Joop Doderer

After his studies at the HBS he did an Entrance exam for the school of acting but he failed. In spite of that he didn't give up and soon he was accepted in "het Nederlandsch toneel" and there he made his debut in Waremar. He had a few jobs on the side that time, as he couldn't earn a living as an actor. Then in WWII he refused to report to the Kultuurkamer, a German organization for the registration of all people with a cultural or artistic occupation. Instead he went into hiding. This stopped his acting career for as long as the Netherlands were occupied by the Germans. After the war he played a lot of comedy theater and participated in several radio programs. In 1953 he joined the cabaret group of Wim Sonneveld and got national fame for the first time.

In 1955 he started his role in the TV-series "Swiebertje" as the leading role.

Swiebertje lasted until 1975. The series became legendary and even many years later people still called him Swiebertje, in fact he kept the "nickname" until he died.

That was also the reason for him to leave for England in 1975. There he got the chance to do some serious acting. After about five years in which he traveled back and forth between the Netherlands and England he returned to the Netherlands. He then returned to comedy theater and movies. In spite of health problems and even heart surgery he refused to give up acting and even started a "new" career when he played in a series of serious plays directed by Ivo ten Hove. He enjoyed that so much that he never returned to comedy theater again.

In this play he celebrated both his 80th birthday and his 60 year theater anniversary.

In 2001 he played in a theater production called "Blijvend Applaus".