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Dirk Bogarde

The Knitting Circle: Drama

Biography,work, (acting,writing),bibliography,press cuttings.

British, film actor and writer.

Originally named Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven Van den Bogaerde

Height: 5 feet 10 inches.

His father, Ulric, who was half-Dutch, started the arts desk atTimesand became its art editor. His mother, Margaret Niven, was Scottish, and the daughter of the actor and painter Forrest Niven. She appeared in the Haymarket production ofBunty Pulls The Strings, but her husband insisted that she stop her acting.

Dirk Bogarde spent his childhood in Sussex being brought up by his sister, Elizabeth, and his nanny, Lally. This is described in his bookA Postillion Struck by Lightningin 1988.

He went to the Allen Glen's School in Glasgow. He also went to University College School in London.

He went on to study commercial art at Chelsea Polytechnic where he was taught by Henry Moore and Graham Sutherland, but he dropped out of his course. He became an unpromising drama student.

He started his career as a scene designer and commercial artist in the 1930s.

He began acting with the Amersham Repertory Company. His acting debut was made at a small London theatre in 1939 when he was aged 19. He made his West End debut in J. B. Priestley'sCornelius.

His first film acting role was as an extra in the George Formby racecourse comedyCome On George, in 1940.

In 1940 he joined the Queen's Royal Regiment and became a major. He served in the Air Photographic Intelligence Unit. He was given the nickname Pip or Pippin during this time. He returned from the War with seven medals.

During the War one of his poems,Steel Cathedrals, about troops, was published in a small magazine in 1943, and was subsequently anthologised. His war paintings are in the Imperial War Museum in London.

After the War he did the rounds of auditions and appeared inPower Without Gloryat the New Lindsay Theatre in 1947.Noël Cowardadmired his performance and urged him to continue his stage career. Dirk Bogarde also played a homosexual in a television adaptation ofRope.

Wessex Films gave him a part inEsther Watersin 1947, but when Stewart Granger dropped out the lead role was thrust onto Dirk Bogarde. The Rank Organisation, who distributed Wessex Films, then gave him a long-term contract and he played a number of parts as small-time crooks, military heroes, and romantic or light comedy roles over the 14 years of his contract. A memorable role was that of a cockney tear-away who shot Jack Warner as the policeman, George Dixon, inThe Blue Lampin 1950. For this part of his career he was the popular male pin-up with films such asDoctor in the Houseas Dr Simon Sparrow in 1954.

In the West End in London he played in Anouilh'sPoint of Departureand Ugo Betti'sSummertime. He received good notices but his nerves forced him to withdraw, and he did not return to the theatre after 1951.

Dirk Bogarde began to take on more challenging film roles. In particular he was the blackmailed homosexual lawyer, Melville Farr, inVictim, directed by Basil Dearden in 1961.This film may have helped the public debate that led to the1967 Sexual Offences Act. A still photograph fromVictimused in cinemas is shown inJames Gardiner's "e;Who's a Pretty Boy Then?, (1996), page 112. The film and reactions to it are discussed byStephen Bourne, (1996), "e;Brief Encounters: Lesbians and Gays in British Cinema 1930-1971"e;.

He subsequently favoured European cinema and he left Britain in the mid sixties to live in Europe and settled in Provence in the South of France. He played the part of Gustav von Aschenbach inDeath in Venice, directed byLuchino Viscontiin 1971. The film was based onThomas Mann's novella in which Aschenbach developed an infatuation for the beautiful boy, Tadzio. Dirk Bogarde also played in the filmDespairdirected byRainer Werner Fassbinderin 1978.

When he was in his fifties Dirk Bogarde began a new career in writing, and produced eight autobiographies as well as a number of novels.

He did not write or talk about his relationship with Tony Forwood, his manager and friend for fifty years. Tony Forwood had previously been the husband of Glynis Johns. Dirk Bogarde and Tony Forwood lived near Grasse in Provence where they shared a 15th.-century farmhouse which they had restored.

When Tony Forwood became seriously ill in 1983 they returned to London. In his bookA Short Walk From Harrodsin 1994, Dirk Bogarde described how he nursed Tony Forwood for the last few months of his life until he died of cancer in 1988.

