James Stratton Holmes (2 May 1924 – 6 November 1986) was an American-Dutch poet, translator, and translation scholar. He sometimes published his work using his real name James S. Holmes, and other times the pen names Jim Holmes and Jacob Lowland. In 1956 he was the first non-Dutch translator to receive the prestigious Martinus Nijhoff Award, the most important recognition given to translators of creative texts from or into Dutch.
Dr. Abraham Bredius (18 April 1855 in Amsterdam – 13 March 1946 in Monaco) was a Dutch art collector, art historian, and museum curator.
Lodewijk Karel "Loki" Bruckman (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈloːdəʋɛik ˈkaːrəl ˈloːki ˈbrʏkmɑn]; 14 August 1903 – 24 April 1995) was a Dutch magic realist painter. He lived and worked in the Netherlands, the United States, and Mexico. Museum de Oude Wolden in the village of Bellingwolde has a permanent exhibition of his paintings.
Josephus Carel Franciscus (Jef) Last (2 May 1898 in The Hague – 15 February 1972 in Laren) was a Dutch poet, writer, translator and cosmopolitan.Jef Last was a writer and socially compassionate man. He had a Catholic background. However, he was very young member of the SDAP and the "AJC". With these principles, he could not practice as an assistant manager of the Enka in Ede, and eventually he resigned.He left the revisionist social democracy to become a member of Henk Sneevliet's Revolutionary Socialist Party. With his revolutionary friend André Gide, he traveled in the summer of 1936 to the Soviet Union. The pair was well received, but saw through the organized tribute and returned to the west disillusioned. Much later Last wrote a book about his friendship with Gide.He last fought in the Spanish Civil War in the International Brigades, which was on the side of the Spanish Republic. As a result, he lost his Dutch citizenship because of military service for a foreign power. Shortly after the Second World War, his citizenship was returned.From 1950 to 1953, he lived in Indonesia, particularly in Singaraja (Bali), where he worked as a teacher at a secondary school. He was friends with president Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta.
Gerard Kornelis van het Reve (14 December 1923 – 8 April 2006) was a Dutch writer. He started writing as Simon Gerard van het Reve and adopted the shorter Gerard Reve [ˈɣeːrɑrt ˈreːvə] in 1973. Together with Willem Frederik Hermans and Harry Mulisch, he is considered one of the "Great Three" (De Grote Drie) of Dutch post-war literature. His 1981 novel De vierde man (The Fourth Man) was the basis for Paul Verhoeven's 1983 film.
Reve was one of the first homosexual authors to come out in the Netherlands. He often wrote explicitly about erotic attraction, sexual relations and intercourse between men, which many readers considered shocking. However, he did this in an ironic, humorous and recognizable way, which contributed to making homosexuality acceptable for many of his readers. Another main theme, often in combination with eroticism, was religion. Reve himself declared that the primary message in all of his work was salvation from the material world we live in.
Gerard Reve was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and was the brother of the Slavicist and essayist Karel van het Reve, who became a staunch anti-communist in his own way; the personal rapport between the brothers was not good. They broke off relations altogether in the 1980s.
Paul Henri de Leeuw (born 26 March 1962) is a Dutch television comedian, singer and actor.
De Leeuw gained national fame in the late eighties and early nineties with television shows for broadcasting company VARA. Though satire was only a part of these shows and much of its humour was essentially harmless, he came into publicity with satire about Dutch show business personalities who were often ridiculed. Many obscure musical acts were featured in his shows, many of which managed to gain national fame after they had been in De Leeuw's show (e.g. Twarres and René Klijn, a former boyband member who contracted HIV). VARA has since continued his shows apart from a few interruptions, often with considerable success.
In the early nineties, De Leeuw also had some shows celebrating the new year. In the 1993–1994 show he satirized the new commercial television station RTL 5 by announcing another new station, "RTL 6" (RTL six, beter dan niks [lit. RTL six, better than nothing]). This led to a lawsuit by the RTL company, who demanded that De Leeuw withdraw his joke.
He and his husband, Stephan Nugter, have adopted two children: son Kas (adopted in October 2001) and son Tobey (adopted in December 2002).
De Leeuw has had many hit singles in the Netherlands. He is most famous for: Vlieg met me mee (#2), Ik wil niet dat je liegt / Waarheen, waarvoor (#1), and 'k Heb je lief (#3). Since the beginning of his television and singing career he released albums and singles, always becoming a big success.
On Koninginnedag 2007 he was made a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion.
Willem "Wim" Sonneveld (Dutch pronunciation: [ˌʋɪləm ʋɪm ˈsɔnəvɛlt]; 28 June 1917 – 8 March 1974) was a Dutch cabaret artist and singer. Together with Toon Hermans and Wim Kan, he is considered to be one of the 'Great Three' of Dutch cabaret. Sonneveld is generally viewed as a Dutch cultural icon for his work and legacy in theatre, musicals and music.