Actor Dirk Bogarde: biography, filmography, photo

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

In the post-war period, cinema continued its active development. Of course, more and more new actors appeared on the horizon, who amazed the audience with their talent. One of them is the famous Englishman Dirk Bogarde. His first works were forgotten, but since 1963 the career of a talented man began to develop rapidly.

Childhood and youth of a famous actor

Dirk Bogarde was born on March 28, 1921. By the way, the real name of the actor is Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Nivan van der Bogarde. His father was an artist of Belgian-Dutch origin. He worked as the art editor of the well-known edition of The London Times. The mother of the future actor is a Scottish actress.

It is worth saying that the young man received a good education. In particular, he graduated from the Polytechnic Academy of Arts, and then the Royal Academy. During his student life, the future famous actor was already adapting to the world of art, playing in small theaters on the outskirts of the city. For some time he also worked as an artist.

The Second World War made adjustments to the plans of the entire population of Europe. Dirk joined the army and between 1941 and 1946 tookparticipation in hostilities on the territory of European countries, as well as in the Far East.

Returning to the old life after returning to London at the end of the war was difficult. Friends of youth who had already become famous did not try to help. And it was quite difficult to find work in the theater. For some time, the young man practically begged, but then he got a vacancy at the Rank Corporation. He started with a small job on the radio, after which he moved to the film studio.

First film work

Small episodes is what Bogard Dirk started with. The main roles in the films were still ahead, but for now he was actively working, appearing in such films as "Dancing with Crime", "See you at the Fair", "Once upon a time there was a merry tramp", etc. Now these paintings are forgotten, and in those days they were not very popular.

Nevertheless, the actor had time to hone his acting skills - with each picture he showed more and more facets of inexhaustible talent.

Works that made the actor popular

The real success for the aspiring actor was the meeting with the famous director Joseph Losey. It was thanks to this collaboration that the brilliant, talented actor Bogarde Dirk appeared on the big screen. Leading roles in films such as "Sleeping Tiger", "Servant" and "Accident" made the young man famous and in demand.

By the way, the film "The Servant" received public recognition, but, alas, reviews from criticswere ambiguous. This picture illustrated a plot, classic for that time, in which a rude, primitive and even slightly untidy servant subjugates a noble, well-mannered, but weak-willed master.

It's worth saying that almost all of Bogard's characters are people exhausted by their unfulfillable desires, complexes, duality. Such roles were the perfect canvas for showing off their acting skills.

Dirk Bogarde Filmography

The actor himself considered the opportunity to work with Luchino Visconti the greatest success. It was thanks to him that Bogarde played Friedrich Bruckmann in the film The Damned (1970) - an ambitious man going to power, stepping over mountains of corpses.

The next result of the collaboration is the film "Death in Venice", released in 1971. Here the actor Bogard Dirk played a lonely composer who met a Polish boy at the Lido resort, who charmed with his beauty and incomprehensibility. By the way, this work was given to Bogard quite hard, for some time he even stopped acting.

That's why Liliana Cavani had to persuade a famous actor to play in one of her films for a long time. Thanks to her efforts, a scandalous film was released in 1974. The buzz around the Night Porter even led to a lawsuit. It has been banned in Italy. The plot told the story of the extraordinary love of a former SS man and a concentration camp prisoner, played by Charlotte Rampling.

Dirk Bogarde:personal life

Of course, personal life is just the moment that interests many fans of talent. So who was Dirk Bogarde? Movies are not the only legacy of this incredibly bright actor.

Unfortunately, the love stories of such an attractive man remained a mystery. As you know, he repeatedly had to play representatives of non-traditional orientation on the screen. Moreover, even his own father often spoke out that his son was a representative of homosexuals.

It is known that Dirk Bogarde in the mid-1960s, together with his partner and manager Tony Forwood, moved to the south of France, where he lived in Provence for several years. When Tony fell ill in 1983, the actor moved back to England with him, where he remained until his friend's death in 1988. Were they friends or like-minded people - this moment remains a mystery.

The only thing known is that Dirk never married. In his memoirs, he often described relationships with different women, but they were all more friendly than romantic. Bogarde remains a mysterious figure to this day, the personification of pure creativity and freedom.

Last years of life

For the past two decades, Dirk Bogarde has lived in seclusion in his home in the south of France. Here he grew olives and grapes, and also mastered, and quite well, the profession of a writer. Nevertheless, in 1977, the actor agreed to play in the famous film "Providence" by AlainRene, where once again he demonstrated his bright, primitive talent, embodying in his hero, at first glance, incompatible things.

The list of the last and most famous works of the actor includes the role in the film "Despair", based on the novel by V. Nabokov and released on screens in 1978. Here Bogarde appeared as a Russian emigrant in Germany.

After a heart attack, he moved to England, trying to restore he alth. It was here that Bertrand Tavernier found him, persuading him to play in the new film "Daddy's Nostalgia". In this picture, released in 1990, actor Bogarde Dirk appeared before the audience for the last time.

In the last years of his life, a man actively fought for the right of terminally ill people to voluntarily die (the right to euthanasia). The great actor died on May 8, 1999 in London. The cause of death was another heart attack. By the way, for the last three years of his life, Dirk was half paralyzed.

Interesting facts from the actor's biography

Despite the fact that the actor managed to create a wonderful reputation in his life, achieved recognition from the public, he was not awarded cinematographic awards. Many art connoisseurs say that his work was simply ahead of its time. By the way, in 1992 the actor was knighted.

As already mentioned, in the second half of his life, Bogard began to actively master the art of writing. His works were popular. He published about 16 books, six of them were stories, while the rest were memoirs and autobiographical stories, after reading which, you can learn a lot aboutshrouded in secrets of the life of an actor. Unfortunately, many of his works have never been translated into Russian.