); Hot Enough for June
, (aka "Agent 8¾") (1964), a James Bond-type spy spoof co-starring Robert Morley
; King & Country
(1964), playing an army lawyer reluctantly defending deserter Tom Courtenay
; Modesty Blaise
(1966), a campy spy send-up playing archvillain Gabriel opposite Monica Vitti
and Terence Stamp
; Our Mother's House
(1967), an off-beat film playing an estranged father of seven children, directed by Jack Clayton
; The Fixer
(1968), based on Bernard Malamud
's novel, co-starring Alan Bates
; Sebastian
(1968), playing a former Oxford professor heading the all-female decoding office of British Intelligence, co-starring Sir John Gielgud
, Susannah York
and Lilli Palmer
; Oh! What a Lovely War
(1969), co-starring Sir John Gielgud
and Sir Laurence Olivier
and directed by Richard Attenborough
; Justine (1969), directed by George Cukor; Le Serpent
(1973), co-starring Henry Fonda
and Yul Brynner
; A Bridge Too Far (1977), in a rather controversial performance as Lieutenant General Frederick "Boy" Browning
, also starring Sean Connery
and an all-star cast; Providence
(1977), directed by Alain Resnais
and co-starring Sir John Gielgud; Despair
(1978) directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
; and Daddy Nostalgie, (aka These Foolish Things) (1991) co-starring Jane Birkin
as his daughter, Bogarde's final film role.
While a contract performer at the Rank Organisation, Bogarde was considered for a screen version of Lawrence Of Arabia
(1962), 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. Bogarde was also reportedly considered for the title role in MGM's Doctor Zhivago (1965). Earlier, he declined Louis Jourdan's role as Gaston in MGM's Gigi
(1958)..
In addition, Bogarde was in 1961 offered a stage role at the recently founded Chichester Festival Theatre
by artistic director Sir Laurence Olivier, however he had to decline due to film commitments. Bogarde later said that he regretted declining Olivier's offer, and with it the chance to "really learn my craft".
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.
Bogarde was a life-long bachelor and, during his life, was reported to be homosexual
. Bogarde's most serious friendship with a woman was with the bisexual French actress Capucine
. For many years he shared his homes, first in Amersham
, then in France with his manager Anthony Forwood
(a former husband of actress Glynis Johns
and the father of her only child, actor Gareth Forwood
), but repeatedly denied that their relationship was anything but platonic. Such denials were understandable, mainly given that homosexual acts were illegal during most of his career, and also considering his appeal to women, which he was loath to jeopardise. His brother Gareth Van den Bogaerde in a 2004 interview with Jan Moir stated that Bogarde engaged in homosexual sex at a time when such activity was illegal, and also claimed that the relationship with Forwood went beyond that of a manager and friend.
Many believed Bogarde's refusal to enter into a marriage of convenience
was a major reason for his failure to become a star in Hollywood, together with the critical and commercial failure of Song Without End. His friend Helena Bonham Carter
believed Bogarde would not have been able to come out as gay during later life, since this might too unambiguously have demonstrated that he had been forced to camouflage his real sexual orientation during his film career.
Bogarde starred in the film Victim (1961), playing a homosexual London barrister who fights the blackmailers of a young man with whom he has had an emotional relationship. The young man commits suicide after being arrested for embezzlement, rather than ruin his friend's reputation. In exposing the ring of extortionists, Bogarde's character risks his career and marriage in order to see that justice is done. Victim was the first mainstream British film to treat homosexuality convincingly; and it had some effect upon a contemporary change in English law which decriminalized consensual homosexual acts
.
He was also a shareholder in Pressdram Ltd, the company that owned the satirical magazine Private Eye
. Upon his death his shares passed on to Brock van der Bogaerde.
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
, 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
. He was the first Briton to serve in this capacity. He was knighted
in 1992 for services to acting, and was the recipient of honorary doctorates from St Andrews and Sussex
.
Bogarde suffered a minor stroke in November 1987, at a time when his partner, Anthony Forwood, was dying of liver cancer
and Parkinson's disease
. In September 1996, he underwent angioplasty
to unblock arteries leading to his heart and suffered a pulmonary embolism
following the operation. Bogarde was paralyzed on one side of his body, which affected his speech and left him in a wheelchair. He managed, however, to complete a final volume of autobiography, which covered the stroke and its effects. He spent some time the day before he died with his friend Lauren Bacall
. Bogarde died in London from a heart attack on 8 May 1999, aged 78. His ashes were scattered at his former estate of "Le Haut Clermont" in Grasse
, Southern France
.
.
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
Dirk Bogarde (28 March 1921 – 8 May 1999) was an English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
actor and novelist. Initially a matinee idol
Matinee idol
Matinée idol is a term used mainly to describe film or theatre stars who are adored to the point of adulation by their fans.The term almost exclusively refers to male actors. Invariably the adulation was fixated on the actor's looks rather than performance...
in such films as Doctor in the House
Doctor in the House
Doctor in the House is a 1954 British comedy film, directed by Ralph Thomas and produced by Betty Box. The screenplay, by Nicholas Phipps, Richard Gordon and Ronald Wilkinson, is based on the novel by Gordon, and follows a group of students through medical school.It was the most popular box office...
(1954) and other Rank Organisation
Rank Organisation
The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment company formed during 1937 and absorbed in 1996 by The Rank Group Plc. It was the largest and most vertically-integrated film company in Britain, owning production, distribution and exhibition facilities....
pictures, Bogarde later acted in art-house
Art film
An art film is the result of filmmaking which is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience...
films such as Death in Venice
Death in Venice (film)
Death in Venice is a 1971 film directed by Luchino Visconti and starring Dirk Bogarde and Björn Andrésen. The film is based on the novella Death in Venice by Thomas Mann.-Plot:...
(1971). He also wrote several volumes of autobiography.
Early years
Bogarde was born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde in a nursing home at 12 Hemstal Road, West HampsteadWest Hampstead
West Hampstead is an area in northwest London, England, situated between Childs Hill to the north, Frognal and Hampstead to the north-east, Swiss Cottage to the east, and South Hampstead to the south. Until the late 19th century, the locale was a small village called West End...
, London, of mixed Flemish
Flemish people
The Flemings or Flemish are the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of Belgium, where they are mostly found in the northern region of Flanders. They are one of two principal cultural-linguistic groups in Belgium, the other being the French-speaking Walloons...
, Dutch
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
and Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
ancestry, and baptised on 30 October at St. Mary's Church, Kilburn. His father, Ulric van den Bogaerde (born in Perry Barr
Perry Barr
Perry Barr is an inner-city area in north Birmingham, England. It is also a council constituency, managed by its own district committee. The constituency includes the smaller Perry Barr ward and the wards of Handsworth Wood, Lozells and East Handsworth, and Oscott, which elect three councillors to...
, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
; 1892-1972), was the art editor of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
and his mother, Margaret Niven (1898-1980), was a former actress;his grand niece is the singer Birdy
Birdy (musician)
Jasmine van den Bogaerde, also known by her stage name Birdy, is an English musician known for winning the music competition Open Mic UK in 2008, at the age of 12. Her version of Bon Iver's "Skinny Love" was released in January 2011, peaking inside the top twenty of the UK Singles Chart and in...
. He attended University College School
University College School
University College School, generally known as UCS, is an Independent school charity situated in Hampstead, north west London, England. The school was founded in 1830 by University College London and inherited many of that institution's progressive and secular views...