Dirk Bogarde was made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des lettres in 1982.

He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters at St Andrews University.

He was knighted on 13th. February, 1992.

He suffered a serious stroke in 1996 and became partly paralysed. From May 1998 he required 24-hour nursing. He arranged for his lawyers to draw up a 'living will' that instructed his doctors not to keep him alive if he were to become terminally ill. He became vice-president of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, and wrote an article for it in June 1998 saying why he was not yet ready to die. He died of a heart attack at his Chelsea flat on 8th. May, 1999, aged 78.

A portrait of Dirk Bogarde by David Tindle is held by the National Portrait Gallery, London, and was given on temporary loan to 10 Downing Street in 1999 to be displayed with other modern works in the pillared drawing room.

• Come on George, 1939, uncredited for a walk-on part as an extra.

• Dancing with Crime, 1947, as Policeman

• Once a Jolly Swagman, 1948, as Bill Fox (also known asManiacs on Wheels, 1948, USA)

• Esther Waters, 1948, as William Latch

• Quartet, 1949, in the segmentThe Alien Corn, as George Bland

• Dear Mr. Prohack, 1949, as Charles Prohack

• Boys in Brown, 1949, as Alfie Rawlins

• The Woman in Question, 1950, as Bob Baker (also known asFive Angles on Murder, 1950)

• So Long at the Fair, 1950, as George Hathaway

• The Blue Lamp, 1950, as Tom Riley

• Blackmailed, 1950, as Stephen Mundy

• The Stranger in Between, 1952, as Chris Lloyd (also known asHunted, 1952)

• Penny Princess, 1952, as Tony Craig

• The Gentle Gunman, 1952, as Matt Sullivan

• They Who Dare, 1953, as Lieut. Graham

• Desperate Moment, 1953, as Simon Van Halder

• Appointment in London, 1953, as Wing-Commander Tim Mason

• The Sleeping Tiger, 1954, as Frank Clemmons

• The Sea Shall Not Have Them, 1954, as Flight Sergeant MacKay

• For Better, for Worse, 1954, as Tony Howard (also known asCocktails in the Kitchen, 1954, USA)

• Doctor in the House, 1954, as Simon Sparrow

• Doctor at Sea, 1955, as Dr. Simon Sparrow

• Simba, 1955, as Alan Howard (also known asSimba - Mark of Mau Mau!, 1955)

• The Spanish Gardener, 1956, as Jose

• Cast a Dark Shadow, 1957, as Edward Bare (also known asAngel, 1957)

• Campbell's Kingdom, 1957, as Bruce Campbell

• Ill Met by Moonlight, 1957, as Major Patrick Leigh Fermor (also known asIntelligence Service, 1957,Night Ambush, 1958, USA)

• Doctor at Large, 1957, as Dr. Simon Sparrow

• The Wind Cannot Read, 1958, as Flight Lieutenant Michael Quinn

• A Tale of Two Cities, 1958, as Sydney Carton

• Libel, 1959, as Sir Mark Loddon/Number 15/Frank Welney

• The Doctor's Dilemma, 1959, as Louis Dubedat

• The Angel Wore Red, 1960, as Arturo Carrera (also known asLa Sposa bella, 1960, Italy)

• Song Without End, 1960, as Franz Liszt (also known asCrescendo1960). Directed byGeorge Cukor.

• Victim, 1961, as Melville Farr. Nominated for the 1962 BAFTA Film Award for Best British Actor. Discussed inStephen Bourne, (1996), "e;Brief Encounters: Lesbians and Gays in British Cinema 1930-1971"e;.

