Biografia

The day before he died was spent with his friend Lauren Bacall. Apparently they had a wonderful time together.

He was a close friend of Rex Harrison, whom he named as the actor who had influenced him most in a 1963 interview with the BBC. In 1958 Bogarde provided a video message praising Harrison when the musical "My Fair Lady" transferred from Broadway to London.

In "Dirk Bogarde: The Authorized Biography" (2004), John Coldstream offers four major reasons for Bogarde's failure to become a Hollywood star in 1960. Firstly, the vehicle for his potential breakthrough, Estasi (1960), was a flop. Secondly, his talents at that time were not seen as being much different from those of, in particular, Montgomery Clift, John Cassavetes and Anthony Perkins - nor could he possibly compete as a light comedy lead in the manner of Cary Grant and Rock Hudson. Thirdly, he had had enough of making formulaic films and was determined to prove himself as a serious actor. But fourthly, and perhaps most importantly, his refusal to enter into an arranged marriage to a starlet in the style of Rock Hudson's marriage to Phyllis Gates, did not go down well among producers in Hollywood.

He was the only cast member of Quell'ultimo ponte (1977) to have actually served at the battles depicted in the film.

Suffered a stroke after undergoing heart surgery in September 1996 and spent the last three years of his life in a wheelchair.

I'll only work with new people. If you stick with your contemporaries, you're dead.

I was as scrawny as a plucked hen. The Rank Organisation did supply me with dumbbells. All I did was put on two sweaters and then put my shirt on.

I love the camera and it loves me. Well, not very much sometimes. But we're good friends.

First there was the war and then the peace to cope with, and then suddenly I was a film star. It happened all too soon.

Childhood for me was basically a backyard, a spade and a bucket of mud with someone to look after you.

Despair (1982) - $225,000

Quell'ultimo ponte (2020) - $100,000

C.I.A. Criminal International Agency sezione sterminio (1975) - $125,000

Il serpente (1973) - $75,000

Morte a Venezia (1971) - $120,000