, the former Allan Glen's School
Allan Glen's School
Allan Glen's School was for most of its existence a selective fee-paying independent secondary school for boys in Glasgow, Scotland. It was founded by the Allan Glen's Endowment Scholarship Trust on the death in 1850 of Allan Glen, a successful Glasgow tradesman and businessman, "to give a good...
in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
(a time he described in his autobiography as unhappy, although others have disputed his account) and later studied at the Chelsea College of Art and Design
Chelsea College of Art and Design
Chelsea College of Art and Design, the erstwhile Chelsea School of Art, is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation...
.
War service
Bogarde served in World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, being commissioned into the Queen's Royal Regiment in 1943. He reached the rank of captain and served in both the European and Pacific theatres, principally as an intelligence officer. He claimed to have been one of the first Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
officers in April 1945 to reach the Bergen-Belsen
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle...
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. As John Carey
John Carey (critic)
John Carey is a British literary critic, and emeritus Merton Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford. He was born in Barnes, London, and educated at Richmond and East Sheen Boys’ Grammar School, winning an Open Scholarship to St John's College, Oxford. He served in the East...
has summed up with regard to John Coldstream's authorised biography however, "it is virtually impossible that he (Bogarde) saw Belsen or any other camp. Things he overheard or read seem to have entered his imagination and been mistaken for lived experience." Coldstream's analysis seems to conclude that this was indeed the case. Nonetheless, the horror and revulsion at the cruelty and inhumanity that he claimed to have witnessed still left him with a deep-seated hostility towards Germany; in the late-1980s he wrote that he would disembark from a lift
Elevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
rather than ride with a German. Nevertheless, three of his more memorable film roles were as Germans, one of them as a former SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
officer in The Night Porter
The Night Porter
The Night Porter is a controversial 1974 film by Italian director Liliana Cavani, starring Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling.- Synopsis :...
.
He was most vocal, towards the end of his life, on the issue of voluntary euthanasia, of which he became a staunch proponent after witnessing the protracted death of his lifelong partner and manager Anthony Forwood (the former husband of actress Glynis Johns
Glynis Johns
Glynis Johns is a South African-born Welsh stage and film actress, dancer, pianist and singer . With a career spanning seven decades, Johns is often cited as the "complete actress", who happens to be a trained pianist and singer...
) in 1988. He gave an interview to John Hofsess, London executive director of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society:
"My views were formulated as a 24-year-old officer in NormandyNormandyNormandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
... On one occasion the jeepJeepJeep is an automobile marque of Chrysler . The first Willys Jeeps were produced in 1941 with the first civilian models in 1945, making it the oldest off-road vehicle and sport utility vehicle brand. It inspired a number of other light utility vehicles, such as the Land Rover which is the second...
ahead hit a mine ... Next thing I knew, there was this chap in the long grass beside me. A bloody bundle, shrapnel-ripped, legless, one arm only. The one arm reached out to me, white eyeballs wide, unseeing, in the bloody mask that had been a face. A gurgling voice said, 'Help. Kill me.' With shaking hands I reached for my small pouch to load my revolver ... I had to look for my bullets -- by which time somebody else had already taken care of him. I heard the shot. I still remember that gurgling sound. A voice pleading for death" ...
"During the war I saw more wounded men being 'taken care of' than I saw being rescued. Because sometimes you were too far from a dressing station, sometimes you couldn't get them out. And they were pumping blood or whatever; they were in such a wreck, the only thing to do was to shoot them. And they were, so don't think they weren't. That hardens you: You get used to the fact that it can happen. And that it is the only sensible thing to do".
Film career
His London West End theatreWest End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
-acting debut was in 1939, with the stage name 'Derek Bogaerde', in J. B. Priestley
J. B. Priestley
John Boynton Priestley, OM , known as J. B. Priestley, was an English novelist, playwright and broadcaster. He published 26 novels, notably The Good Companions , as well as numerous dramas such as An Inspector Calls...
's play Cornelius. After the war his agent renamed him 'Dirk Bogarde' and his good looks helped him begin a career as a film actor, contracted to The Rank Organisation
Rank Organisation
The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment company formed during 1937 and absorbed in 1996 by The Rank Group Plc. It was the largest and most vertically-integrated film company in Britain, owning production, distribution and exhibition facilities....
under the wing of the prolific independent film producer Betty Box
Betty Box
Betty Evelyn Box was a prolific British film producer. She is considered one of the best of her generation, with a flair for making genuinely popular British films....
, who produced most of his early films and was instrumental in creating his matinee-idol image.
During the 1950s, Bogarde came to prominence playing a hoodlum who shoots and kills a police constable in The Blue Lamp
The Blue Lamp
The Blue Lamp is a British crime film released in early 1950 by Ealing Studios, directed by Basil Dearden and produced by Michael Balcon. It stars Jack Warner as police constable George Dixon, Jimmy Hanley and Dirk Bogarde in an early role...
(1950) co-starring Jack Warner
Jack Warner (actor)
Jack Warner OBE was an English film and television actor. He is closely associated with the role of PC George Dixon, which he played until the age of eighty....
and Bernard Lee
Bernard Lee
John Bernard Lee was an English actor, best known for his role as M in the first eleven James Bond films.-Life and career:...
; by portraying a murderer who befriends a young boy played by Jon Whiteley
Jon Whiteley
Jon Whiteley was a child actor in films.Whiteley appeared in five films during his brief career, and it was for the second of these, The Little Kidnappers that he, along with co-star Vincent Winter, was awarded an Academy Juvenile Award for this film...
in Hunted
Hunted (film)
Hunted is a black-and-white British film directed by Charles Crichton and released in 1952. Hunted is a crime drama in the form of a chase film, starring Dirk Bogarde, and written by Jack Whittingham and Michael McCarthy...
(aka The Stranger in Between) (1952); in Appointment in London
Appointment in London
Appointment in London is a 1952 war film starring Dirk Bogarde and set during World War II. The film was directed by Philip Leacock from a screenplay by John Wooldridge and Robert Westerby and based on an original story by Wooldridge...
(1953) as a young airman in Bomber Command who, against orders, joins a major offensive against the Germans; The Sea Shall Not Have Them
The Sea Shall Not Have Them
The Sea Shall Not Have Them is a 1954 British war film starring Michael Redgrave, Dirk Bogarde and Anthony Steel. It was directed by Lewis Gilbert and is based on the 1953 novel by John Harris, set during the Second World War. Musical soundtrack by composer Malcolm Arnold.A British aircraft is...
(1954), playing a flight sergeant
Flight Sergeant
Flight sergeant is a senior non-commissioned rank in the British Royal Air Force and several other air forces which have adopted all or part of the RAF rank structure...
trapped in a dinghy with Michael Redgrave
Michael Redgrave
Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, CBE was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author.-Youth and education:...
; Doctor in the House
Doctor in the House
Doctor in the House is a 1954 British comedy film, directed by Ralph Thomas and produced by Betty Box. The screenplay, by Nicholas Phipps, Richard Gordon and Ronald Wilkinson, is based on the novel by Gordon, and follows a group of students through medical school.It was the most popular box office...
(1954), as a medical student
Medical Student
Medical Student may refer to:*Someone studying at medical school*Medical Student Newspaper, a UK publication...
, in a film that made Bogarde one of the most popular British stars of the 1950s, and co-starring Kenneth More
Kenneth More
Kenneth Gilbert More CBE was a highly successful English film actor during the post-World War II era and starred in many feature films, often in the role of an archetypal carefree and happy-go-lucky middle-class gentleman.-Early life:Kenneth More was born in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the...
