Louis Davids

Biography

Actor and revue artist Louis Davids was already acting on stage as a child, at first in carnivals with his whole family, and later with his sister Rika. Signed to Frits van Haarlem's Amsterdam variety theatre Carré, the duo quickly became successful. But when Rika married a British magician and left the Netherlands, Louis Davids found that initial success difficult to maintain. This eventually led him to form a comedy duo with his younger sister Henriëtte (Heintje), and their collaboration was a hit.

Around 1913, Davids became acquainted with the British variety artist Margie Morris, for whom he left his wife. Together they formed the duo ‘He, she and the piano’. Because Morris (her real name was Margaret Sarah Whitefoot) composed her own songs, the emphasis was on the music. The couple wrote songs for films Bleeke Bet and Oranje Hein.

Morris and Davids also both acted in the film American Girls. The couple broke up in 1922, after which Davids acted in a number of feature films, including De Jantjes. This silent film was so successful that a sound-film version was released in 1934, and Davids also played a role in this film.

From 1922 to 1926, Davids was the general manager of the Casino Theater in Rotterdam. At the same time, he also tried to play more serious roles. Significant success only returned when he returned to the revue at the end of the 1920s. From that moment on, writer Jacques van Tol regularly supplied him with texts, especially for the cabaret that Davids staged from 1931 to 1938 in the Scheveningse Kurhaus. Davids’ final film role was in Op stap.

Because of his asthma, he began slowing down during the 1930s; he first stopped his revue performances, and later his Kurhaus cabaret performances in 1938.