ANPWieteke van Dort at her 50th anniversary as an artist in 2013
NOS News•Tuesday, 18:28•Modified Tuesday, 21:44
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Petra Steenhoff
editor Online
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Petra Steenhoff
editor Online
Actress and singer Wieteke van Dort died on Monday at the age of 81 in her hometown of The Hague. Her family confirmed this to the ANP news agency. Her husband Theo Moody, to whom she had been married for over 50 years, died a week earlier. Two months ago it was announced that she was seriously ill and had metastatic cancer.
Van Dort is perhaps best known for her alter ego Tante Lien. This old Indian lady always greeted the audience with “dear people” and was an immediate success.
Van Dort also had great success as a dignified lady in The Stratemakeropzeeshow and as Titia Rabbit in JJ De Bom, formerly a friend of children. She also liked to sing. Often these were children’s songs, but also songs like Just give me Nasi goreng in Poor The Hague.
Lost everything
Louisa Johanna Theodora van Dort was born on 16 May 1943 in Surabaya. In characters and songs she often referred back to her youth in the former Dutch East Indies.
Her move to the Netherlands was not voluntary. When she was on holiday in the Netherlands with her mother and stepfather in 1957 at the age of fourteen, the Indonesian president Sukarno nationalised all Dutch companies, preventing them from returning and causing them to lose everything they owned.
The family settled in The Hague, like many Dutch-Indonesians, where Van Dort went to high school. She did not finish it. “I had a great time there,” she said about that period. “My report cards showed that I did not do much, but at that school there was every opportunity to draw, paint and act.”
Kindergarten teacher
She wanted to go to drama school, but she wasn’t accepted because she looked too young. “The director said, ‘You look like a chick just hatched, even though you’re 17. Go do something else first.'”
That’s why she first trained as a nursery school teacher and a drawing course, both of which she completed. Then she went on to study at the Theater School in Amsterdam for two years, but she didn’t finish that course. “I had no talent, they thought. I only had a talent for acrobatics.”
She started working at the Nieuwe Komedie in 1964. There she worked as an intern, because she did not have a diploma as an actress, and she was also paid as such. It was not until 1966, when she was asked for the role of Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo in Juliashe demanded and received the position of actress and the accompanying salary.
Titia Rabbit
In 1968 she also started working as a cabaret artist at the ABC Cabaret of Wim Kan and Corry Vonk, which performed in the Scheveningen Kurhaus. Wim Kan had met them through their joint singing teacher Kees Smulders.
After her marriage in 1970 to psychotherapist Theo Moody, Van Dort’s stage career ended. Moody already had children and Van Dort did not think it was responsible to be away from home every night for performances. Instead, she concentrated on radio and television work, because she could do that during the day.
Van Dort played with Willem Nijholt in the children’s series ‘Oebele’:
For three years she played with Willem Nijholt in the children’s series Oebele and she became very famous on the radio with the toddler program Radio Noise ParrotA television version of this was later made, which she presented.
As a dignified lady she worked in the early 1970s The Stratemakeropzeeshow for the first time together with Joost Prinsen and Aart Staartjes. This trio would make many more successful children’s programs. Such as JJ de Bom/formerly The Children’s Friend in which Van Dort appeared as Titia Konijn, and The core in which she played various characters until old age.
Wieteke van Dort as a dignified lady in the Stratemakeropzeeshow.
Van Dort also played Jul the miller’s daughter in the legendary television series Can you tell me the way to Hamelin, sir? and she was Pinkelotje in the movie Pinky (1978).
In the 70s she also made her first appearance in TV broadcasts around Sinterklaas. For years, Van Dort welcomed the good saint and his helpers in the Netherlands in November. The Head Piet (played by Piet Römer) always affectionately called her Vrouwtje Wiet. Later she was also seen several times as Her Majesty in Sinterklaas films.
Satay-Pig-Boys
In the late 70s she started in the Late Late Lien show with the character Tante Lien. That was a resounding success. Immediately after the first episode, VARA received 3000 letters. Especially from Dutch people with Indonesian roots. They had a lot of appreciation for her songs and stories about that period.
In the Late Late Lien Show sketches, songs, traditional dances and stories about the Indies were performed. The house band Satay-Pig-Boys under the leadership of Harry Bannink completed the program.
Watch an episode of the Late Late Lien Show below.
Due to the great success of Tante Lien, Van Dort decided to perform as this character again and she continued to do so for the rest of her life. Tante Lien was a welcome guest at former soldiers, at pasar malams (Indonesian markets), in theaters and at Indonesian party nights.
The character was even popular in Indonesia, where a participant Indonesia Got Talent dressed as Aunt Lien with one of her most famous songs, Just give me Nasi goreng.
In addition to her acting, Van Dort released several records and CDs with children’s songs and songs about the Indies. She illustrated children’s books and wrote a few herself. She also worked a lot for De Efteling: there she voiced the fairy tales Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel, for example.
You can play the role of Aunt Lien until you are very old, so I will continue to do that.
Wieteke van Dort in 2014
Wieteke van Dort has received numerous awards, such as several Edisons, a Nipkow disc for JJ Goodgold records and she also received a royal distinction.
In 2007, she received a military award on National Veterans Day for the respectful way in which she presented the Indonesian past.
Porcelain
Later in life Van Dort started painting and drawing and painting porcelain. She has exhibited regularly. At the end of January 2012 she underwent a serious heart operation, but she did not want to stop.
“I don’t have the idea that I’m done with everything yet. You can play the role of Aunt Lien until you’re very old, so I’ll just keep doing that,” she said in 2014 to Broadcasting West.
At the age of eighty she still starred in the film In love with Bali (2024). She then struggled with ill health for months, which she attributed to a persistent flu. Eventually it turned out to be cancer. She died on Monday, a week after her husband.