, Donald Sinden
Donald Sinden
Sir Donald Alfred Sinden CBE is an English actor of theatre, film and television.-Personal life:Sinden was born in Plymouth, Devon, England, on 9 October 1923. The son of Alfred Edward Sinden and his wife Mabel Agnes , he grew up in the Sussex village of Ditchling, where their home doubled as the...
and James Robertson Justice
James Robertson Justice
James Robertson Justice was a popular British character actor in British films of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.-Biography:...
as their crabby mentor; The Sleeping Tiger
The Sleeping Tiger
The Sleeping Tiger is a 1954 film noir starring Dirk Bogarde and Alexis Smith. It was Joseph Losey's first British feature, which he directed under the pseudonym of Victor Hanbury due to being blacklisted in the McCarthy Era.- Plot :...
(1954), playing a neurotic criminal with co-star Alexis Smith
Alexis Smith
Alexis Smith was a Canadian-born stage, film, and television actress. She appeared in several major Hollywood movies in the 1940s and had a notable career on Broadway in the 1970s, winning a Tony Award in 1972.-Life and career:...
, and Bogarde's first film for American expatriate director Joseph Losey
Joseph Losey
Joseph Walton Losey was an American theater and film director. After studying in Germany with Bertolt Brecht, Losey returned to the United States, eventually making his way to Hollywood...
; Doctor at Sea
Doctor at Sea (film)
Doctor at Sea is a 1955 British comedy film, directed by Ralph Thomas and produced by Betty Box. The screenplay, by Nicholas Phipps, Richard Gordon and Jack Davies was the sequel to their film from the previous year Doctor in the House, and also starring Dirk Bogarde, playing the character of the...
(1955), co-starring Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a French former fashion model, actress, singer and animal rights activist. She was one of the best-known sex-symbols of the 1960s.In her early life, Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer...
in one of her first film roles; Cast a Dark Shadow
Cast a Dark Shadow
Cast a Dark Shadow is a 1955 British suspense film directed by Lewis Gilbert. The black-and-white film was based on the play Murder Mistaken by Janet Green about a psychotic Bluebeard.-Plot:...
(1955), as a man who marries women for money and then murders them; The Spanish Gardener
The Spanish Gardener (film)
The Spanish Gardener is a 1956 film based on the novel by A. J. Cronin, first published in 1950. The film stars Dirk Bogarde and Jon Whiteley, and was directed by Philip Leacock. The adaptation was filmed both at Pinewood Studios, situated outside of London, and in S'Agaro, on the Costa Brava...
(1956), co-starring Cyril Cusack
Cyril Cusack
Cyril James Cusack was an Irish actor, who appeared in more than 90 films.-Early life:Cusack was born in Durban, Natal, South Africa, the son of Alice Violet , an actress, and James Walter Cusack, a sergeant in the Natal mounted police. His parents separated when he was young and his mother took...
, Jon Whiteley
Jon Whiteley
Jon Whiteley was a child actor in films.Whiteley appeared in five films during his brief career, and it was for the second of these, The Little Kidnappers that he, along with co-star Vincent Winter, was awarded an Academy Juvenile Award for this film...
and Bernard Lee
Bernard Lee
John Bernard Lee was an English actor, best known for his role as M in the first eleven James Bond films.-Life and career:...
; Doctor at Large
Doctor at Large (film)
Doctor at Large is a 1957 British comedy film, the third installment of the Doctor in the House series. It stars Dirk Bogarde, Muriel Pavlow, Donald Sinden, and James Robertson Justice.-Cast:* Dirk Bogarde as Dr. Simon Sparrow...
(1957), another entry in the "Doctor series", co-starring later Bond girl Shirley Eaton
Shirley Eaton
Shirley Eaton is an English actress.Eaton appeared regularly in British films throughout the 1950s and 1960s, and achieved notability for her performance as Bond Girl Jill Masterson in the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger...
; A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities (1958 film)
A Tale of Two Cities is a 1958 British film of the Charles Dickens novel A Tale of Two Cities. It starred Dirk Bogarde and Dorothy Tutin, and was directed by Ralph Thomas.-Cast:*Dirk Bogarde as Sydney Carton*Dorothy Tutin as Lucie Manette...
(1958), a faithful retelling of Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
' classic; The Doctor's Dilemma
The Doctor's Dilemma (film)
The Doctor's Dilemma is a 1958 British comedy drama film directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Leslie Caron, Dirk Bogarde, Alastair Sim, Robert Morley and Terence Alexander. It is based on the 1906 play The Doctor's Dilemma by George Bernard Shaw....
(1959), based on a play by George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
and co-starring Leslie Caron
Leslie Caron
Leslie Claire Margaret Caron is a French film actress and dancer, who appeared in 45 films between 1951 and 2003. In 2006, her performance in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit won her an Emmy for guest actress in a drama series...
and Robert Morley
Robert Morley
Robert Adolph Wilton Morley, CBE was an English actor who, often in supporting roles, was usually cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment...
, (not a part of the "Doctor series"); and Libel
Libel (film)
Libel is a 1959 British drama film. It stars Olivia de Havilland, Dirk Bogarde, Paul Massie, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Robert Morley. The film's screenplay was written by Anatole de Grunwald and Karl Tunberg from a 1935 play of the same name by Edward Wooll, and it was directed by Anthony Asquith.The...
(1959), playing two separate roles and co-starring Olivia de Havilland
Olivia de Havilland
Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life: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 leaving the Rank Organisation in the early 1960s, Bogarde abandoned his heart-throb image for more challenging parts, such as barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
Melville Farr in Victim (1961), directed by Basil Dearden
Basil Dearden
Basil Dearden was an English film director.-Life and career:Dearden was born at Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. He graduated from theatre direction to film, working as an assistant to Basil Dean...
; decadent valet Hugo Barrett in The Servant (1963), directed by Joseph Losey
Joseph Losey
Joseph Walton Losey was an American theater and film director. After studying in Germany with Bertolt Brecht, Losey returned to the United States, eventually making his way to Hollywood...
and written by Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
; television reporter Robert Gold in Darling (1965), directed by John Schlesinger
John Schlesinger
John Richard Schlesinger, CBE was an English film and stage director and actor.-Early life:Schlesinger was born in London into a middle-class Jewish family, the son of Winifred Henrietta and Bernard Edward Schlesinger, a physician...
; Stephen, a bored Oxford University professor, in Losey's Accident, (1967) also written by Pinter; German industrialist Frederick Bruckman in Luchino Visconti
Luchino Visconti
Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo was an Italian theatre, opera and cinema director, as well as a screenwriter. He is best known for his films The Leopard and Death in Venice .-Life:...
's The Damned (1969); the ex-Nazi, Max Aldorfer, in the chilling and controversial The Night Porter
The Night Porter
The Night Porter is a controversial 1974 film by Italian director Liliana Cavani, starring Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling.- Synopsis :...
(1974) directed by Liliana Cavani
Liliana Cavani
Liliana Cavani is an Italian film director and screenwriter. She belongs to a generation of Italian filmmakers that came into prominence in the 1970s and includes Bernardo Bertolucci, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Marco Bellochio. Cavani became internationally known after the success of her 1974 feature...
; and, most notably, as Gustav von Aschenbach in Death in Venice
Death in Venice (film)
Death in Venice is a 1971 film directed by Luchino Visconti and starring Dirk Bogarde and Björn Andrésen. The film is based on the novella Death in Venice by Thomas Mann.-Plot:...
(1971) also directed by Visconti.
