Television maker Harry de Winter passed away on Tuesday evening at the age of 73. The family reported this to the ANP news agency. De Winter, who suffered from lung cancer, was the founder of production company IDTV and best known to the general public as the presenter of the interview program Winter time.
After De Winter had worked for radio for several years as a reporter and DJ, he founded the production company IDTV in 1977. Thanks to successes such as the drama series Old money and the television game Lingo IDTV grew into the largest TV producer in the Netherlands after Endemol. When asked if his production company was for sale, he felt like “a farmer who hears that an oil well has been found under his land,” he told last year NRC. He tacked, and became a multimillionaire in one fell swoop. In 2003, with an estimated capital of 46 million euros, he closed the gates in the Quote 500.
Yet many people will know De Winter from the program Winter time, in which he talked to celebrities at home and abroad about their lives and the role music played in it. In the last episode last April, it was De Winter himself who was interviewed by Jeroen Pauw. He spoke frankly about his illness. “I am not going to go through years of agony in a hospice or a hospital bed, or in my living room with six caregivers. Then I will take matters into my own hands”. In return for NRC said the television producer around the same time that he can look back on a great life. “I have been able to live for more than seventy years without any real worries. I was able to do everything I wanted.”
Also read the interview dat NRC last year with Harry de Winter: ‘Watching TV is a huge waste of my evening’