Louis H. Chrispijn Senior

Biography

Louis H. Chrispijn Sr. was an actor and director. He made his acting debut at eighteen with the Amsterdamse Vereenigde Tooneellisten company. He quickly became well-known as a jeune premier, and proceeded to perform with companies in The Hague and Rotterdam.

In 1893, he was one of the founders of the Nederlandsche Tooneelvereeniging, where he both acted and directed. After a series of disagreements, Chrispijn left the Tooneelvereeniging and became a director-actor at Het Nederlandsch Tooneel.

Chrispijn worked at Het Nederlandsch Tooneel until director and producer Maurits H. Binger hired him as director for the feature films made by Filmfabriek Hollandia. Chrispijn also played a role in Binger’s theatre company Hollandia Tooneel.

In his three years at Hollandia, he directed 25, mostly short films that featured performers like Annie Bos and his previous wife Christine van Meeteren.

Dissatisfied with the artistic quality of the Hollandia films, Chrispijn shifted his professional efforts back to the theatre in 1915.

Until 1922, he was a director and actor at the Rotterdamsch Tooneel. Chrispijn’s influence is most felt in the world of theatre, for example in how he introduced the Netherlands to the work of Henrik Ibsen; Chrispijn was also a strong supporter of ‘bare acting’, stripped of any pathos