Thread: Dirk Bogarde

AKA Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde

Born: 28-Mar-1921
Birthplace: Hampstead, London, England
Died: 8-May-1999
Location of death: London, England
Cause of death: Heart Failure




Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Gay
Occupation: Actor

Nationality: England
Executive summary: A Bridge Too Far

Military service: British Army (1940-46, WWII)

Father: Ulric van den Bogaerde (artist, Times art editor)
Mother: Margaret Niven (actress)
Girlfriend: Capucine (bisexual French actress, ex-)
Special Friend: Tony Forwood (special friend, cohabited many years)


Sir Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde (28 March 1921 – 8 May 1999), better known by his stage name Dirk Bogarde, was an actor and author.

Bogarde was born in West Hampstead, London, of mixed Flemish and Scottish ancestry. His father Ulric van den Bogaerde (born in Perry Barr, Birmingham) was the art editor of The Times and his mother Margaret Niven was a former actress. He attended the former Allan Glen's School in Glasgow, a time he described as unhappy in his autobiography, although others have disputed his account. Bogarde served in World War II, reaching the rank of Captain and served in both the European and Pacific theatres, principally as an intelligence officer. In April 1945 he claimed he was one of the first Allied officers to reach the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, an experience that had the most profound effect on him and about which he found it difficult to speak for many years afterward. His horror and revulsion at the cruelty and inhumanity that he witnessed in Belsen left him with a deep-seated hostility towards Germany; he wrote in the 1990s that he would disembark from an elevator rather than ride with a German. Ironically, three of his more memorable film roles would be playing a German, one of them as a former SS officer.

Source: Wikipedia

Was his mother in any way related to David Niven? I mean, it's not a common name

Sure Dave will tell us when he returns, he is up on Niven .. :tong:

Aye the last installment is coming soon on Niven, I will be back on line at home by early next week I'll look Bogarde up in the index for ya and if he's not mentioned there I guess he's no relation.

....Bogarde gets no mention. Plenty for Bogart, Humphrey though - a good friend of Dave's, an ex Naval man and he played postal chess with GIs during WW2.

Thanks for that Dave, i bet they were long games of chess btw.