Rijk de Gooyer

Biography

Rijk de Gooyer was born into a Dutch Reformed family and was born and raised in Utrecht. He has a fraternal twin. At the end of the Second World War he swam across the River Waal to the already-liberated southern part of the Netherlands. He joined the liberation army and was involved in freeing the rest of the Netherlands and the German concentration camp, Bergen-Belsen. After the war, he studied law for a few months prior to becoming an actor in radio plays for the NCRV (the Dutch Christian Broadcasting Corporation).

In 1948, De Gooyer acted in Wim Kan's ABC Cabaret. In 1952 he met Johnny Kraaykamp, Sr. The two decided to perform together and were discovered by the AVRO (the General Association of Radio Broadcasting). They had great success with their Johnny en Rijk-show. From 1959 to 1961, De Gooyer went to acting school in Berlin and in 1964 he had a hit with the song 'Brief uit La Courtine', with music written by Ponchielli and text by Eli Asser.

As a film actor, De Gooyer played in films such as Kleren maken de man, De inbreker, Soldaat van Oranje, De avonden, Hoogste tijd and Qui vive. In 1991 the VARA Broadcasting Association ran the television series In voor en tegenspoed in which he played the role of Fred Schuit.

De Gooyer won a Golden Calf three times in his life. In 1982 he refused to accept the award, which he received for his entire oeuvre. He threw his second Golden Calf, awarded for his film Hoogste tijd, out the window of Maarten Spanjer's television taxi because, as he put it, the awards were a lame imitation of an Oscar ceremony. The third time he was awarded a Golden Calf, for the film Madelief, krassen in het tafelblad from 1999, he accepted it.