Lily Bouwmeester

Lily Bouwmeester (1939)

Lily Geertruida Maria Henriëtte Bouwmeester (born September 28, 1901 in Amsterdam , Netherlands ; † July 12, 1993 in Sliedrecht , Netherlands) was a Dutch theater and film actress , one of the biggest stars in her country until the outbreak of World War II .

Live and act

The illegitimate daughter of the violinist Ludovicus Adolphus Bouwmeester (1882–1931) and the pianist Julie Marie Arpeau (1880–1952) got to know showbiz from childhood when she, at the request of her father, who had a career as a violinist in mind, accompanied her parents on their European tours. In 1913 Lily was sent to her aunt, the actress Theo Mann-Bouwmeester (1850-1939), because the constant travel of the school-age child had proven to be too stressful. Instead of being trained as a dancer, as Lily had dreamed of, Aunt Theo introduced her to acting. At the age of 15, Lily Bouwmeester made her stage debut as part of the Herman Heijermans theater company.

Bouwmeester with husband Theo Frenkel jr. (1921)

The teenager was brought in front of the camera for the first time in the following year, 1916. Another year later, Lily Bouwmeester received her first significant permanent engagement at the prestigious Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam . The up-and-coming artist, who until 1921 divided her areas of activity between stage and film, quickly gained reputation. During a preparatory phase for a new play, Lily Bouwmeester met her colleague Theo Frenkel junior (1893–1955) in 1920 , whom she was to marry the following year. The young couple then left the Stadsschouwburg to perform pieces together. In 1923 Bouwmeester and Frenkel settled in The Hague and performed at venues in Rotterdam, where the actress expanded her popularity and demonstrated her talent as a comedian. Ten years later they divorced.

In the mid-early 1930s, after remarrying (1935), Lily Bouwmeester contemplated giving up acting and becoming a housewife. In 1936, however, she accepted the tempting offer from German director Ludwig Berger , who had fled Hitler's Germany to the Netherlands, to play Pygmalion in his film adaptation of the same name. Despite her advanced age for the role at 35 - Eliza Doolittle in Shaw's play is still quite a young girl - this film, the plot of which has been relocated from England to Holland, became an overwhelming success and spearheaded Lily Bouwmeester's film career - for a year and a half She hadn't been in front of the camera for decades - a huge boost. Paramount Pictures then offered Bouwmeester a five-year contract, which she declined because her husband did not want to move to the United States. She remained in the Netherlands and appeared with great success in other films, some of which were German emigrants. In the spring of 1940 Berger gave her another leading role in his film Ergens in Nederland , then the invasion of the German Wehrmacht abruptly ended Lily Bouwmeester's film career. She declined an offer from UFA in Berlin for understandable reasons.

During the occupation, the actress hid two Jewish children in her four walls and thus put her own life in danger. After the liberation in 1945, Lily Bouwmeester received numerous film offers again, but in the meantime she had completely lost interest in working in front of the camera and from then on only played sporadically theater. Here you could see her again in a version of Shaw's Pygmalion . Now almost 50 years old, she played Eliza over 800 times. Another stage success was her 1952 in the two-person play Das Himmelbett (around 500 appearances) based on a model by Jan de Hartog , which was filmed in Hollywood with Lilli Palmer and her then husband Rex Harrison that same year . In 1967, Lily Bouwmeester was seen for the only time in a television film, and at the same time her final appearance in front of the camera. Two years later, the 68-year-old artist retired from acting and settled in the small town of Sliedrecht, where she spent the end of her life. Lily Bouwmeester died there at the age of almost 92.

Filmography (complete)

• 1916: Majoor Frans
• 1917: The Secret of Delft
• 1917: Ulbo Garvema
• 1918: Pro domo
• 1919: De duivel in Amsterdam
• 1919: Het goudvischje
• 1920: Aan boord van de 'Sabina'
• 1920: Helleveeg
• 1921: Sheer Bluff
• 1937: Pygmalion
• 1937: De man zonder hart
• 1938: Finished
• 1938: Vadertje Langbeen
• 1939: Tomorrow we don't pray!
• 1940: Ergens in Nederland
• 1967: Een stukje van jezelf (TV movie)

Web links

• detailed biography (in Dutch)
• Lily Bouwmeester in the Internet Movie Database (English)