SCREEN LEGEND DIRK BOGARDE DIES AT 78
Tributes are flooding in for the actor turned writer, Sir Dirk Bogarde, who died of a heart attack at his home on Saturday night. He was 78.
The Queen, who would have grown up with Bogarde on her TV screen, seeing him as thousands of others did in Death in Venice, Darling and The Servant, was said to be “saddened” by the news.
Director Michael Winner called him the Leonardo di Caprio of his day.
"People forget that Dirk Bogarde was the male hero of Britain for about 20 years," he said. Every girl in the country was in love with him. He was the UK's Leonardo di Caprio of his day.
"He was a glamour actor who could turn in a great character performance as well and his longevity was simply astounding.
"Towards the end he did become a bit of a recluse but he kept active in the mind. They don't grow them like that now - it's a very sad day."
Former actress and junior transport minister Glenda Jackson said: "I'm desperately sorry that he's died. He was our first home-grown film star - he made some remarkable films."
Born in March 1921, Derek Niven Van den Bogaerde had a portfolio of over 70 films when he died, but the actor said the Second World War was the single most important event in his life.
As Captain Dirk Bogarde of the Queen's Royal Regiment, he had to drive in to the Belsen concentration camp the day after it was liberated from the Germans - he said nothing would ever frighten or disturb him as much again.
In his fifties he switched from film to books and became a successful novelist. A series of autobiographical works For The Time Being was published last year and in 1996 he celebrated selling a million books.
But the “idol of the Odeon” was a paradox in the movie world. Scorning the limelight of Hollywood he chose to live in a 15th century farmhouse in Provence with his manager and long time friend, Tony Forwood.
In keeping with his reclusive lifestyle, Sir Dirk requested in his last will that he wanted no memorials or funeral. ”Just forget me,” he said. He was knighted in 1992.
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Screen Legend Dirk Bogarde dies at 78
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And yeah, well, China was pretty unpleased with NATO accidently bombing their embassy in what once were Yugoslavia!
Clipped from Sky News.
