Aged 108 years, Heesters was probably the oldest performer worldwide who was still active both on stage and television.
As of 2005, he holds the record of being the oldest performer worldwide who is still active, both on stage and on television.
At age 98, he put health problems such as knee and appendix operations behind him to perform in Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard".
Became an Austrian citizen after World War II.
Claims to have had an encounter with Princess Juliana of the Netherlands (now the late Queen Juliana of the Netherlands) when he was a youth.
Favourite actor of Adolf Hitler.
Grandfather of Saskia Fischer.
He entered the Guinness Book of Records in 1997 as the world's oldest stage actor.
He has 2 daughters: Wiesje Ghijs (Wiesje Heesters) and Nicole Heesters.
He is probably the oldest actor ever to have played a role in a movie. At the time his scene for '1 1/2 Ritter' was shot in June 2008 he was 104 and a half years old.
He is the most famous "Count Danilo" from "Die lustige Witwe" (The Merry Widow) whom he played for 32 years from 1938 to 1970 on stage.
He is working on a role as Petrus (Peter, keeper of Heaven's) in the German movie "Ten" (July 2011).
He once said in an interview he wanted to reach at least the age of 108, because his grandfather died at 108 and he wanted to beat that family record. He was in hospital some days before his 108th birthday, back home when he turned 108 on 5th Dec. 2011 and rushed to the Starnberg hospital again on 17. Dec. 2011 after suffering a stroke. He died there on 24th Dec. 2011 at 10:15 a.m., local time.
He was the second oldest men living in Germany.
His best-known role, as Count Danilo in Franz Lehar's operetta "The Merry Widow", he played 1,600 times; the Honore in the musical "Gigi", 750 times.
In December 2010, the 107-year old Heesters announced that he had quit smoking for his then 61-year-old wife: "She should have me as long as possible".
Johannes "Jopie" Heesters (December 5, 1903 - December 24, 2011) spent 90 years on stage.
Johannes Heesters was the oldest performer (singer and actor) worldwide. The Dutch actor, singer and entertainer had a career going back to 1921.
Took part himself in a revue - called 'Jopie - Eine Jahrhundert-Revue' - that originally was only dedicated to his (nearly) life-long work on stage (Weimar/Germany, 23rd June 2008).