Newly Released Documents Show Dirk Bogarde Was a Possible Target of Russian Spymasters

UK actor Dirk Bogarde was investigated as a possible target for Russian blackmail as a closeted gay man during the Cold War, according to newly released British intelligence documents.

UK newspaper the Independent reported that Bogarde – a movie heartthrob whose career peak was in the 1950s and '60s, and whose 70+ credits include titles like "A Bridge Too Far," "The Night Porter," and "Death in Venice" – appeared, along with five others, that was supposedly supplied to Russian intelligence agency the KGB in the 1970s. The men on the list were said to be "practicing British homosexuals."

At the time, being gay was regarded as a security risk, with the rationale being that LGBTQ+ people could be blackmailed into cooperating with foreign intelligence agencies. That reasoning faded as queer civil servants and high-profile members of society became less stigmatized.

Bogarde "never publicly came out as gay," the Independent noted, "though he shared a long-term relationship with his manager, Anthony Forwood."

A report of the list, and Bogarde's name on it, prompted an investigation by British intelligence agency MI5, who interviewed Bogarde. British newspaper The Sun relayed that "In 1970, MI5 learned that he had been named as a gay man to the KGB by a man who had himself been compromised by the Russians during a visit to Moscow in the late 1950s."

According to the newly released documents, the actor was "seriously disturbed" at word of being on the list. "Bogarde said that the report was absurd and he did not know how the KGB could have received this information," MI5 agent F.M. Merifield wrote in a report, before going on to add that Bogarde "had no idea as to how the report may have reached the KGB and was clearly disturbed by it."

MI5's 1971 interview with the actor took place "in the south of France," the Sun detailed, and in its report MI5 "concluded that he was a 'retiring, serious' man who was unlikely to fall victim to any kind of KGB sting operation."

Moreover, the report did not seem to contain any malice toward Bogarde regarding his sexuality. "Mr Merifield said he emphasized that MI5 needed to warn him so that he did [not] fall for a 'simple trap' should he ever visit the Soviet Union," the Sun recounted, with Merifield writing that Bogarde "did not seem to be a promising target for them [the KGB]."

Merifield added, "Although evidence about his homosexuality seems too strong to discount, there was no reason to doubt his evidence on other matters."

"Following his acting career, Bogarde settled in the south of France, where he wrote a series of successful novels and memoirs," the Independent recalled.

Forwood died in 1988. Bogarde lived for more than a decade afterwards, dying at age 78 in 1999.