In some of his other roles during the 1960s and 1970s, Bogarde played opposite renowned stars, yet several of the films were of uneven quality. Some of these movies included The Angel Wore Red
The Angel Wore Red
The Angel Wore Red, also known as La Sposa Bella in its Italian version, is a 1960 Italian-American romantic war drama made by MGM and Titanus. It was directed by Nunnally Johnson and produced by Goffredo Lombardo, from a screenplay by Nunnally Johnson based on the 1953 novel The Fair Bride by...
(1960), playing an unfrocked priest who falls in love with cabaret entertainer Ava Gardner
Ava Gardner
Ava Lavinia Gardner was an American actress.She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers . She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses, considered one of the most beautiful women of her day...
during the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
; Song Without End
Song Without End
Song Without End, subtitled The Story of Franz Liszt is a biographical film romance made by Columbia Pictures. It was directed by Charles Vidor, who died during the shooting of the picture and was replaced by George Cukor. It was produced by William Goetz from a screenplay by Oscar Millard,...
(1960), playing Hungarian composer and virtuoso pianist Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, a flawed film made under the initial direction of Charles Vidor
Charles Vidor
Charles Vidor was a film director.-Biography:Born Károly Vidor to a Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary, he served in the Hungarian Army during World War I...
(who died during shooting), and completed by Bogarde's friend George Cukor
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...
, in Bogarde's only disappointing foray into Hollywood; the campy The Singer Not the Song
The Singer Not the Song
The Singer Not the Song is a 1961 British drama film based on the novel by Audrey Erskine Lindop that was directed by Roy Ward Baker and filmed in Spain.-Cast:*Dirk Bogarde as Anacleto Comachi*John Mills as Father Michael Keogh...
(1961), as a Mexican bandit co-starring John Mills
John Mills
Sir John Mills CBE , born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, was an English actor who made more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades.-Life and career:...
as a priest; H.M.S. Defiant (aka Damn the Defiant!) (1962), playing sadistic Lieutenant Scott-Padget, in which Bogarde practically steals the movie from his co-star Sir Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...
; I Could Go On Singing
I Could Go On Singing
I Could Go On Singing is a 1963 film starring Judy Garland and Dirk Bogarde.Although not a huge box office success on release, it won Garland much praise for her performance...
(1963), co-starring Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
in her final screen role; The Mind Benders
The Mind Benders (film)
The Mind Benders is a 1963 British thriller film directed by Basil Dearden and starring Dirk Bogarde, Mary Ure, John Clements, Michael Bryant and Wendy Craig. After a scientist dies after undergoing experiments in a secret research laboratory, one of his former colleagues investigates the tests...
(1963), an off-beat film where Bogarde plays an Oxford professor conducting sensory deprivation experiments at Oxford University
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
(precursor to Altered States
Altered States
Altered States is a 1980 American science fiction-horror film adaptation of a novel by the same name by playwright and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky. It was the only novel that Chayefsky ever wrote, as well as his final film. Both the novel and the film are based on John C...
(1980)); Hot Enough for June
Hot Enough for June
Hot Enough for June is a 1964 British spy comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas and featuring Dirk Bogarde, Sylva Koscina, Robert Morley, Leo McKern, John Le Mesurier and Roger Delgado. It was based on the 1960 novel "The Night of Wenceslas" by Lionel Davidson and directed by Ralph Thomas. It was...
, (aka "Agent 8¾") (1964), a James Bond-type spy spoof co-starring Robert Morley
Robert Morley
Robert Adolph Wilton Morley, CBE was an English actor who, often in supporting roles, was usually cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment...
; King & Country
King & Country
King and Country is a 1964 British film, directed by American-born director Joseph Losey, shot in black and white, and starring Dirk Bogarde and Tom Courtenay...
(1964), playing an army lawyer reluctantly defending deserter Tom Courtenay
Tom Courtenay
Sir Thomas Daniel "Tom" Courtenay is an English actor who came to prominence in the early 1960s with a succession of films including The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner , Billy Liar , and Dr. Zhivago . Since the mid-1960s he has been known primarily for his work in the theatre...
; Modesty Blaise
Modesty Blaise (1966 film)
Modesty Blaise was a comedic spy-fi motion picture produced in the United Kingdom and released worldwide in 1966. It was loosely based upon the popular comic strip Modesty Blaise by Peter O'Donnell, who wrote the original story and scenario upon which Evan Jones based his screenplay...
(1966), a campy spy send-up playing archvillain Gabriel opposite Monica Vitti
Monica Vitti
Monica Vitti is an Italian actress best known for her starring roles in films directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, her lover at that time, during the early 1960s...
and Terence Stamp
Terence Stamp
Terence Henry Stamp is an English actor. Since starting his career in 1962 he has appeared in over 60 films. His title role as Billy Budd in his film debut earned Stamp an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA nomination for Best Newcomer.His other major roles include...
; Our Mother's House
Our Mother's House
Our Mother's House is a 1967 British drama film starring Dirk Bogarde. The screenplay was by Jeremy Brooks, based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Julian Gloag.-Plot:...
(1967), an off-beat film playing an estranged father of seven children, directed by Jack Clayton
Jack Clayton
Jack Clayton was a British film director who specialised in bringing literary works to the screen.-Career:A native of East Sussex, Clayton started his career as a child actor on the 1929 film Dark Red Roses...
; The Fixer
The Fixer (film)
The Fixer is a 1968 British drama film based on the 1966 semi-biographical novel of the same name, written by Bernard Malamud.-Plot:Like the book, the film's main character Yakov Bok, a Jew living in the Russian Empire, who was unjustly imprisoned based on prejudice and the charge of having...
(1968), based on Bernard Malamud
Bernard Malamud
Bernard Malamud was an author of novels and short stories. Along with Saul Bellow and Philip Roth, he was one of the great American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseball novel, The Natural, was adapted into a 1984 film starring Robert Redford...
's novel, co-starring Alan Bates
Alan Bates
Sir Alan Arthur Bates CBE was an English actor, who came to prominence in the 1960s, a time of high creativity in British cinema, when he demonstrated his versatility in films ranging from the popular children’s story Whistle Down the Wind to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving...
; Sebastian
Sebastian (1968 film)
Sebastian is a 1968 British film directed by David Greene, produced by Michael Powell, Herbert Brodkin and Gerry Fisher, and distributed by Paramount Pictures...
(1968), playing a former Oxford professor heading the all-female decoding office of British Intelligence, co-starring Sir John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
, Susannah York
Susannah York
Susannah York was a British film, stage and television actress. She was awarded a BAFTA as Best Supporting Actress for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe for the same film. She won best actress for Images at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival...
and Lilli Palmer
Lilli Palmer
Lilli Palmer , born Lilli Marie Peiser, was a German actress. She won the Volpi Cup, the Deutscher Filmpreis three times, and was nominated twice for a Golden Globe Award.-Life and career:...
; Oh! What a Lovely War
Oh! What a Lovely War
Oh! What a Lovely War is a musical film based on the stage musical Oh, What a Lovely War! originated by Charles Chilton as a radio play, The Long Long Trail in December 1961, and transferred to stage by Gerry Raffles in partnership with Joan Littlewood and her Theatre Workshop created in 1963,...
(1969), co-starring Sir John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
and Sir Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
and directed by Richard Attenborough
Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...
; Justine (1969), directed by George Cukor; Le Serpent
Night Flight from Moscow
Night Flight from Moscow or Le Serpent is a French thriller made in 1973. It was produced and directed by Henri Verneuil. The music was written by Ennio Morricone.-Plot:...
