Johannes Heesters

Heesters was born in Amersfoort, Netherlands, the youngest of four sons. His father Jacobus Heesters (1865-1946) was a salesman and his mother Geertruida Jacoba van den Heuvel (1866-1951), a homemaker.

Johannes Heesters was born on December 5, 1903 in Amersfoort, Utrecht, Netherlands as Johan Marius Nicolaas Heesters.

Johannes Heesters was the oldest performer (singer and actor) worldwide. The Dutch actor, singer and entertainer had a career going back to 1921.

The actor Johannes Heesters got a first engagement at the Amsterdamer Sprechbühne after a singing and acting training. Besides he already appeared for the first time in a movie in "Cirque Hollandais" (1924).

Immensely popular and durable Dutch-born star of German films and television. The son of a merchant, he initially aimed for a career in the clergy, but eventually studied singing and acting in Amsterdam. From 1934, he performed as a tenor in operettas in Vienna and at the Berlin Metropol, after which he was noticed by the film company Ufa.

He is the most famous "Count Danilo" from "Die lustige Witwe" (The Merry Widow) whom he played for 32 years from 1938 to 1970 on stage.

Heesters befriended several high-ranking Nazi-officials and SS-officers. According to German author Volker Kühn, Heesters did in fact perform for the SS in Dachau concentration camp. For this claim he uses as evidence the testimony of Dachau inmate Viktor Matejka who worked for the SS and told Kühn he pulled the curtain when Heesters performed in 1941. In December 2009, Heesters lost his libel suit against Kühn. While acknowledging having visited the camp, Heesters denied having performed as entertainment for the SS troops. In its ruling, the German court did not find that Kühn's allegations were true, but rather that too much time had passed for an accurate determination of fact to be made.

He was an actor, known for Die Fledermaus (1946), Whirled into Happiness (1951) and Im Weissen Rössl (1952). He was married to Simone Rethel and Wiesje Ghijs.

From the 60's he only appeared in two more movies on the big screen - "Junge Leute brauchen Liebe" (1961) and "Otto - der Film" (1985). Otherwise he restricted his activity to operettas and TV productions.

Heesters is known to have funded the German war machine by donating money to the weapons industry. This helped to make Heesters a very controversial figure in the late 1970s. Heesters always denied these accusations despite reliable evidence.

To his numerous prices beside the Filmband in Gold 1975 also belong the Media and Television Award "Bambi" to which he had a very special relationship. He got this award in 1967 for the first time, in the next years followed other Bambis in 1987, 1990, 1997 and 2003.

One of his last great roles he played an Carl-Heinz Schroth's side in the TV-movie "Sonny Boys" (1982).

He entered the Guinness Book of Records in 1997 as the world's oldest stage actor.

On his 100th birthday Heesters received the title "Kammersänger". In December 2004, aged 101, Heesters appeared in Stuttgart at the Komödie im Marquardt theatre in a show commissioned on the occasion of his 100th birthday, Heesters - eine musikalische Hommage. In 2005 aged 102 he was featured as a soloist in a major concert tour with the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg under the direction of Scott Lawton.

As of 2005, he holds the record of being the oldest performer worldwide who is still active, both on stage and on television.

As a particular tribute he got a Bambi every year from 2007 as long as he should live, so five more Bambis joined his collection.

Took part himself in a revue - called 'Jopie - Eine Jahrhundert-Revue' - that originally was only dedicated to his (nearly) life-long work on stage (Weimar/Germany, 23rd June 2008).

In December 2010, the 107-year old Heesters announced that he had quit smoking for his then 61-year-old wife: "She should have me as long as possible".

He is working on a role as Petrus (Peter, keeper of Heaven's) in the German movie "Ten" (July 2011).