• The Singer Not the Song, 1961, as Anacleto

• We Are in the Navy Now, 1962, as Cameo (also known asWe Joined the Navy, 1962)

• The Password Is Courage, 1962, as Sgt. Maj. Charles Coward

• Damn the Defiant!, 1962, as Lt. Scott-Padget (also known asH.M.S. Defiant, 1962,HMS Defiant, 1962)

• The Servant, 1963, as Hugo Barrett. Received the 1964 BAFTA Film Award for Best British Actor. Ranked at 22nd. position among 'British' films by the British Film Institute survey in 1999.
  1997, Channel 4 television broadcast,SBU Library Audiovisual Collection 791.4372

• The Mind Benders, 1963, as Dr. Henry Longman

• Doctor in Distress, 1963, as Dr. Simon Sparrow

• I Could Go on Singing, 1963, as David Donne

• King and Country, 1964, as Captain Hargreaves

• Hot Enough for June, 1964, as Nicholas Whistler (also known asAgent 008 8 3/4, 1964,Agent 8 3/4, 1964)

• Darling, 1965, as Robert Gold. Received the 1966 BAFTA Film Award for Best British Actor. Directed byJohn Schlesinger.

• The High Bright Sun, 1965, as Major McGuire (also known asDate with Death, A, 1965,McGuire, Go Home!, 1965)

• Modesty Blaise, 1966, as Gabriel

• Our Mother's House, 1967, as Charlie Hook. Nominated for the 1968 BAFTA Film Award for Best British Actor.

• Accident, 1967, as Stephen. Nominated for the 1968 BAFTA Film Award for Best British Actor.

• Sebastian, 1968, as Sebastian (also known asMr. Sebastian, 1968)

• The Fixer, 1968, as Bibikov

• Justine, 1969, as Pursewarden. Directed byGeorge Cukor.

• La Caduta degli dei, 1969, as Friedrick Bruckmann (also known asThe Damned, 1969,Götterdämmerung, 1969, West Germany). Directed byLuchino Visconti.

• Oh! What a Lovely War, 1969, as Stephen

• Upon This Rock, 1970, (for television), as Bonnie Prince Charlie (also known asReturn to Lochaverv, 1970)

• Morte a Venezia, 1971, as Gustav von Aschenbach (also known asDeath in Venice, 1971). Nominated for the 1972 BAFTA Film Award for Best British Actor. Directed byLuchino Visconti.

• Lev Serpent, 1972, as Philip Boyle (also known asNight Flight from Moscow, 1972,Die Schlange, 1972, West Germany,The Serpent, 1972,Il Serpente, 1972, Italy)

• Il Portiere di notte, 1974, as Maximilian Theo Aldorfer (also known asThe Night Porter, 1974, USA)

• Permission to Kill, 1975, as Alan Curtis

• A Bridge Too Far, 1977, as Lieut. Gen. Frederich "e;Boy"e; Browning

• Providence, 1977, as Claude Langham

• Despair, 1978, as Hermann Karlovich (also known asDespair - Eine Reise ins Licht, 1978). Directed byRainer Werner Fassbinder.

• The Patricia Neal Story, 1981, (for television), as Roald Dahl (also known asAn Act of Love: The Patricia Neal Story, 1981). Nominated for the 1982 Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV.

• May We Borrow Your Husband?, 1986, (for television), as William Harris

• The Vision, 1987

• Daddy Nostalgie, 1990, as Tommy 'Daddy' Russell (also known asDaddy Nostalgia, 1990,These Foolish Things, 1990)

• Voices in the Garden, 1981, a novel

  • 1992, Penguin Books, 352 pages, ISBN 0140172432 (paperback)

  • Made into a television film in 1992, (also known asDes voix dans le jardin, France)

• West of Sunset, 1984, a novel
  1985, Penguin Books, 256 pages, ISBN 0140069771 (paperback)

• May We Borrow Your Husband?, 1986, writing for a television film.

• Backcloth, 1987, an autobiography, Penguin Books, 320 pages, ISBN 0140089675 (paperback)

• A Postillion Struck by Lightning, 1988, an autobiography, Penguin Books, 288 pages, ISBN 0140105387 (paperback)

• Snakes & Ladders, 1988, an autobiography, Penguin Books, 352 pages, ISBN 014010105395 (paperback)

• A Gentle Occupation, 1990, Penguin Books, 448 pages, ISBN 0140131027 (paperback)

• A Particular Friendship, 1990, Penguin Books, 208 pages, ISBN 0140126449 (paperback)

• Jericho, 1992, a novel, Penguin Books, 288 pages, ISBN 0140156747 (paperback)

