As an actor, Dirk Bogarde became a giant of the intellectual cinema, working with directors such as Joseph Losey, Lucino Visconti, and Alain Resnais. Fiercely protective of his privacy, and that of his partner of 40 years, he left England in the 1960s to live on the continent, where he carved a second career for himself as a bestselling autobiographer and successful novelist. Although Bogarde destroyed many of his papers, his family has made available his personal archive to John Coldstream, who knew him well in his last years.

Dirk Bogarde: The Authorised Biography

Biographies & Memoirs

Coldstream, John

Arts & Literature

Orion Publishing

Phoenix

Victim (1961) was a landmark film, not only for Dirk Bogarde in taking on the role of the title’s victim - the homosexual barrister who takes on the blackmailers who prey on gay men - but also in the personal lives of many who went to see the film. Its message about the need for society to remove, by decriminalization, a means of persecuting a specific minority was one with which Bogarde identified fully, but could, for obvious reasons, champion only through a work of fiction. James Mason and Jack Hawkins had turned down the role; Bogarde, with more to lose than either of them, seized it with relish. Published to mark the 50th anniversary of the film’s release, John Coldstream’s insightful study addresses the film’s importance in the campaign to decriminalize homosexuality; the contribution of its stars Dirk Bogarde and Sylvia Syms to its emotional impact; and the risk Bogarde took in taking on the central role.

Victim (BFI Film Classics)

Humor & Entertainment

Movies

British Film Institute

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Books by Coldstream, John