Sir Dirk Bogarde

Actor and officer in the Queen's Royal (West Surrey) Regiment

Dirk Bogarde (1921-1999) was born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde in West Hampstead, London. With his heroic roles and handsome looks he was a matinee idol to millions.

Among the records of the Surrey Regiments held at Surrey History Centre is a letter from the publicity secretary at the J Arthur Rank Studios at Pinewood Studios declaring that she had spoken to Mr Bogarde who had confirmed that in 1942, he was commissioned into the Queen's Royal (West Surrey) Regiment and spent two weeks with them in Truro (Ref.QRWS/30/BOGA/1-2). Bogarde then transferred to an independent brigade before joining General Montgomery's staff in 1943 and later becoming an Intelligence Officer. His wartime exploits are related in his autobiography Cleared for Take-Off (1995).

A controversial role

Following active service Bogarde signed a contract with Rank and enjoyed a highly successful film career. In 1961, against all good advice, he took the lead role in Victim, the story of a successful married man blackmailed over a homosexual affair. On this brave role, Bogarde commented, ‘I realised it was a risk, I knew a lot of people would rather see me kill my wife on screen than play this role…but I decided it was a risk worth taking…this was a film about a real person with a real problem.’ The film caused a stir and spearheaded a major cultural change in society’s attitude to male homosexuality at great risk to a highly lucrative career.

Bogarde’s Hollywood front

In his autobiographies Bogarde carefully avoided any mention of his sexuality. Possibly his most acclaimed role was in ‘Death in Venice’ in which he plays a dying composer who falls in love with a teenage boy and towards the end of his life he did relax his guard somewhat about being gay. He lived for 40 years with his agent Anthony Forwood, the former husband of actress Glynis Johns, a secret he shared with only a privileged few. He repeatedly denied that their relationship was anything other than friendship, understandable given that homosexual acts were illegal during most of his career, but also he was loath to jeopardise his following among female admirers.

It is widely known that Bogarde himself destroyed a large part of his personal archive, but he carefully deposited his annotated film scripts with the British Film Institute and his literary manuscripts with Boston University - he simply said 'Just forget me'.

Contributor:Surrey Heritage