• An Orderly Man, 1992, an autobiography, Penguin Books, 304 pages, ISBN 0140172122 (paperback)

• Great Meadow, 1993, an autobiography, Penguin Books, 224 pages, ISBN 0140174435 (paperback)

• A Short Walk from Harrods, 1994, an autobiography, Penguin Books, 288 pages, ISBN 0140231307 (paperback)

• A Period of Adjustment, 1994, Penguin Books, 288 pages, ISBN 0140237453 (paperback)

• Treasure HuntwithMolly Keane, 1996, Virago Press, 255 pages, ISBN 0860688003 (paperback)

• Cleared for Take-off, 1996, an autobiography, Penguin Books, 240 pages, ISBN 0140251286 (paperback)

• Closing Ranks, 1998, Penguin Books, 288 pages, ISBN 0140264094 (paperback)

• For the Time Being, 1998, Viking, 320 pages, ISBN 0670880051 (hardcover)

• Anthology, 1998, Orion, ISBN 0752811657

• Hinxman & d'Arcy, "e;The Films of Dirk Bogarde"e;, also known as "e;The Cinema of Dirk Bogarde"e;

• Andy Medhurst, (1986), "e;Dirk Bogarde"e;, in "e;All Our Yesterdays: 90 Years of British Cinema"e;, edited by Charles Barr, published by the British Film Institute.

• Sheridan Morley, (1996), "e;Dirk Bogarde: Rank Outsider"e;, Bloomsbury, 192 pages, ISBN 0747525633 (hardcover)

• Sheridan Morley, (1999), "e;Dirk Bogarde"e;, Chivers Press, ISBN 0754012433

• Robert Tanitch, (1988), "e;Dirk Bogarde: The Complete Career Illustrated"e;

• (1999), "e;Dirk Bogarde"e;, Ramboro Books PLC, ISBN 721597829 X

• Dirk Bogarde diesinThe Independent on Sunday, 9th. May, 1999, page 1. "e;Dirk Bogarde, the distinguished British film actor, died from a heart attack at his London home in London yesterday, aged 78."e;

• Dirk Bogarde dies of heart attack at 78by Burhan Wazir inThe Observer, 9th. May, 1999, page 1. "e;Former actress and junior Transport Minister Glenda Jackson said: 'I'm desperately sorry he's died. He was our first home-grown film star."e;

• Dirk Bogarde dies at 78by Chris Dignan inThe Sunday Times, 9th. May, 1999, page 1. "e;His nephew, Brock Van den Bogaerde, said: 'He was looking forward to events like his 80th birthday and many plans. I'm sure there is not a better way to go."e;

  "e;Sir John Gielgudsaid last night: 'I worked with him in a couple of films and I always liked him very much'."e;

• Dark, exotic and yet essentially Englishby Philip French inThe Observer, 9th. May, 1999, page 3. "e;In the mid-1950s he was claimed by theDoctorseries and became a popular middle-class romantic comedian. At the same time he began his celebrated collaboration with the blacklisted American expatriate Joseph Losey, starting withThe Sleeping Tiger, and going on toThe Servant,King and Country, andAccident. Losey discovered something more complex and sinister in his English persona and his performance as Barrett, the malevolent valet inThe Servant, scripted by Harold Pinter, is possibly the most subtle, revealing thing he ever did - by confronting his homosexuality in a non-gay context."e;

• Two brilliant lives - on film and in printby Mark Rowe and Jeremy Kay inThe Independent on Sunday, 9th. May, 1999, page 3. "e;Although he documented with frankness his early sexual encounters with girls and later his adoring love for Kay Kendall and Judy Garland, he never wrote about his longest and closest relationship - with his friend and manager for more than 50 years, Tony Forwood. Sir Dirk said the clues to his private life were in his books. 'If you've got your wits about you, you will know who I am'."e;

