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Dirk Bogarde Quotes

Dirk Bogarde
  • Mini Bio
  • Name: Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde
  • Born: 28th March 1921, West Hampstead, London, England
  • Died: 8th May 1999, Chelsea, London, England
  • Alma mater: University College School and Chelsea School of Art
  • Occupation: Actor, author and novelist
  • Height: 5' 8½" (1.74 m)
  • Stage name: After WWII his agent renamed him Dirk Bogarde and by the early 1950's his name was synonymous as the quintessential British actor directors could rely on
  • Nicknames: Pip, Pippin and The Idol Of The Odeon
  • Author: He started late as a writer at the age of 56 but he still managed 6 best selling novels and 9 volumes of his memoirs

"Cinema is just a form of masturbation. Sexual relief for disappointed people"

Dirk Bogarde

"The US Majors slunk away in cold fury [Cannes 1984]. I think it might be hard to get them back next year, but that is not my problem! They dislike being judged, they said, by 'a European jury'. Well: they bloody well were this year: and found wanting"

Dirk Bogarde

"It will make a bomb, with all those Stars how can it fail? Adored Sean C and worked very happily indeed with him... and made a surprising new mate in Ryan O'Neil who could not be nicer, jollier and brighter"

Dirk Bogarde

"Attenborough is breathing fire about his forthcoming 'Ghandi' and I walk in dread that he'll ask me to read 'the first draft"

Dirk Bogarde

"Gene Hackman was a bit Methody and got cross if the camera operator was on the set while he was rehearsing"

Dirk Bogarde

"So there you are. No reserve, no suspicion, no need to stay intact or hide. I am me. Wide out in the open"

Dirk Bogarde

"Holland was hell. Apart from the van Goghs, Rembrants and the Vermeers it is all a lot of crappy horror"

Dirk Bogarde

"Terror lurks not very far beneath this apparently cool facade. I'm as cool as a microwave oven really"

Dirk Bogarde

"I detest bloody politicians. They are disposable. But do appalling harm before dropping out"

Dirk Bogarde

"Women write and say; I let my husband do it because I think it's you lying on top of me"

Dirk Bogarde

"TV? Never! I don't want my audience going for a piss or making tea while I'm hard at work"

Dirk Bogarde

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

Dirk Bogarde

"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"

Dirk Bogarde

"There's something wrong with actors, we've always been a suspect breed"

Dirk Bogarde

"I was as scrawny as a plucked hen. The Rank Organisation did supply me with dumbbells"

Dirk Bogarde

"The kind of acting I used to do no longer exists because your prime consideration is the budget, running time, the cost - and whether they'll understand it in Milwaukee"

Dirk Bogarde

"The camera can photograph thought"

Dirk Bogarde

"I don't lose my temper often; about once every twenty years perhaps"

Dirk Bogarde

"I just bash along I fear, and things get left behind rather"

Dirk Bogarde

"I am about the most irreverent fellow you could meet"

Dirk Bogarde

"Rage is sometimes inside. Heard of a Rage To Live?"

Dirk Bogarde
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Dirk Borgarde Biography

Dirk Borgarde was the box office heart throb of British cinema goers in the 1950's who starred in 63 movies and played uncredited roles in a further 2 films. Before his rise to fame he fought in WWII where he served mostly in Europe and rose to the rank of major and it had an effect on him that would last a lifetime.

As an example; Dirk Bogarde was quoted as saying about the liberation of the Belsen concentration camp: "The gates were opened and then I realised that I was looking at Dante's Inferno, I mean ... I ... I still haven't seen anything as dreadful. And never will".

After the war he pursued his ambition for a movie career and before long he was an in demand matinee idol of the silver screen who could do no wrong. Indeed, the film critic Philip French described him as: "Dark, exotic and yet essentially English".

His first notable role saw him cast as the hardened criminal Tom Riley in the 1950 movie The Blue Lamp. The 1954 success of Doctor In The House presented the opportunity to star in the 'Doctor' series which ran for 5 movies culminating with Doctor In Distress in 1963.

He later starred in 2 notable roles in Death in Venice (1971) and The Night Porter (1973) before he auditioned for the role of Lieutenant General Browning in A Bridge Too Far (1977). When he successfully secured his role in "A Bridge Too Far" he was the only actor cast in the movie to serve at any of the actual WWII battles featured in the film, but this put him at odds with Richard Attenborough the director because he knew the General from WWII and he disputed the negative reflection in the movie of the honourable British officer.

In his later life he became a prolific writer who had a gift for best sellers. He was also good for a one liner so here is my compilation of 21 of the best Dirk Bogarde quotes

Quotes About Dirk Borgarde

Movie director Michael Winner said of him: "Every girl in the country was in love with him. He was the UK's Leonardo DiCaprio of his day"

Film critic and author Margaret Hinxman said about him, "At his peak and with directors he trusted; Joseph Losey, Luchino Visconti and Alain Resnais - Dirk Bogarde was probably the finest, most complete, actor on the screen"

Dirk Bogarde image quote