TVOn Monday it was announced that another member of the ‘Sesame Street’ family has died. Sien Diels, the mother figure of well-known dolls such as Ieniemienie and Pino, died at the age of 74. Barely a year after the iconic character Mr. Aart died in a traffic accident. “It’s getting quieter in ‘Sesame Street’”, it sounds on social media. But what about the remaining Dutch-speaking cast members such as Frank, Hakim, Pino and Peetje?
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See Parts: the mother figure
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See Parts played in Sesame Street from 1976 to 2012 and is the oldest ‘real’ resident. The Flemish played the role of Sien, an independent woman who had her own supermarket. She gradually evolved into a mother figure in the series. The actress called ‘Sesame Street’ her life’s work. “The most beautiful thing I’ve ever done.”
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Diels passed away this week at the age of 74. Her cause of death is unknown. In recent years, the actress stopped appearing on the screen. At the beginning of 2000 she did have smaller roles in Thuis’, ‘Witse’, ‘FC De Kampioenen’, ‘Sedes & Belli’ and ‘Flikken’.
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Frank Groothof: the ideal uncle
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Frank Groothof (74) first appeared in the series in 1983 as a naughty boy. “According to the director, I was the one who most suited that beautiful description,” the actor said about his recruitment. Later on, Frank’s character evolved into a fun uncle. “‘Sesame Street’ is a program that you can safely let your children watch while you are cooking,” said the Dutchman.
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Read more below the photo.
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This year, the retired Groothof and his brother René toured the Netherlands with the family show ‘Circus Charms’: a musical variety show in which the Russian avant-gardists from the 1920s play a central role.
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Renée Menschaar: Pino
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Renée Menschaar (66) has been playing the role of Pino since 1991: a cheerful blue bird who often surprises and asks many questions. Manscissors was the first woman ever to wear Pino’s suit. “Pino sounds very hoarse. I have no idea how I got to that voice, but it just came,” she once said of the character.
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The actress does not like to be in public at all, so there are hardly any photos of her. She is also scant with information about her personal life. Currently, the Dutch is still active as a professional puppeteer.
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Aart Staartjes: the grumpy whiner
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The Dutch actor and director Aart Pigtails was known in ‘Sesame Street’ since 1984 as Meneer Aart, the grumbling neighbor across the street who said what it stood for and couldn’t take his loss. The actor died last year at the age of 81 from the consequences of a traffic accident with his microcar. His acting career had been put on hold for a while. In 2017, he still played in a commercial for the energy company Eneco.
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Despite his “evil role”, the figure often evoked the sympathy of the public. Also in real life Staartjes was someone who said what it was all about and, especially at a younger age, did not shy away from quarrels. When ‘Sesame Street’ came under fire in 2009 and the broadcast time was brought forward, he turned out to be a spokesman for the resistance and an advocate of public broadcasting. “In Hilversum they are only busy with the match against the commercialists. Look, we have the highest viewing figures,” it sounded then.
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Gerda Havertong: the spicy aunt
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Gerda Havertong (74) played the role of Peetje since 1984: a cheerful Surinamese aunt who loves good food, sweets and singing.
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Havertong was still busy in recent years. In 2018 she appeared in the TV program ‘The worst driver in the Netherlands VIPS’ and in ‘The Passion’, a Dutch musical-biblical event. She is also a much sought-after guest speaker. This year she had to say goodbye to her husband Roelof Lenten (86). He died of the coronavirus.
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Read more below the video.
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Bert Plagman: Tommie
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Bert Plagman (72) took on the role of Tommie in 1979. Tommie is an enthusiastic and enterprising dog. Sometimes he can get angry quickly, but most of the time he is very cheerful. In recent years, the Dutchman has continued to participate in various puppet theater productions. In 2020 he paid a moving tribute to the deceased Aart Staartjes in ‘De Wereld Draait Door’.
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Read more below the video.
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Hakim Traidi: the joker
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The Dutch-Algerian actor Hakim Traïdia (65) joined ‘Sesame Street’ in 1984. Before that, he mainly played theater on the street. In the series, Hakim is the clown of the group. He can draw well and knows many magic tricks.
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Since 2020, Traïdia has been part of the cast of the popular Dutch soap opera ‘Goede Tijden, Bad Tijden’. He plays the Moroccan Sami El Amrani there. His character recently went abroad in the series.
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Paula Sleyp: the grandmother
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Paula Sleyp took over the role of the sweet grandmother in ‘Sesame Street’ from Mieke Verstraete in 1982. A role to which she has given her own twist, she said in an interview with the newspaper Trouw: “I have become more modern over the years. At first I was quite a boring lady.”
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The Antwerp woman worked on the series for 28 years, until she had to stop in 2010 due to health problems. She passed away in 2019. Sleyp also played in the VTM soap ‘Wittekerke’ and had guest roles in the VRT series ‘Thuis’ and ‘Witse’.
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Lot Lohr: the career woman
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Lot Lohr (58) debuted in 1988 as a sort of sister to the dolls. She eventually grew into a working mother who is often too busy to take care of the children.
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Lohr has not had major acting roles in recent years. However, she still regularly voiced voices for cartoons. For years she played the role of Timmy Turner in the Nickelodeon series ‘The Fairly OddParents’. In recent years she has also read to children in libraries and classes.
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Read more below the video.
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Paul Haenen and Wim T. Schippers: Bert and Ernie
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The Dutch duo Paul Haenen (75) and Wim T. Schippers (79) has been the voice of the iconic duo Bert and Ernie for years. Bert is the moody of the two, Ernie the cheerful naive. “Sesame Street was supposed to have a learning aspect, but it was also supposed to entertain the kids,” the duo said.
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Haenen was so eager to participate in ‘Sesame Street’ because, according to him, it was the first time you saw dolls that were “very witty”. The man is still professionally active. Last week he was the presenter of the annual Coming Out Day.
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T. Schippers is again active in the theater world. In 2011 and 2012 he performed his play ‘The last nippertje’. The man is also active as an artist. For example, in 2016 he had his own art exhibition in Bohn.
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Martin van Waardenberg: the annoying neighbor
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Comedian and actor Martin van Waardenberg (65) made its appearance in 2002 as Neighbor Baasje. He took over Mr Aart’s role as an annoying neighbor a bit, because Aart had become friendlier over the years. Moreover, Baasje does not live in Sesame Street, but in the adjacent Maanzaadstraat.
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Van Waardenberg is still active on and off the stage. In 2020, for example, he played in the comedy ‘Greetings from Gerri’, by Frank Lammers (‘Undercover’). A month ago, the actor, together with his colleague Wilfried de Jong, won the VSCD Oeuvre Prize for “lastingly” changing the Dutch theater landscape.
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Stop
There are no new episodes of ‘Sesame Street’ on the way for now. In 2019, the American licensee ‘Sesame Street’ decided to stop giving it permission.
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Cast members reacted then furious: “We were slowly but surely sidelined and were especially not allowed to say anything about it. I assumed we wouldn’t be back to work, but somehow the treatment affects me greatly. It makes me so upset that I think: what have we done to you?”, says Renée Meneloos, who plays Pino.
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Read also
“Now join us in ‘Sesame Street’”: excited reactions to the death of Sien Diels
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