Guido Jonckers

Guido Jonckers was born in The Hague on 24 October 1947. Little has been published about his family background or his training, but he built a career of more than forty years in the theatre, on television and in voice work, and remained rooted in the cities of South Holland, The Hague, Delft and Schiedam, for most of his working life.

Jonckers was a stage actor and director with a long record in Dutch theatre. He acted and directed with the Haagse Comedie and sat on its artistic council, worked as resident director of the musical Les Miserables, appeared with John Lanting's Theater van de Lach and taught students at the Hogeschool Rotterdam. He was known as a specialist in the work of Anton Chekhov, directing The Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Proposal and The Jubilee.

On television he was best known as Pa Verburgh in the schools series Verburgh met een H (1993), part of the SchoolTV-Weekjournaal, and as the Moulinex man in a long running series of advertisements. He played the father Gerben Piers in an episode of Baantjer and the producer Van Dooren in Goudkust (1996), a police officer in two episodes of Flodder, Victor Donker in Goede tijden, slechte tijden, and guest roles in SamSam, Kinderen geen bezwaar, De club and In de Vlaamsche pot. He presented the darts quiz Bullseye and fronted language courses and travel programmes for Teleac.

As a voice actor he gave the title character his voice in the cartoon series Boes (1988), voiced several characters in Alfred J. Kwak (1989), and played Bloepse in Kleine Nemo and the title role in De Seend, both in 1992.

He also gave decades to amateur theatre. From 1978 he directed the Schiedam society Utile Dulci, and for the Delft company de Flits he adapted works including Aristophanes' women's festival comedy. With the Jorisproductie he made an open air show every summer in the park of GGZ Delfland, working with players from the region and with sets, costumes and props made by clients of the mental health organisation. He staged Shakespeare, Gogol, Aristophanes and Buchner in his own free adaptations, among them Camping Parcksight (2018), his version of Gogol's The Government Inspector. In 2024 he was still recruiting young players for the 2025 production.

In a 2023 interview Jonckers described living with the hereditary DFNA9 condition, which had left him completely deaf and without a working sense of balance. He heard through a cochlear implant and said he had struggled with balance problems for at least twenty years, and that he had feared he would no longer be able to practise his profession. A balance aid allowed him to keep rehearsing outdoors and, as he put it, to walk with his wife and play with his grandchildren with more confidence. Though retired, he continued to direct on contract into his late seventies.

Guido Jonckers died on the evening of 25 October 2026, shortly after his 79th birthday. He had started rehearsals for a new production with a group of young players earlier in the year, but they were halted when he became seriously ill. The nature of the illness and the place of death were not made public. His death was reported on 26 October by the Delft based theatre platform Theaternetwerk, which wished strength to his family, friends and the players he had worked with. Funeral arrangements had not been reported.

Jonckers is remembered by television viewers as Pa Verburgh, the Moulinex man and the voice of Boes, and in the theatre of South Holland as a director who moved freely between professional and amateur stages and saw no ranking between them. The Jorisproductie he led in Delft brought classic drama into a psychiatric hospital park and involved its clients in making each show.