MI5 warned actor Dick Bogarde he could be targeted by KGB for being gay
Newly declassified MI5 files have revealed that film star Dirk Bogarde had been warned by security services that the KGB had identified him as a “practising homosexual” and he could face being compromised in a sting operation.
The files show that his name appeared on a list of six British gay men given to the Russians by a source who had himself been blackmailed during a visit to Moscow in the late 1950s.
The document goes on to describe the actor as “clearly disturbed” by the news.Bogarde never publicly came out but lived with his manager and life partner Anthony Forwood.
He was reportedly informed of the threat by MI5, alongside further intelligence from a KGB defector codenamed Kago. Kago had told MI5 that a young British actor, believed to have starred in a film with a title resembling “the kingdom of something,” was targeted for recruitment by the Soviets between 1958 and 1959.Dirk Bogarde had never been to Russia and reportedly worried about the prospect of ever travelling there, as he might be invited to visit or film there.
