Actor Mike Ho-Sam-Sooi passed away on Friday at the age of 69. He became known in the 1980s thanks to roles in popular television series, making him one of the first actors of Surinamese descent who were known to the general public at that time.
Ho-Sam-Sooi was born in Paramaribo in 1954 and moved to the Netherlands in the mid-1970s. He experienced his breakthrough with roles in, among other things West Medical Center (1988), Then happiness was very common (1994), Good times Bad Times (1996), Gold Coast (1996), Baantjer (1998).
He made his breakthrough at a time when few Surinamese actors could be seen on TV. “Because there are so few of us, we run the risk of appearing in series too often,” he said in 1994. The Green Amsterdammer. “Then the program makers get something like: “We know that head now.” Our dark heads are already very noticeable in television series. I think white actors or actresses are less affected by that.”
Ho-Sam-Sooi also had a long track record in the theater and musical world, with roles in Dirty Dancing (2008-2009), Amandla! Mandela (2016) and The Bodyguard (2016-2017).
Ho-Sam-Sooi had a candid conversation with AT5 in 2019 about the loss of his 7-year-old son Ramses, who died in the SLM plane crash in 1989. Together with his friend Glenn Durfort (who lost his mother in the plane crash) Ho-Sam-Sooi said of the impact of that loss: “The pain of the loss remains, but as the years go by it is no longer predominantly pain. Sometimes it is not there. Sometimes you think about your son every day.”
View the full report here.
Ho-Sam-Sooi passed away on Friday after a short illness from cancer. He was married to actress Lieneke le Roux and leaves two children.
2023-06-06 21:02:51
#Amsterdam #actor #Mike #HoSamSooi #passed
