Aart Staartjes

Early life

Aart Staartjes was born in Nieuwendam, a neighbourhood of Amsterdam-Noord. He had an older brother, and a younger sister. They lived in a house on the Nieuwendammerdijk. His father, his grandfather, and an uncle of his worked in a carpentry shop located behind the house. Staartjes started his primary education at the age of eight. After that, he went to the mulo in Amsterdam, followed by the Kweekschool, a teachers' college. He dropped out of the Kweekschool in 1958, and went to the theater school instead. He graduated in 1961.

Career

Staartjes made his debut in 1961 in Meneer Topaze, based on a play written by Marcel Pagnol in the 1930s.

In 1984, Aart started to play the role of Mr. Aart in Sesamstraat, the Dutch adaptation of Sesame Street. Mr. Aart is a rather grumpy elderly man who always has something to complain about. Especially about the animal characters Pino, Tommie and Ieniemienie. This character was added because critics felt Sesamstraat was to idyllic and needed something to counteract this. Over the years, Mr. Aart gradually became milder developed into a more grandfatherly figure. This probably happened because of the death of Lex Goudsmit, who was considered to be the previous "grandpa" of Sesamstraat.

Personal life

Staartjes was twenty-two years old when his first child was born. He divorced his first wife sixteen years later. He later married a woman named Hanna.