Wim Sonneveld

Biography

Wim Sonneveld was a Dutch cabaret artist and singer. His singing career started in 1932 with the amateur group Keep Smiling Singers. Two years later he started a duo with Fons Goossens, and they performed for club parties and organisations. Later that year he met the reviewer Huub Janssen, with whom he would live in Amsterdam. In 1937, Sonneveld worked in cabaret shows with Suzy Solidor and Agnes Capri in France.

In 1939 he returned to the Netherlands and, among other things, he performed in Loekie Bouwmeester's revue. One year later he performed at the Theater der Prominenten. In 1943 he started up his own company, which performed until 1959. Sonneveld also acted in films, including Het wonderlijke leven van Willem Parel, Silk Stockings (Rouben Mamoulian, 1957) and Op de Hollandse toer. In the 1960s he made television shows such as Doe es wat, meneer Sonneveld (1962) and Blijf in Holland (1963). On 8 March 1974, Wim Sonneveld died of a heart attack at the age of 56.