(1973), co-starring Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
and Yul Brynner
Yul Brynner
Yul Brynner was a Russian-born actor of stage and film. He was best known for his portrayal of Mongkut, king of Siam, in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor for the film version; he also played the role more than 4,500 times on...
; A Bridge Too Far (1977), in a rather controversial performance as Lieutenant General Frederick "Boy" Browning
Frederick Browning
Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Arthur Montague Browning GCVO, KBE, CB, DSO was a British Army officer who has been called the "father of the British airborne forces". He is best known as the commander of the I Airborne Corps and deputy commander of First Allied Airborne Army during Operation...
, also starring Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
and an all-star cast; Providence
Providence (1977 film)
Providence is a French/Swiss 1977 film directed by Alain Resnais and starring Dirk Bogarde, David Warner, Ellen Burstyn, Elaine Stritch, and John Gielgud. The film won the 1978 César Award for Best Film.-Plot summary:...
(1977), directed by Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais is a French film director whose career has extended over more than six decades. After training as a film editor in the mid-1940s, he went on to direct a number of short films which included Nuit et Brouillard , an influential documentary about the Nazi concentration camps.He began...
and co-starring Sir John Gielgud; Despair
Despair (film)
Despair is a 1978 film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and starring Dirk Bogarde, based on the novel of the same name by Vladimir Nabokov...
(1978) directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Rainer Werner Maria Fassbinder was a German movie director, screenwriter and actor. He is considered one of the most important representatives of the New German Cinema.He maintained a frenetic pace in film-making...
; and Daddy Nostalgie, (aka These Foolish Things) (1991) co-starring Jane Birkin
Jane Birkin
Jane Mallory Birkin, OBE is an English-born actress and singer who lives in France. In recent years she has written her own album, directed a film and become an outspoken proponent of democracy in Burma.- Early life :...
as his daughter, Bogarde's final film role.
While a contract performer at the Rank Organisation, Bogarde was considered for a screen version of Lawrence Of Arabia
Lawrence of Arabia (film)
Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 British film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence. It was directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel through his British company, Horizon Pictures, with the screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. The film stars Peter O'Toole in the title role. It is widely...
(1962), to be directed by Anthony Asquith
Anthony Asquith
Anthony Asquith was a leading English film director. He collaborated successfully with playwright Terence Rattigan on The Winslow Boy and The Browning Version , among other adaptations...
. The role of Lawrence eventually went to Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
and was directed by David Lean
David Lean
Sir David Lean CBE was an English film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best remembered for big-screen epics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai , Lawrence of Arabia ,...
. Not getting the role of Lawrence of Arabia was Bogarde's greatest screen disappointment. Bogarde was also reportedly considered for the title role in MGM's Doctor Zhivago (1965). Earlier, he declined Louis Jourdan's role as Gaston in MGM's Gigi
Gigi (1958 film)
Gigi is a 1958 musical film directed by Vincente Minnelli. The screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner is based on the 1944 novella of the same name by Colette...
(1958)..
In addition, Bogarde was in 1961 offered a stage role at the recently founded Chichester Festival Theatre
Chichester Festival Theatre
Chichester Festival Theatre, located in Chichester, England, was designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, and opened by its founder Leslie Evershed-Martin in 1962. Subsequently the smaller and more intimate Minerva Theatre was built nearby in 1989....
by artistic director Sir Laurence Olivier, however he had to decline due to film commitments. Bogarde later said that he regretted declining Olivier's offer, and with it the chance to "really learn my craft".
Bogarde was nominated six times as Best Actor by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
(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 personal life
In 1977, Bogarde embarked on his second career as an author. Starting with a first volume A Postillion Struck by Lightning, (a title derived from a French-to-English travel phrase book ) he wrote a series of autobiographical volumes, novels and book reviews. As a writer Bogarde displayed a witty, elegant, highly literate and thoughtful style.Bogarde was a life-long bachelor and, during his life, was reported to be homosexual
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
. Bogarde's most serious friendship with a woman was with the bisexual French actress Capucine
Capucine
Capucine was a French actress and fashion model best known for her comedic roles in The Pink Panther and What's New Pussycat? . She appeared in 36 films and 17 television productions between 1948 and 1990...
. For many years he shared his homes, first in Amersham
Amersham
Amersham is a market town and civil parish within Chiltern district in Buckinghamshire, England, 27 miles north west of London, in the Chiltern Hills. It is part of the London commuter belt....
, then in France with his manager Anthony Forwood
Anthony Forwood
Anthony Forwood was an English actor.- Career :In 1949 Forwood gained his first acting role when he starred in Ralph Thomas' Traveller's Joy. That same year he appeared in the thriller Man in Black with Sid James...
(a former husband of actress Glynis Johns
Glynis Johns
Glynis Johns is a South African-born Welsh stage and film actress, dancer, pianist and singer . With a career spanning seven decades, Johns is often cited as the "complete actress", who happens to be a trained pianist and singer...
and the father of her only child, actor Gareth Forwood
Gareth Forwood
Gareth Forwood was a British actor. He was the only child of Anthony Forwood and Glynis Johns.- External links :...
), but repeatedly denied that their relationship was anything but platonic. Such denials were understandable, mainly given that homosexual acts were illegal during most of his career, and also considering his appeal to women, which he was loath to jeopardise. His brother Gareth Van den Bogaerde in a 2004 interview with Jan Moir stated that Bogarde engaged in homosexual sex at a time when such activity was illegal, and also claimed that the relationship with Forwood went beyond that of a manager and friend.
Many believed Bogarde's refusal to enter into a marriage of convenience
Marriage of convenience
A marriage of convenience is a marriage contracted for reasons other than the reasons of relationship, family, or love. Instead, such a marriage is orchestrated for personal gain or some other sort of strategic purpose, such as political marriage. The phrase is a calque of - a marriage of...
was a major reason for his failure to become a star in Hollywood, together with the critical and commercial failure of Song Without End. His friend Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter is an English actress of film, stage, and television. She made her acting debut in a television adaptation of K. M. Peyton's A Pattern of Roses before winning her first film role as the titular character in Lady Jane...
believed Bogarde would not have been able to come out as gay during later life, since this might too unambiguously have demonstrated that he had been forced to camouflage his real sexual orientation during his film career.
Bogarde starred in the film Victim (1961), playing a homosexual London barrister who fights the blackmailers of a young man with whom he has had an emotional relationship. The young man commits suicide after being arrested for embezzlement, rather than ruin his friend's reputation. In exposing the ring of extortionists, Bogarde's character risks his career and marriage in order to see that justice is done. Victim was the first mainstream British film to treat homosexuality convincingly; and it had some effect upon a contemporary change in English law which decriminalized consensual homosexual acts
Sexual Offences Act 1967
The Sexual Offences Act 1967 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom . It decriminalised homosexual acts in private between two men, both of whom had to have attained the age of 21. The Act applied only to England and Wales and did not cover the Merchant Navy or the Armed Forces...
.
He was also a shareholder in Pressdram Ltd, the company that owned the satirical magazine Private Eye
Private Eye
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...
. Upon his death his shares passed on to Brock van der Bogaerde.
Bogarde's controversial film choices later in his career led him to have something of a cult following
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
. The singer Morrissey
Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...
was a fan and, according to Charlotte Rampling
Charlotte Rampling
Charlotte Rampling, OBE is an English actress. Her career spans four decades in English-language as well as French and Italian cinema.- Early life :...
, Bogarde was approached in 1990 by Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
to appear in her video for Justify My Love
Justify My Love
"Justify My Love" is the first single by American singer-songwriter Madonna from her 1990 greatest hits compilation The Immaculate Collection and was released on November 6, 1990, by Sire Records. It caused international controversy due to the accompanying music video which was sexually explicit...
