Caroline van Dommelen

Biography

Caroline van Dommelen came from a family of actors. Her father acted in Het Nederlandsch Tooneel, and her brothers Fritz, Jan, and Louis also appeared onstage or directed. Van Dommelen herself debuted in 1893 with the Amsterdamsch Tooneelgezelschap Rentmeester.

She continued acting well into her old age. She performed her final stage roles in the 1952-1953 season.

In 1911, Van Dommelen played the lead in the first film that F.A. Nöggerath Jr. made in his new film studio in Sloten (near Amsterdam). That same year, she also made her debut as a film director: together with Léon Boedels she co-directed De bannelingen and the drama Graaf Willem IV van Holland.

In her next film, Vrouwenoogen, Van Dommelen both directed and played the lead role. Vrouwenoogen was the last film she directed, though Van Dommelen did appear for the camera a few more times throughout the 1910s, in films by Filmfabriek Hollandia and by Johan Gildemeijer and Theo Frenkel Sr.

From the 1920s onwards, she again began to focus fully on her stage career.

In 1925, she published her film memoirs in the magazine ‘De Rolprent’.