Bogarde dirk biography of rory

Playing a cop killer, an unspeakable crime in the England of the time, it was the first of the intense neurotics and attractive villains that Bogarde would often play. While he was praised for his performance, stage acting made him nervous, and as he became more famous, he began to be mobbed by fans. The pressure of the public adulation proved overwhelming, particularly as he suffered from stage fright.

He was accosted by crowds of fans at the stage door during the touring production of "Summertime," and his more enthusiastic admirers even shouted at him during the play. He was to appear in only one more play, the Oxford Playhouse production of "Jezebel," in He never again took to the boards, despite receiving attractive offers. Losey, a Communist and self-described Stalinist at the time, had emigrated to England after being blacklisted in Hollywood after he refused to direct The Woman on Pier 13 at RKO Pictures, which was owned by right-wing multi-millionaire Howard Hughes at the time, and he was accused in testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee of being a Communist.

The director, like Bogarde, would not find his stride until the early s, and Losey and Bogarde would build their reputations together. Losey, who had never heard of Bogarde until he was proposed for the film, met with him and asked Bogarde to view one of his pictures. After seeing the film, Bogarde was enthusiastic, and Losey talked him into taking the role, which he accepted at a reduced fee Losey originally was not credited with directing the film due to his being blacklisted in the States.

A decade later they would make more memorable films that would be watersheds in their careers. It was not drama but comedy that made Dirk Bogarde a star. He achieved the first rank of English movie stardom playing Dr. Simon Sparrow in the comedy Doctor in the House The film was a smash hit, becoming one of the most popular British films in history, with 17 million admissions in its first year of release.

As Sparrow, Bogarde became a heartthrob and the most popular British movie star of the mids. He reprised the character in Doctor at Sea , Doctor at Large The title of the latter film may have described his mood as a serious actor having to do another turn as Dr. Bogarde, hailed as "the idol of the Odeons" in honor of his box-office clout, was offered the role of Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger by producer Harry Saltzman and director Tony Richardson , based on the play that touched off the "Angry Young Man" and "Kitchen Sink School" of contemporary English drama in the s.

Bogarde dirk biography of rory

Though Bogarde wanted to take the part, Rank refused to let him make the film on the grounds that there was "altogether too much dialog. Both were big-budgeted films, but hampered by poor scripts, and after both films failed, Bogarde avoided Hollywood from then on. He was reportedly quite smitten with his French "Song Without End" co-star Capucine , and wanted to marry her.

Capucine, who suffered from bi-polar disorder, was bisexual with an admitted preference for women. The relationship did not lead to marriage, but did result in a long-term friendship. It apparently was his only serious relationship with a woman, though he had many women friends, including his I Could Go on Singing co-star Judy Garland.

In the early s, with the expiration of his Rank contract, Bogarde made the decision to abandon his hugely successful career in commercial movies and concentrate on more complex, art house films at the same time, Burt Lancaster made a similar decision, though Lancaster continued to alternate his artistic ventures with more crassly commercial endeavors.

Bogarde appeared in Basil Dearden 's seminal film Victim , the first British movie to sympathetically address the persecution of homosexuals. His career choice alienated many of his old fans, but he was no longer interested in being a commercial movie star; he, like Lancaster, was interested in developing as an actor and artist however, that sense of finding himself as an actor did not extend to the stage.

His reputation was such in that he was invited by National Theatre director Laurence Olivier to appear as Hamlet to open the newly built Chichester Festival Theatre. That production of the eponymous play also was intended to open the National Theatre's first season in London. Bogarde declined, and the honor went instead to Peter O'Toole , who floundered in the part.

Jack Grimston, in Bogarde's "Sunday Times" obituary of May 9, , entitled "Bogarde, a solitary star at the edge of the spotlight," said of the late actor that he "belonged to a group that was rare in the British cinema. He was a fine screen player who owed little to the stage. Dilys Powell, the Sunday Times film critic, wrote of him before her own death: 'Most of our gifted film players really belonged to the theater.

Bogarde belonged to the screen. Appearing in "Victim" was a huge career gamble. In the film, Bogarde played a married barrister who is being blackmailed over his closeted homosexuality. Rather than let the blackmail continue, and allow the perpetrators to victimize other gay men, Bogarde's character effectively sacrifices himself, specifically his marriage and his career, by bravely confessing to be gay homosexuality was an offence in the United Kingdom until , and there reportedly had been a police crackdown against homosexuals after World War II which made gay men particularly vulnerable to blackmail.

The film was not released in mainstream theaters in the US, as the Production Code Administration PCA refused to classify the film and most theaters would not show films that did not carry the PCA seal of approval. For himself, Bogarde was proud of the film and his participation in it, which many think stimulated public debate over homosexuality.

The film undoubtedly raised the public consciousness over the egregious and unjust individual costs of anti-gay bigotry. Hamburger icon An icon used to represent a menu that can be toggled by interacting with this icon. Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book. Texts Video icon An illustration of two cells of a film strip.

Video Audio icon An illustration of an audio speaker. Audio Software icon An illustration of a 3. Software Images icon An illustration of two photographs. Personal life [ edit ]. Death [ edit ]. Honours and awards [ edit ]. Filmography [ edit ]. British box office ranking [ edit ]. Other works [ edit ]. Autobiographies and memoirs [ edit ]. Novels [ edit ].

Discography [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Footnotes [ edit ]. Retrieved 13 October British Museum. Retrieved 23 November Retrieved: 29 March The London Gazette Supplement. Retrieved 31 October Other air forces allocated to these same tasks, he states, "didn't drop leaflets, they just bombed everything that moved". Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

ISBN For the Time Being. London: Penguin , The Guardian. Retrieved 25 July Retrieved 12 January BBC Culture. Retrieved 2 April Terence Rattigan — The Man and his Work. London: Quartet Books. British Film Institute. Retrieved 11 August Amersham Museum. Retrieved 7 May Retrieved: 22 September Retrieved: 9 July Retrieved: 11 July Guinness Heads Film Poll".

The Times [London, England], 2 January , p. The Times [London, England], 1 January , p. The Times [London, England] 3 January , p. Opera in Concert - Die lustige Witwe. Opera , September , p Bibliography [ edit ]. Bogarde, Dirk. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, UK: Penguin , Snakes and Ladders. Brownlow, Kevin. David Lean: A Biography. New York: St.

Martin's Press, Coldstream, John. He never married and died from a heart attack in at the age of Dirk Bogarde's legacy endures as a gifted actor, a prolific writer, and a complex and fascinating figure in the entertainment world. Dirk Bogarde English writer and actor Date of Birth: Contact About Privacy. Paul Terry. Simone Simon. Logan Williams.