, 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
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
. He was the first Briton to serve in this capacity. He was knighted
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
in 1992 for services to acting, and was the recipient of honorary doctorates from St Andrews and Sussex
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....
.
Bogarde suffered a minor stroke in November 1987, at a time when his partner, Anthony Forwood, was dying of liver cancer
Hepatocellular carcinoma
Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common type of liver cancer. Most cases of HCC are secondary to either a viral hepatitide infection or cirrhosis .Compared to other cancers, HCC is quite a rare tumor in the United States...
and Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
. In September 1996, he underwent angioplasty
Angioplasty
Angioplasty is the technique of mechanically widening a narrowed or obstructed blood vessel, the latter typically being a result of atherosclerosis. An empty and collapsed balloon on a guide wire, known as a balloon catheter, is passed into the narrowed locations and then inflated to a fixed size...
to unblock arteries leading to his heart and suffered a pulmonary embolism
Pulmonary embolism
Pulmonary embolism is a blockage of the main artery of the lung or one of its branches by a substance that has travelled from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream . Usually this is due to embolism of a thrombus from the deep veins in the legs, a process termed venous thromboembolism...
following the operation. Bogarde was paralyzed on one side of his body, which affected his speech and left him in a wheelchair. He managed, however, to complete a final volume of autobiography, which covered the stroke and its effects. He spent some time the day before he died with his friend Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her distinctive husky voice and sultry looks.She first emerged as leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film To Have And Have Not and continued on in the film noir genre, with appearances in The Big Sleep and Dark Passage ,...
. Bogarde died in London from a heart attack on 8 May 1999, aged 78. His ashes were scattered at his former estate of "Le Haut Clermont" in Grasse
Grasse
-See also:*Route Napoléon*Ancient Diocese of Grasse*Communes of the Alpes-Maritimes department-External links:*...
, Southern France
Southern France
Southern France , colloquially known as le Midi is defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Gironde, Spain, the Mediterranean, and Italy...
.
Filmography
Titles preceded by an asterisk (*) are films made for televisionTelevision movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
.
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1939 | Come on George! Come On George! Come On George! is a 1939 British, black-and-white, comedy, farce, musical, racing film, directed by Anthony Kimmins and starring Ronald Shiner as Nat George Formby and Dirk Bogarde. It was produced by Associated Talking Pictures.-Synopsis:... |
Extra (uncredited) | |
| 1947 | Dancing with Crime Dancing with Crime Dancing with Crime is a 1947 British film directed by John Paddy Carstairs with a screenplay by Brock Williams from an original story by Peter Fraser.-Plot:... |
Policeman | |
| 1948 | Esther Waters Esther Waters (film) Esther Waters is a 1948 British drama film directed by Ian Dalrymple and Peter Proud and starring Kathleen Ryan, Dirk Bogarde and Cyril Cusack... |
William Latch | |
| Once a Jolly Swagman Once a Jolly Swagman Once a Jolly Swagman is a 1949 British film starring Dirk Bogarde, Bonar Colleano, Bill Owen and Sid James. It is centred around the sport of speedway racing, which was at its peak of popularity at the time. The film is based on the 1946 novel by Montagu Slater.The title of the film refers to the... |
Bill Fox | ||
| 1949 | Boys in Brown Boys in Brown Boys in Brown is a 1949 British drama film directed by Montgomery Tully. Depicting life in a borstal for young offenders, it starred Jack Warner, Richard Attenborough, Dirk Bogarde and Jimmy Hanley.-Cast:* Jack Warner as Governor... |
Alfie Rawlins | |
| Quartet | George Bland (segment "The Alien Corn") | ||
| Dear Mr. Prohack Dear Mr. Prohack Dear Mr. Prohack is a 1949 British comedy film directed by Thornton Freeland and starring Cecil Parker, Glynis Johns and Dirk Bogarde.-Plot:... |
Charles Prohack | ||
| 1950 | The Woman in Question The Woman in Question The Woman in Question is 1950 British mystery film directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Jean Kent, Dirk Bogarde and John McCallum... |
R.W. (Bob) Baker | |
| The Blue Lamp The Blue Lamp The Blue Lamp is a British crime film released in early 1950 by Ealing Studios, directed by Basil Dearden and produced by Michael Balcon. It stars Jack Warner as police constable George Dixon, Jimmy Hanley and Dirk Bogarde in an early role... |
Tom Riley | ||
| Blackmailed | Stephen Mundy | ||
| So Long at the Fair So Long at the Fair So Long at the Fair is a 1950 British thriller film directed by Terence Fisher and Anthony Darnborough, and starring Jean Simmons and Dirk Bogarde. It was adapted from the 1947 novel of the same name by Anthony Thorne... |
George Hathaway | ||
| 1952 | Appointment in London Appointment in London Appointment in London is a 1952 war film starring Dirk Bogarde and set during World War II. The film was directed by Philip Leacock from a screenplay by John Wooldridge and Robert Westerby and based on an original story by Wooldridge... |
Wing Commander Tim Mason | |
| Hunted Hunted (film) Hunted is a black-and-white British film directed by Charles Crichton and released in 1952. Hunted is a crime drama in the form of a chase film, starring Dirk Bogarde, and written by Jack Whittingham and Michael McCarthy... |
Chris Lloyd | ||
| Penny Princess Penny Princess Penny Princess is a 1952 British Technicolor comedy written and directed by Val Guest for his own production company, Conquest Productions. The film stars his future wife Yolande Donlan, who was Guest's production company partner, and features Reginald Beckwith, the other partner in Conquest... |
Tony Craig | ||
| The Gentle Gunman The Gentle Gunman The Gentle Gunman is a black-and-white 1952 Ealing Studios drama film, directed by Basil Dearden and starring John Mills and Dirk Bogarde.-Plot:... |
Matt Sullivan | ||
| 1954 | They Who Dare They Who Dare They Who Dare is a 1954 World War II war film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Dirk Bogarde, Harold Siddons, Akim Tamiroff and Eric Pohlmann. The story is based on events that took place during World War II in the Dodecanese islands where special forces attempted to disrupt the Luftwaffe... |
Lt. Graham | |
| The Sea Shall Not Have Them The Sea Shall Not Have Them The Sea Shall Not Have Them is a 1954 British war film starring Michael Redgrave, Dirk Bogarde and Anthony Steel. It was directed by Lewis Gilbert and is based on the 1953 novel by John Harris, set during the Second World War. Musical soundtrack by composer Malcolm Arnold.A British aircraft is... |
Flight Sgt. MacKay | ||
| For Better, for Worse For Better, for Worse (1954 film) For Better, for Worse is a 1954 British comedy film directed by J. Lee Thompson.-Cast:* Dirk Bogarde as Tony Howard* Susan Stephen as Anne Purves* Cecil Parker as Anne's Father* Eileen Herlie as Anne's Mother* Athene Seyler as Miss Mainbrace... |
Tony Howard | ||
| Doctor in the House Doctor in the House Doctor in the House is a 1954 British comedy film, directed by Ralph Thomas and produced by Betty Box. The screenplay, by Nicholas Phipps, Richard Gordon and Ronald Wilkinson, is based on the novel by Gordon, and follows a group of students through medical school.It was the most popular box office... |
Dr Simon Sparrow | ||
