That most subtle of actors, Dirk Bogarde (1921-1999) was an international matinee idol who developed into a character actor of great skill and depth. Born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde in Hampstead, England, he was schooled in Scotland and England and worked as a scene designer before making his debut both on the stage and in films (as an extra) in 1939. After his service in World War II, Bogarde's movie career began in earnest when he won a contract with Rank studios, where he played increasingly important roles.

He became an audience favorite with the satirical "Doctor" series, in which he plays a medical student (later doctor) facing farcical misadventures. The series included Doctor in the House (1954), Doctor at Sea (1956), Doctor at Large (1957) and Doctor in Distress (1963).

Other notable Bogarde vehicles of the 1950s included Cast a Dark Shadow (1955), in which he showed his range as a Bluebeard-like wife-killer; The Spanish Gardener (1956), an offbeat character study with echoes of Graham Greene's The Fallen Idol; Night Ambush (1957), known in Great Britain as Ill Met By Moonlight, with Bogarde heading a distinguished British cast in a World War II adventure set in Crete; The Doctor's Dilemma (1958), a film version of the George Bernard Shaw comedy/drama, with Bogarde as the rakish, consumptive husband who may not be deemed worthy of saving by the medical community; and Libel (1959), with Bogarde and Olivia de Havilland as a married couple who fight to prove the husband's identity after he is accused of being an imposter.

Bogarde's emergence as a first-rate character actor came with his nuanced yet powerful performances in Victim (1962), as a lawyer who is blackmailed because of his homosexuality; and The Servant (1963), as an insiduous valet in this black comedy by Harold Pinter. The latter performance won Bogarde the British Academy's Best Actor award.

Bogarde made only one film in Hollywood, Song Without End (1960), in which he played Franz Liszt. But he played opposite American actresses Ava Gardner in The Angel Wore Red (1960) and Judy Garland in I Could Go On Singing (1963). In The Password Is Courage (1963), he plays true-life World War II hero and POW Sergeant-Major Charlie Coward.

Among Bogarde's later distinguished performances were those in Darling (1965), opposite Julie Christie, Our Mother's House (1967), Death in Venice (1971), The Night Porter (1974), Providence (1977), Despair (1979) and Daddy Nostalgia (1990). He also was an author of note, writing a multi-volume series of memoirs and several novels.

by Roger Fristoe