Dirk Bogarde

Dirk Bogarde (1921-1999), British actor and writer. Born Derek Niven Van den Bogaerde in Hampstead, London, he was originally a scenic designer until his stage debut in 1939.He was born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde on March 28, 1921, to Ulric van den Bogaerde, the art editor of "The Times" (London) newspaper,
and actress Margaret Niven in the London suburb of Hampstead.
He was one of three children, with sister Elizabeth and younger brother Gareth. His father was Flemish and his mother was of Scottish descent.
Theatre roles in the post-war period brought him to the attention of the Rank Organisation, which made him a star for the first time in the film Esther Waters (1948).
Often cast as a spivvish type, Bogarde’s role in the comedy Doctor in the House (1954), a box-office success, encouraged Rank to cast him in several sequels and to mould him into a matinée idol.
He went against this character when he chose to play a homosexual in Victim (1961), the first major English-language film on the subject.
His portrayal of a valet in The Servant (1963) was the first of four films with the director Joseph Losey, and it gave serious impetus to his career, especially when he was given the Best Actor award for the role by the British Film Academy.

Bogarde’s first role in a Hollywood film was in Song Without End (1960), in which he played the composer Franz Liszt, but few of his American ventures were happy, with the possible exception of the underrated Justine (1969) by George Cukor.
Later that year he appeared in La Caduta Degli Dei (The Damned), a perverse group-portrait of a wealthy German family by Luchino Visconti.
Bogarde worked with Visconti again on Morte a Venezia (1971; Death in Venice), in which he played a musician so besotted with a youth that he cannot leave the plague-ridden city.
His few subsequent films, all made in Europe, were mostly less distinguished, although Daddy Nostalgie (1990; These Foolish Things) was a moving story of a dying man's reconciliation with his daughter, directed by Bertrand Tavernier.

Bogarde worked occasionally in radio dramas in his last years though he concentrated on his writing; both his volumes of autobiography and fiction were best-sellers.
He published his first volume of memoirs, A Postillion Struck by Lightning, in 1977, with the sixth and final volume appearing in 1995; he also wrote novels, including A Gentle Occupation (1980) and Jericho (1992).
His last book, For the Time Being, was published in 1998. He suffered a stroke in September 1996 and died of a heart attack on May 8, 1999. He was knighted in 1992.