• 'The public understood he was essentially gay'by David Thompson inThe Independent on Sunday, 9th. May, 1999, page 3. "e;In the Fifties he was almost the principal boy of British film. He passed himself off as the standard polite, gentle, unthreatening male lead in adventure films, war films and romances. Audiences of that time loved him. The movies he appeared in played him as a perfectly acceptable heterosexual romantic lead: in the war films he was tough and adventurous, presented as a British ideal. Very few people picked up on the fact that there was a distinct gay undertone. It says something about British audiences of the time. He had the good fortune to break out of that prison, and it came through the filmVictim, where he played a gay character, and through meeting with Joseph Losey, who directed him inThe Servant. For the first time, Bogarde's ambivalence was exploited and used by film."e;

• Bogarde, a solitary star at the edge of the spotlightby Jack Grimston inThe Sunday Times, 9th. May, 1999, page 7. "e;Dirk Bogarde, who died yesterday aged 78, belonged to a group that was rare in the British cinema. He was a fine screen player who owed little to the stage. Dilys Powell, the Sunday Times film critic, wrote of him before her own death: 'Most of our gifted film players really belonged to the theatre. Bogarde belonged to the screen."e;

• Private funeral for reclusive Dirk Bogardeby Jamie Wilson inThe Guardian, 10th. May, 1999, page 9. "e;Sir Dirk Bogarde, the 1950s matinee idol who transformed himself into one of Britain's most respected actors and writers, will have no memorial service following his death at the age of 78. Instead, he will have a private family funeral in accordance with his wish 'just to forget me', his nephew Brock Van den Bogaerde, said yesterday. The reclusive actor also asked for his ashes to be scattered in France, a country he made his adoptive home for 20 years."e;

  "e;Colleagues and friends paid tribute to Britain's leading film star during the 1950s and 1960s when he was known as 'the idol of the Odeons' for his portrayal of the bumbling Simon Sparrow in the popular Doctor films."e;

• In the closet, but still a brave manby Philip Hensher inThe Independent: The Monday Review, 10th. May, 1999, page 4. "e;Later generations of gay men were always rather disinclined to treat Dirk Bogarde with much respect or admiration. His name, by the Eighties was often greeted by the ordinary gay man with ridicule and scorn. By the end of his life, he was widely seen as a very familiar, though not very admirable figure, someone who had the money and leisure to live his life as he chose, while refusing to make any very public admission of his homosexuality. References to his 'manager', it often seemed, were no substitute for a willingness to stand as a figurehead for a nascent movement, a willingness to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of people just by stating in public what he was. Bogarde seemed, in short, like yet another version of the rich gay man, indulging private pleasures and shrinking from public responsibilities. But, however universally held this view was by the Eighties, it was incomplete, and to some extent, false. What, perhaps, it stemmed from was not Bogarde's behaviour, but the uncertainties of his audience; that tendency among gay men, expertly diagnosed byEdmund White, to make pious lists of gay men in history while regarding living gay men with contempt."e;

• Sir Dirk BogardeObituary by Margaret Hinxman inThe Guardian, 10th. May, 1999, page 18. "e;At his peak and with directors he trusted - Joseph Losey,Luchino Viscontiand Alain Resnais - Dirk Bogarde, who has died of a heart attack at 78, was probably the finest, most complete, actor on the screen."e;

  "e;He had an intimate relationship with the camera. The secret of film acting he said was all behind the eyes, the 'look' and he would cite, surprisingly, Alan Ladd, who wasn't good with words but who knew exactly what ' great look' was all about."e;

  "e;For nearly 40 years, he had relied on Forwood's counsel and discreet, calming influence. The loss left him floundering in his increasingly reclusive life."e;

  "e;Although the Oscars and Booker prizes eluded him, many feel these omissions gave Bogarde the kind of exclusivity he would have relished. Not one of a kind, but one on his own."e;

• Sir Dirk BogardeObituary by Clive Fisher inThe Independent: The Monday Review, 10th. May, 1999, page 6. "e;Dirk Bogarde was a major figure because, wherever they were made, his finest films are all somehow about him. He was a great self-portraitist and the screen persona he fashioned, a stylisation of his private being, not only dominated its surroundings but spoke subliminally and powerfully to British audiences about the tensions of the time, about connivances and cruel respectibilities of England in the Fifties and Sixties."e;

Biography,work, (acting,writing),bibliography,press cuttings.

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First uploaded 15th. May, 1999.

Last altered 16th. April, 2001