Dirk Bogarde

"Dirk Bogarde holds a unique place in the world of the arts. As a Rank contract actor he was 'the Idol of the Odeons', but in 1961 broke free of celebrity's straightjacket to make Victim, a modest thriller with a big theme, which helped to change the law on homosexuality. He went on to become a giant of the intellectual cinema in films such as The Servant, Death in Venice and Providence, working with Losey, Visconti, Resnais, Fassbinder and Tavernier." "Famously protective of his privacy and that of Anthony Forwood, who shared his life for forty years, Bogarde left England in 1969 to live…