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BiographyWim Sonneveld was born in Utrecht, The Netherlands, to Gerrit Sonneveld and Geertruida van den Berg.
In 1922, at a very young age, he lost his mother.
After his time at school, where he was the class clown, he had a few unsuccessful jobs.In 1932 he started singing in an amateur choir, the Keep Smiling Singers, after which he teamed up with Fons Goossens in 1934 to form a duo and perform at anniversaries of associations and institutions.
Later that year he met reviewer Huub Janssen and after a journey through France in 1936 they started living together in Amsterdam, at first on the Westermarkt, later on the Prinsengracht.
In that same year he worked for Louis Davids.
During the day he worked as an administrator and in evening he played small roles and sang chansons.
In that same period he performed with his friend Huub in his own club De Rarekiek.
In 1937 he sang in 'cabarets' (floor shows in nightclubs) with Suzy Solidor and Agnes Capri in France.After the declaration of war of 1940 he returned to the Netherlands, where he acted in plays and in the revue of Loekie Bouwmeester.
In 1940 he performed in the Theater der Prominenten and at Abraham van der Vies' De Sprookjesspelers.
Here he met Conny Stuart.
In 1943 he formed his own association, consisting among others of Conny Stuart, Lia Dorana, Albert Mol, Joop Doderer, Hetty Blok and Emmy Arbous.Wim Sonneveld was gay, though not openly as it would have been unacceptable during that era.Rim RamBetween 1943 and 1959 he staged with his own cabaret association Rim Ram a great number of shows:1943 Alleen voor dames (text by Hella Haasse)1944 Sprookjes1944 Opus drie1945 De bloemetjes buiten1945 Tingeltangel1946 Verre reizen1946 Tutti frutti1946 Leidscheplein1947 Vanavond om acht uur1947 't Is maar comedie1948 't Is historisch1949 We spelen pantomime1949 Iene-miene-mutten1950 't Is mij een raadsel1951 Herhalingsoefeningen1951 Artiestenpension1952 Boekenfeest1952 Gastenboek1952 Het meisje met de grote voeten1953 Bloemlezing (compilation show)1953 In de winckel van Sinckel1954 Waar de blanke top der duinen1955 Huis tuin en keuken1957 À la carte1959 Rim RamWillem ParelA famous creation of Wim Sonneveld was Willem Parel, son and grandson of a Dutch street organ grinder as well as chairman of the En-pé-gé, the Dutch Pearl Association (Nederlands ParelGenootschap).
This brought him great success on the VARA-radio in the early fifties.
Parel would expose movingly about ‘organ grinding in general and the psychology of the penny cup in particular’.
Over time Wim Sonneveld came to hate his creation, but he knew that Willem Parel drew a large audience and he couldn't live from just singing chansons.
In 1955 a movie was shot called The Wondrous life of Willem Parel.Film, musical, soloWim Sonneveld has played in some movies: the aforementioned The Wondrous life of Willem Parel as well has the Hollywood thriller The Pink Hippopotamus (1956) and a later the films Silk stockings (1957) and Wasp End (1957).After 702 performances of the musical My Fair Lady, since 1960, after his own club went bankrupt in 1959, with which he ‘wore out’ three Eliza Doolittles (Margriet de Groot, Dorien Mijksenaar and Jasperina de Jong) in his role as dr.
Higgins, he went solo with television shows like Doe es wat, meneer Sonneveld (1962) and Blijf in Holland (1963).
In 1964 he again took the stage with Een avond met Wim Sonneveld.Remarkable was his threefold guest role in episode 16 of the television series Ja zuster, nee zuster by Annie M.G.
Schmidt and Harry Bannink in 1967, as himself, Arie Pruijselaar junior and Arie Pruijselaar senior.
In 1967 he performed alongside Ina van Faassen in a theater show and in 1971 with Willem Nijholt and Corrie van Gorp.
His last film was Op de Hollandse toer (1973).He would have liked to end his career singing French chansons, because his heart lay in France, where he had a house in Roquefort-les-Pins.On 1974-03-08 Wim Sonneveld died at the age of 56 in the VU hospital in Amsterdam from his second heart attack.Even though Wim Sonneveld never publicly stated that he was homosexual, he shared his life only with men, first with Hubert Janssen, later with prop designer, text writer and painter Friso Wiegersma (1925–2006) whom he met in 1947 and who created the character Nikkelen Nelis for him.Famous charactersWillem ParelNikkelen Nelis the street singerFriar VenantiusThe Stable MasterFamous conferencesArtificial inseminationHello, man behind the counterCroquettesGrandfatherFamous songsHet dorpCatootjeMargootjeTearoom TangoZo heerlijk rustigDaar is de orgelmanIn een rijtuigieDoe het doek maar dicht