Johannes Heesters
Movie Actor
Remembered for his roles in such mid 20th-century German-language films as Viktor und Viktoria and Die Jungfrau auf dem Dach, this Dutch-born actor also performed in numerous stage productions and released two vocal music albums.
He began his entertainment career by performing in a 1934 Austrian production of the operetta Der Bettelstudent.
He lived to be 108 years old and, at the time of his death, was worth an estimated 65,000,000 dollars.
His first marriage, to Belgian actress Louisa Ghijs, lasted from 1930 until Ghijs' death in 1985 and produced children named Wiesje and Nicole. In 1992, Simone Rethel became his second wife.
While living in Germany during the World War II years, he performed for the intheir Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Heesters' legacy is all the more controversial because Joseph Goebbels named him an artist of importance to the Nazi regime.