TV legend and voice actor Wim T. Schippers died on Wednesday June 10 at the age of 83 in his hometown of Amsterdam however the news was only made public on June 16. The news was confirmed by by the Wim T. Schippers Foundation in a social media statement. "Wim is gone," they wrote. "It is with great sadness that the Wim T Foundation makes the announcement that Wim died on June 10, 2026. 'Being born is nonsense to me, but dying is much bigger nonsense to me'," they ended quoting him. they did not reveal a cause of death.
The star was a titan of the Dutch arts sector. But to many people he was beloved for his work on Sesamstraat, the Dutch co-production of the hugely popular educational children's show Sesame Street. Since 1976 he and fellow actor Paul Haenen were the voices of iconic characters Ernie and Bert respectively. they were so good in the roles they were originally the only voice team in the world were given permission by creator Jim Henson to write their own material for the characters. "We've gotten deep into them, because we've written our own scripts for Bert and Ernie for the CDs. We do that with respect for anything Henson has done... we got permission from him, sometime in the past," Wim said.
Since the 1990s he had frequently dubbed the voice of Muppet Show favourite Kermit the Frog and as of 2011 he became the character's official Dutch voice.
He was also the Dutch voice of Disney's flagship character Mickey Mouse throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and dubbed the character of Happy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Away from voiceover work he was also an artist and a writer, and hosted the Nationale Wetenschapsquiz (National Science Quiz) from 1995 to 2002. Amongst his other accomplishments he wrote and produced Hoepla, a 1967 youth-targeted series and created and wrote the television show We zijn weer thuis (We're back home) in the 1980s.
Tributes flooded in for the star as the tragic news became known. His Sesamstraat colleague Paul , who had last seen him at the end of May, reflected: "Totally unexpected for me. He looked good. Incomprehensible. We did so much together. I also knew him well personally."
A fan penned on Facebook: "I remember being glued to my radio when Dutch deregulating artist Wim T. Schippers was on the air with his show Ronflonflon. Schippers' works of art, including the famous peanut butter floor, his stage play Going To The Dogs (performed by, you guessed it, a pack of dogs), emptying a cola bottle into the sea and much, much more taught me Art, with a capital A, can be fun as well... Wim T. Schippers has passed, his peanut butter lives on."
Another added: "Today I heard that Wim T. Skippers has passed away. For many, he was a television and radio pioneer, artist, writer and tireless debaucher of reality. For me, he is also connected to a special period in my life, in which I could meet him several times...Wim was part of a generation that has permanently changed the Dutch art and media culture...Rest in peace, Wim."
A third fan chimed in: "The news of the death of Wim T Schippers touches me deeply. He coloured my youth with his inimitable TV shows. I got to meet him for the writing of my book The Sixties (EPO edition) and that meeting escalated into a crazy day, culminating in a crowded heart attack in a packed restaurant, where he convincingly fell from his chair and curled it. Restaurant on its head. What a special and talented man has passed away."
Meanwhile a colleague shared: "Thank you for your beautiful, quirky and sometimes fickle ideas. You invented it and we, the operational team, did our best to execute it and that was often a party. The Fred Haché Show, Van Oekel's Discohoek, It's so late again! (about nightclub owner Waldo van Dungen), Barend is at it again, The laughing razor, Looking for Yolanda, the Science Quiz; we won't forget!"
