When Hans van Willigenburg recalls memories of former colleague Leontien Ceulemans, her insecurity is the common thread. Take the comedy Stepping Out. In it they had a moving scene together, after which a sigh full of sentiment often rippled through the room. ‘Leontien always assumed that the audience was moved by the text I used to close that scene. I never managed to convince her that we did it together.’
The originally English Stepping Out was a success in the Dutch theaters in the mid-eighties. Van Willigenburg, the only man in an ensemble that also consisted of women, remembers the club feeling that grew during the season. But Ceulemans, no matter how social she was, still liked to be on her own. Another red thread.
De Volkskrant portrays well-known and lesser-known Dutch people who have recently died. Suggestions: [email protected]
Leontien Ceulemans was not only a familiar face at the end of the last century, but also a familiar sound. As an avid cigar smoker, she had a remarkably hoarse voice with which she still presented many radio programs in this century.
On television, the focus of her work was in the 1970s and 1980s; not only as a presenter, but also as an actress. The latter especially in comedies, in which she often played the type of the cheerful girl next door who made hearts run wild. Leontien Ceulemans passed away on 28 July in the Rosa Spier Huis, a shelter for older artists and scientists.
Ko van Dijk
As a toddler and as a teenager, Leontien Ceulemans could already be heard on the radio. Both her parents, the actress Hetty Berger and the singer Jan Ceulemans, will have paved the way for this. She then emerged as a dancer in TV shows. After which Ceulemans also followed a course at the drama school in order to be able to hold his own in the theater alongside Guus Hermus and Ko van Dijk, the great stage actors of the time.
In 1981 Leontien Ceulemans became the first presenter of the NOS Youth news. She was at her best in that work, according to her expert friends Hans van Willigenburg and casting director Harry Klooster. The latter praises her flawless diction, the former her entire appearance. ‘Leontien came straight through the screen to people’s homes.’
Leontien Ceulemans gradually complained about the collaboration with the editors. It would have been about her appearance all the time. Nothing substantive was discussed. After three years, she closed the door behind her. Perhaps it was the constant insecurity that was playing tricks on her at the time.
On the other hand, Ceulemans always quickly found work again. Klooster: ‘It all came to her. She never had to make an effort. And Leontien was of course an all-rounder.’
Happy neighbors
That versatility may have crippled her career. If Ceulemans had previously focused on her presentation work, she could have continued to grow in it. Cheerful girls next door simply don’t have eternal life.
Without a complaint ever passed her lips, Hans van Willigenburg must nevertheless conclude that Leontien Ceulemans has had ‘no excess of happiness’ in her life. In recent years she has been in a wheelchair and a fall from it, in April, heralded the end of her life. It is that Harry Klooster and his husband took such good care of her in that last period, otherwise it would have been a lonely final chord.