| The Sleeping Tiger The Sleeping Tiger The Sleeping Tiger is a 1954 film noir starring Dirk Bogarde and Alexis Smith. It was Joseph Losey's first British feature, which he directed under the pseudonym of Victor Hanbury due to being blacklisted in the McCarthy Era.- Plot :... |
Frank Clemmons | ||
| 1955 | Simba Simba (film) Simba is a 1955 British drama film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Dirk Bogarde, Donald Sinden, Virginia McKenna and Basil Sydney... |
Alan Howard | |
| Doctor at Sea Doctor at Sea (film) Doctor at Sea is a 1955 British comedy film, directed by Ralph Thomas and produced by Betty Box. The screenplay, by Nicholas Phipps, Richard Gordon and Jack Davies was the sequel to their film from the previous year Doctor in the House, and also starring Dirk Bogarde, playing the character of the... |
Dr. Simon Sparrow | ||
| 1956 | The Spanish Gardener The Spanish Gardener (film) The Spanish Gardener is a 1956 film based on the novel by A. J. Cronin, first published in 1950. The film stars Dirk Bogarde and Jon Whiteley, and was directed by Philip Leacock. The adaptation was filmed both at Pinewood Studios, situated outside of London, and in S'Agaro, on the Costa Brava... |
Jose | |
| 1957 | Cast a Dark Shadow Cast a Dark Shadow Cast a Dark Shadow is a 1955 British suspense film directed by Lewis Gilbert. The black-and-white film was based on the play Murder Mistaken by Janet Green about a psychotic Bluebeard.-Plot:... |
Edward "Teddy" Bare | |
| Ill Met by Moonlight | Maj. Patrick Leigh Fermor Patrick Leigh Fermor Sir Patrick "Paddy" Michael Leigh Fermor, DSO, OBE was a British author, scholar and soldier, who played a prominent role behind the lines in the Cretan resistance during World War II. He was widely regarded as "Britain's greatest living travel writer", with books including his classic A Time of... aka Philedem |
||
| Doctor at Large Doctor at Large (film) Doctor at Large is a 1957 British comedy film, the third installment of the Doctor in the House series. It stars Dirk Bogarde, Muriel Pavlow, Donald Sinden, and James Robertson Justice.-Cast:* Dirk Bogarde as Dr. Simon Sparrow... |
Dr. Simon Sparrow | ||
| Campbell's Kingdom Campbell's Kingdom Campbell's Kingdom is a 1957 British action film directed by Ralph Thomas, based on the 1952 novel of the same name by Hammond Innes. The film stars Dirk Bogarde and Stanley Baker, with Michael Craig, James Robertson Justice and Sid James in support... |
Bruce Campbell | ||
| 1958 | A Tale of Two Cities A Tale of Two Cities (1958 film) A Tale of Two Cities is a 1958 British film of the Charles Dickens novel A Tale of Two Cities. It starred Dirk Bogarde and Dorothy Tutin, and was directed by Ralph Thomas.-Cast:*Dirk Bogarde as Sydney Carton*Dorothy Tutin as Lucie Manette... |
Sydney Carton Sydney Carton Sydney Carton is the central character in the novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. He is a shrewd young Englishman and sometime junior to his fellow barrister C.J. Stryver. In the novel, he is seen to be a drunkard, self-indulgent and self-pitying because of his wasted life... |
|
| The Wind Cannot Read The Wind Cannot Read The Wind Cannot Read is a 1958 British drama film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Dirk Bogarde, Yoko Tani, Ronald Lewis and John Fraser... |
Flight Lt. Michael Quinn | ||
| The Doctor's Dilemma The Doctor's Dilemma (film) The Doctor's Dilemma is a 1958 British comedy drama film directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Leslie Caron, Dirk Bogarde, Alastair Sim, Robert Morley and Terence Alexander. It is based on the 1906 play The Doctor's Dilemma by George Bernard Shaw.... |
Louis Dubedat | ||
| 1959 | Libel Libel (film) Libel is a 1959 British drama film. It stars Olivia de Havilland, Dirk Bogarde, Paul Massie, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Robert Morley. The film's screenplay was written by Anatole de Grunwald and Karl Tunberg from a 1935 play of the same name by Edward Wooll, and it was directed by Anthony Asquith.The... |
Sir Mark Sebastian Loddon/Frank Welney/Number Fifteen | |
| 1960 | Song Without End Song Without End Song Without End, subtitled The Story of Franz Liszt is a biographical film romance made by Columbia Pictures. It was directed by Charles Vidor, who died during the shooting of the picture and was replaced by George Cukor. It was produced by William Goetz from a screenplay by Oscar Millard,... |
Franz Liszt Franz Liszt Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age... |
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy |
| The Angel Wore Red The Angel Wore Red The Angel Wore Red, also known as La Sposa Bella in its Italian version, is a 1960 Italian-American romantic war drama made by MGM and Titanus. It was directed by Nunnally Johnson and produced by Goffredo Lombardo, from a screenplay by Nunnally Johnson based on the 1953 novel The Fair Bride by... |
Arturo Carrera | ||
| 1961 | Victim | Melville Farr | Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role Best Actor in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.-Superlatives:... |
| The Singer Not the Song The Singer Not the Song The Singer Not the Song is a 1961 British drama film based on the novel by Audrey Erskine Lindop that was directed by Roy Ward Baker and filmed in Spain.-Cast:*Dirk Bogarde as Anacleto Comachi*John Mills as Father Michael Keogh... |
Anacleto | ||
| 1962 | We Joined the Navy We Joined the Navy We Joined the Navy is a 1962 British CinemaScope comedy film based on the novel of the same name by John Winton, directed by Wendy Toye and starring Kenneth More, Lloyd Nolan, Joan O'Brien, Derek Fowlds, Graham Crowden, Esma Cannon and John Le Mesurier.... |
Cameo appearance (Dr. Simon Sparrow) | |
| H.M.S. Defiant | 1st Lt. Scott-Padget | ||
| The Password Is Courage The Password is Courage The Password Is Courage is a 1962 World War II film, directed, produced and written by Andrew L. Stone, and starring Dirk Bogarde. The film is a lighthearted take on the true story of Sergeant-Major Charles Coward, and the screenplay is based on the biography of Coward written by John... |
Sergeant Major Charles Coward Charles Coward Charles Joseph Coward , known as the "Count of Auschwitz", was a British soldier captured during World War II who rescued Jews from Auschwitz and smuggled himself into Auschwitz for one night, subsequently testifying about his experience at the Nuremberg Trials and the IG Farben... |
||
| 1963 | The Mind Benders The Mind Benders (film) The Mind Benders is a 1963 British thriller film directed by Basil Dearden and starring Dirk Bogarde, Mary Ure, John Clements, Michael Bryant and Wendy Craig. After a scientist dies after undergoing experiments in a secret research laboratory, one of his former colleagues investigates the tests... |
Dr. Henry Longman | |
| I Could Go On Singing I Could Go On Singing I Could Go On Singing is a 1963 film starring Judy Garland and Dirk Bogarde.Although not a huge box office success on release, it won Garland much praise for her performance... |
David Donne | ||
| The Servant | Hugo Barrett | BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role Best Actor in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.-Superlatives:... |
|
| Doctor in Distress Doctor in Distress (film) Doctor in Distress is a 1963 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Dirk Bogarde, James Robertson Justice, and Samantha Eggar. It was the fifth film in the Doctor Series... |
Dr. Simon Sparrow | ||
| 1964 | King & Country King & Country King and Country is a 1964 British film, directed by American-born director Joseph Losey, shot in black and white, and starring Dirk Bogarde and Tom Courtenay... |
Capt. Hargreaves | |
| Hot Enough for June Hot Enough for June Hot Enough for June is a 1964 British spy comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas and featuring Dirk Bogarde, Sylva Koscina, Robert Morley, Leo McKern, John Le Mesurier and Roger Delgado. It was based on the 1960 novel "The Night of Wenceslas" by Lionel Davidson and directed by Ralph Thomas. It was... |
