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 Dirk
was born in 1921 to Ulric van den Bogaerde, the first and most influential
Art Editor of The Times newspaper, and the actress Margaret Niven. Ulric
was immensely ambitious for his first child and from early on groomed Dirk
to follow in his footsteps at The Times. But Dirkıs mother had sacrificed
a successful career for her marriage and children and it was ultimately
only a matter of time before her theatrical heritage proved stronger than
Ulricıs ambitions and Dirk found himself drawn to the world of the
theatre.
In 1939 he made his professional debut at the Q Theatre in London. Despite
having only one line to say, it was a beginning for the young Dirk, and a
few months later he made his West End debut in J B Priestleyıs play Cornelius.
The progress of Dirkıs early career was halted by the outbreak of the
Second World War when he was called up to serve in the Signal Corps, and
it was not until 1947 that his career got back on track. In this year he
appeared in the play Power Without Glory, where he was spotted and
signed up by movie giants Rank.
It was three years before Rank managed to hit on a winning formula for
their new star. In 1950 Dirk starred as the murderer Tom Riley in The
Blue Lamp. The police drama was the most successful British film that
year, and launched the long-running TV series Dixon of Dock Green. Dirkıs
role as the neurotic, intense and dangerously attractive villain was a
character-type he was to return to throughout his career.
A few years after The Blue Lamp Dirk had the chance to prove that the
neurotic villain was not the only character in his repertoire. In the
early 1950s producer Betty Box bought the rights to the popular novel Doctor
in the House. The Rank organisation were at first reluctant to give
the go ahead for the film to be made as they thought a hospital setting
would never attract an audience. Eventually they relented and Doctor in
the House became one of the most popular films ever, with 17 million
tickets sold in the first year alone. For Dirk it was the chance to prove
his hand at light comedy and his character Simon Sparrow became a national
heartthrob. He was to recreate the character in three further 'Doctor'
films over the next ten years, and the part turned him into a hugely
popular star.
Throughout these early years with Rank, Dirk continued to perform in
theatre when his filming schedule would allow. As he became more
well-known however he started to find the pressure from his fans a little
overwhelming. In 1955 he appeared in a touring production of Summertime
and found himself not only being mobbed at every stage door, but also
being distracted by over-enthusiastic fans shouting out during the play
itself. Dirk had always suffered from terrible stage fright and this extra
pressure exacerbated his nerves, until he said he had started to feel "you
canıt be as frightened as I am now and still be alive". He made
only one stage appearance after this, in the 1958 production of Jezebel
at Oxford Playhouse.
Not long after he bade farewell to the theatre Dirk decided to try his
chances in Hollywood. He made only two films in America - Song Without
End and The Angel Wore Red. Despite huge budgets and star names
(his co-star in the second film was Ava Gardner) both films suffered from
sub-standard scripts and it was with some relief that he returned to
England.
On his return Bogarde made one of the biggest gambles of his life when he
took the part of Melville Farr in the thriller Victim. Farr is a
successful barrister who sacrifices his career and marriage by confessing
to his homosexuality rather than allowing a long-running blackmail racket
to continue (same sex relationships were illegal at this time). The
American censors refused to classify the film, effectively blocking itıs
mainstream release, and the fans of Dirk's light-hearted 'Doctor' films
were horrified by this new turn in his career. Dirk however was immensely
proud of the film, and later said he had received countless letters of
from people thanking him for taking the difficult role and telling their
story.
Victim marked a change in Dirk's career with many of his finest serious
roles coming after this time, culminating in his performance in 1971 as
Gustav von Aschenbach in the film Death in Venice. Dirk regarded
this film as the pinnacle of his career, declaring it was "the
peak and end of my career . . . I can never hope to give a better
performance in a better film".
Despite this prediction Dirk made another seven films over the next twenty
years. In-between his filming commitments Dirk started to write about his
extraordinary life. He proved to be an immensely talented writer, and a
prolific one, producing seven volumes of autobiography and five novels in
these later years.
Dirk continued to court controversy, speaking out in favour of voluntary
euthanasia and talking publicly about his 'living will'. But the end for
Dirk came suddenly - he died of a heart attack at his home in Chelsea,
London in May 1999.
The man may be gone but the legacy of his enormous contribution to the
British Film Industry ensures he will not be forgotten.
Dirk was born in a taxi in Hampstead, London on 28th March 1921.
He was the eldest of three children having a sister, Elizabeth, and a much
younger brother Gareth, born when Dirk was thirteen.
Dirk's real name was Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde.
His West End debut was as 'Derek Bogaerde', and it was not until after the
war that his then agent, Freddy Joachim, re-christened him with the name
that would become so famous.
Dirk's father was convinced that his eldest son would follow him into the
Art Department of The Times. Dirk's early training was therefore not as an
actor, but as an artist, at what is now Chelsea College of Art, where his
teachers included Henry Moore and Graham Sutherland.
In 1939 Dirk met theatrical manager Anthony Forwood who later became his
manager, his friend and ultimately his lifelong partner. In the early
1970s they bought a house together in the South of France where they lived
very happily until shortly before Forwood's death in 1988.
Dirk featured in an amazing sixty-one films during his working life (from
1948 to 1991). At the height of his career he was sometimes shooting four
or five films in a year.
In 1996 Dirk Bogarde had a stroke, which left him partially paralysed. He
made a good recovery and continued to live in his own flat in Chelsea
until his death on 8th May 1999 at the age of 78.
Five
Fascinating Facts about Dirk Bogarde
1. While serving with the Signal Corps in the Second World War Dirk
took part in the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Like
many others he could never describe what he saw there, but could only say
that he found himself "looking into Danteıs Inferno".
2. He was approached to play the role of Jimmy Porter in the film
version of Look Back in Anger, but Rank refused him permission to make the
film saying that there was "altogether too much dialogue".
3. During the filming of The Servant in 1963 the director Joseph
Losey was hospitalised with pneumonia. Desperate to stop the producers
pulling the plug on the film, Losey asked Dirk to take over. Dirk
reluctantly agreed and directed the film for ten days, later confessing
"itıs my only scrape at directing and I'll never do it again".
4. Dirk could never be persuaded to set foot on stage after 1958,
despite several tempting offers. One such offer was the title role in
Olivier's production of Hamlet, which opened the newly built Chichester
Festival Theatre in 1963. The role was eventually played by Peter O'Toole
5. In 1984 Dirk was asked to preside over the Cannes Film Festival.
This was a huge honour not only because it confirmed his status as a
respected player in the European Film Industry, but also because he was
the first Briton ever to be granted such a privilege.
İ
www.retirement-matters.co.uk/Siobhan Staples, November 2000
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Acknowledgements:
Photograph:
Dirk Bogarde copyright İ and supplied by:
The Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson Theatre Collection. Tel: 020
7236 0182 Fax: 020 7236 0184
email: richard@mander-and-mitchenson.co.uk
Salvation Army Headquarters, P O Box 249, 101 Queen Victoria
Street, London, EC4P 4EP. |
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