Dirk Bogarde

Sir Dirk Bogarde (1921–1999) was a British film star and later novelist.

He was born in West Hampstead, London, of Scottish and Dutch ancestry, as Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde. His father was Art Editor of The Times and his mother had been an actress. He studied at the Chelsea College of Art and Design, and appeared on the stage in 1939 under the name "Derek Bogaerde".

He served as an army officer, mainly in intelligence, during World War II, and claimed to have been present at the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, leaving him with a deep hostility towards Germans.

After the war his agent renamed him "Dirk Bogarde". He was contracted to the Rank Organisation, and was soon starring in popular, mainly light-hearrted films such as Doctor in the House and its sequels. He became known as "The Matinee Idol of the Odeon".

In 1961 his career took a different turn when he starred in Victim, one of the first films to deal with the question of homosexuality, which has been credited with helping prepare the way for the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967. Victim was followed by challenging roles in films such as Death in Venice and The Servant.

From 1977 onwards he started a second career as a writer, producing several novels and volumes of autobiography.

Dirk Bogarde is generally considered to have been gay, although he denied it during his lifetime (gay sex was against the law for much of his acting career). He never married, unlike several gay Hollywood actors who undertook marriages of convenience. For many years he shared his homes, in Amersham and later in France, with Anthony Forwood, his friend, manager, and presumed lover.

He received a knighthood in 1992 for services to acting.