Nicholas Whistler | ||
| The High Bright Sun The High Bright Sun The High Bright Sun is a 1964 British action film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Dirk Bogarde, George Chakiris and Susan Strasberg. It is set in Cyprus during the EOKA uprising against British rule in the 1950s... |
Maj. McGuire | ||
| 1965 | Darling | Robert Gold | BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role Best Actor in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.-Superlatives:... |
| 1966 | Modesty Blaise Modesty Blaise (1966 film) Modesty Blaise was a comedic spy-fi motion picture produced in the United Kingdom and released worldwide in 1966. It was loosely based upon the popular comic strip Modesty Blaise by Peter O'Donnell, who wrote the original story and scenario upon which Evan Jones based his screenplay... |
Gabriel | |
| *Blithe Spirit | Charles Condomine | ||
| 1967 | Accident | Stephen | Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role Best Actor in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.-Superlatives:... |
| Our Mother's House Our Mother's House Our Mother's House is a 1967 British drama film starring Dirk Bogarde. The screenplay was by Jeremy Brooks, based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Julian Gloag.-Plot:... |
Charlie Hook | Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role Best Actor in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.-Superlatives:... |
|
| 1968 | Sebastian Sebastian (1968 film) Sebastian is a 1968 British film directed by David Greene, produced by Michael Powell, Herbert Brodkin and Gerry Fisher, and distributed by Paramount Pictures... |
Sebastian | |
| The Fixer The Fixer (film) The Fixer is a 1968 British drama film based on the 1966 semi-biographical novel of the same name, written by Bernard Malamud.-Plot:Like the book, the film's main character Yakov Bok, a Jew living in the Russian Empire, who was unjustly imprisoned based on prejudice and the charge of having... |
Bibikov | ||
| 1969 | La Caduta degli dei (The Damned) | Frederick Bruckmann | |
| Oh! What a Lovely War Oh! What a Lovely War Oh! What a Lovely War is a musical film based on the stage musical Oh, What a Lovely War! originated by Charles Chilton as a radio play, The Long Long Trail in December 1961, and transferred to stage by Gerry Raffles in partnership with Joan Littlewood and her Theatre Workshop created in 1963,... |
Stephen | ||
| Justine Justine (1969 film) Justine is a drama film directed by George Cukor and Joseph Strick. It was written by Lawrence B. Marcus and Andrew Sarris, based on the 1957 novel Justine by Lawrence Durrell.-Plot:... |
Pursewarden | ||
| 1970 | *Upon This Rock | Bonnie Prince Charlie | |
| 1971 | Morte a Venezia (Death in Venice) Death in Venice (film) Death in Venice is a 1971 film directed by Luchino Visconti and starring Dirk Bogarde and Björn Andrésen. The film is based on the novella Death in Venice by Thomas Mann.-Plot:... |
Gustav von Aschenbach | Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role Best Actor in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.-Superlatives:... |
| 1973 | Night Flight from Moscow Night Flight from Moscow Night Flight from Moscow or Le Serpent is a French thriller made in 1973. It was produced and directed by Henri Verneuil. The music was written by Ennio Morricone.-Plot:... |
Philip Boyle | |
| 1974 | Il Portiere di notte (The Night Porter) The Night Porter The Night Porter is a controversial 1974 film by Italian director Liliana Cavani, starring Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling.- Synopsis :... |
Maximilian Theo Aldorfer | |
| 1975 | Permission to Kill Permission to Kill Permission to Kill, also known as The Executioner, is a 1975 spy film thriller made by Sascha-Verleih and distributed by AVCO Embassy Pictures. It was directed by Cyril Frankel and produced by Paul Mills from a screenplay by Robin Estridge... |
Alan Curtis | |
| 1977 | A Bridge Too Far | Lt. Gen. Frederick 'Boy' Browning Frederick Browning Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Arthur Montague Browning GCVO, KBE, CB, DSO was a British Army officer who has been called the "father of the British airborne forces". He is best known as the commander of the I Airborne Corps and deputy commander of First Allied Airborne Army during Operation... |
|
| Providence | Claude Langham | ||
| 1978 | Despair Despair (film) Despair is a 1978 film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and starring Dirk Bogarde, based on the novel of the same name by Vladimir Nabokov... |
Hermann Hermann | |
| 1981 | *The Patricia Neal Story | Roald Dahl Roald Dahl Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, fighter pilot and screenwriter.Born in Wales to Norwegian parents, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent, rising to the rank of Wing Commander... |
|
| 1986 | *May We Borrow Your Husband? | William Harris | |
| 1988 | The Vision The Vision (TV Movie) The Vision is a British television movie which had its first showing on 9 January 1988 on BBC1. The film was written by William Nicholson and directed by Norman Stone. It starred Dirk Bogarde and Helena Bonham Carter. It was episode 1 of the fourth series of Screen Two.Filming locations included... |
James Marriner | |
| 1990 | Daddy Nostalgie Daddy Nostalgia Daddy Nostalgie is a 1990 French drama film directed by Bertrand Tavernier. It was entered into the 1990 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Dirk Bogarde - Daddy* Jane Birkin - Caroline* Odette Laure - Miche... |
Daddy |
Autobiographies and 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 (contains the first four autobiographies only)
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
- The Films of Dirk Bogarde by Margaret Hinxman & Susan d'Arcy, 1974
- Dirk Bogarde: The Complete Career Illustrated with Robert TanitchRobert TanitchRobert Tanitch, who lives in London, is a playwright, author, biographer, lecturer, theatre and film critic.He had the first professional production of one of his plays while he was still up at Oxford University....
, 1988. - Dirk Bogarde, Rank Outsider, by Sheridan MorleySheridan MorleySheridan Morley was an English author, biographer, critic, director, actor and broadcaster. He was the eldest son of actor Robert Morley and grandson of actress Dame Gladys Cooper, and wrote biographies of both...
, 1996. - Dirk Bogarde, The Authorised BiographyBiographyA biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
, by John Coldstream, 2004. - Ever, Dirk: The Bogarde Letters, by John Coldstream, 2008.
External links
- dirkbogarde.co.uk, official website of Dirk Bogarde Estate. Biography and credits
- Dirk Bogarde Fyne TimesFyne TimesFyne Times is a UK based free gay and lesbian magazine, with five regional editions, that was established in September 2001. Edited by Jill Rayner, it is based in Abingdon, near Oxford and is produced by Fyne Associates....
article - Dirk Bogarde Dirk Bogarde by Neil McNally
- Dirk Bogarde Dirk Bogarde at glbtq.comGlbtq.comglbtq.com is an online encyclopedia that presents detailed biographies of notable gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. It was named one of the "Best Free Reference Web Sites" in 2005 by the American Library Association....
- Telegraph.co.uk The letters of Dirk Bogarde Part 1 Part 2
- The Spectator Bryan ForbesBryan ForbesBryan Forbes, CBE is an English film director, actor and writer.-Career:Bryan Forbes was born John Theobald Clarke on 22 July 1926 in Queen Mary's Hospital, Stratford, West Ham, Essex , and grew up at 43 Cranmer Road, Forest Gate, West Ham, Essex .Forbes trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of...
reviews The letters of Dirk Bogarde