Rijk de Gooyer

Biography

De Gooyer was raised in a baker's family, born as one half of a fraternal twin. In World War II he worked as an interpreter. Initially for the American 101st Airborne, later on for the British Field Security. From 1959 till 1961 de Gooyer studied at an actors school of the UFA in Berlin. During these years, he would have worked for the CIA as an informant.

In the 1950s, he started a comic duo with Johnny Kraaijkamp. Thanks to their performances on TV, the duo became extremely popular. In the Johnny & Rijk shows, De Gooyer always played the part of the feeder, with Kraaijkamp providing the laughs. They split up in the 1970s, when De Gooyer focused more on his film career.

He played in films such as Soldaat van Oranje, De Inbreker and Madelief, krassen in het tafelblad. In 1982 he won the Golden Calf for Best Actor for all his works, according to him he could have won it a year ago but because he wasn't there it went to Rutger Hauer. In 1995 he threw his Golden Calf for Hoogste Tijd out on the street after the ceremony. De Gooyer was videotaped while he threw the award out of the window because he was on the Dutch hidden-camera show Taxi (the Dutch version of Taxicab Confessions). His (current) last Golden Calf, for Madelief, Krassen in het Tafelblad was also thrown out on the street this time by Maarten Spanjer (who hosted Taxi). De Gooyer could be seen in various Dutch commercials, for companies such as Reaal, KPN and Paturain.

De Gooyer was the lead in In voor- en tegenspoed, the Dutch version of Johnny Speight's sitcom franchise (known in the UK as Till Death Us Do Part among other names and in the U.S. as All in the Family). De Gooyer played Fred Schuit (literally Fred Barge), the Dutch equivalent of Alf Garnett or Archie Bunker. He won a Golden Film in 1997 for the role.