lit a candle 1d agoIk kan het, ik wil het, ik doe het nu. Simple words. He lived them and gave them to kids nobody else wanted to bother with. That's legacy.
Their story
Peter Faber was born on 9 October 1943 in Schwarzenbach an der Saale, in southern Germany, to a Dutch labourer father and a German mother who had met in Hamburg during the Second World War and fled Allied bombing. The family later settled in Amsterdam-Noord, in the working-class garden district…
Peter Faber was born on 9 October 1943 in Schwarzenbach an der Saale, in southern Germany, to a Dutch labourer father and a German mother who had met in Hamburg during the Second World War and fled Allied bombing. The family later settled in Amsterdam-Noord, in the working-class garden district Tuindorp-Oostzaan. Home life was poor and violent. Both parents beat him. At about fifteen he ran away and spent roughly two and a half years sleeping under bridges and in porches, washing dishes, selling shoes, assisting a plumber, and cleaning bank buildings. He later said school had told him he would amount to nothing. That sentence stayed with him.
Theatre interrupted the street. Pointed toward an audition for open-air theatre in Tuindorp Oostzaan, he found a craft and a community. He trained in mime, worked as a lighting technician with Theatergroep Carrousel, and began making his own shows. In 1970, amid the Aktie Tomaat renewal movement, he co-founded Het Werkteater with peers including Shireen Strooker, Cas Enklaar, Marja Kok and Helmert Woudenberg. The collective improvised, played hospitals, prisons and neighbourhood halls, and insisted theatre could be about recognisable people and emotions rather than only the conventional stage.
Faber became one of the Netherlands' most visible film actors in the mid-1970s. He appeared with Monique van de Ven and Rutger Hauer in Paul Verhoeven's Keetje Tippel (1975), took the title role in Fons Rademakers's Max Havelaar (1976), filmed for months in Indonesia for that Multatuli adaptation, and reached international audiences as Capt. Harry Bestebreurtje in Richard Attenborough's A Bridge Too Far (1977) and as Willem Oostgaarde (credited in some English versions as Will Dostgaarde) in Verhoeven's Soldier of Orange (1977). Dutch audiences later embraced him as loving, imperfect fathers: Cor Vrijmoeth opposite Danny de Munk in Ciske de Rat (1984), and John Gisberts in the box-office hits Schatjes! (1984) and Mama is boos! (1986).
On stage he won the Louis d'Or twice: in 1975 for Avondrood with Het Werkteater (a prize the collective insisted he accept only as a shared honour), and in 1991 for Het Koekoeksnest. Solo evenings mixed acting with juggling, tap and circus skills. He taught at the Amsterdamse Theaterschool, the Kleinkunst Academie and the Frank Sanders Musical Academie, and contributed in many roles to dozens of theatre productions, including musicals such as De Jantjes, a turn as Captain Hook, and Don Quixote in Man van La Mancha. Television kept him familiar through Prettig Geregeld, guest turns in Baantjer and Flodder, Van Speijk, Goede tijden, slechte tijden, and, late in life, the travel series Beter laat dan nooit with Gerard Cox, Barrie Stevens and Willibrord Frequin. In 2014 he appeared as Opa Piet in the Sinterklaasjournaal. As late as 2025 he was still on screen, in an episode of Medisch Centrum West.
His private life was restless. He married and divorced five times and had five children with four women: Jasper (born 1966, from an earlier marriage), Daan (1971) and Jesse (1973) with Shireen Strooker (whom he called his greatest love; she died in 2018), plus daughter Danja (1995) and son Sam (2003). Long-term partner Ineke ten Cate survived him. He was candid that he was better at "fun" fatherhood than steady parenting, a self-critique rooted in his own unsafe childhood.
That childhood also drove the work he often called his proudest. For his 65th birthday, producers of the musical Man van La Mancha gifted him what became the Peter Faber Stichting (formalised 2009): theatre projects, workshops and the Educatief Programma Jongeren (EPJO) with police and justice partners, aimed at giving street youth discipline, pride and a path. Motto: "Ik kan het, ik wil het, ik doe het nu." With son Jesse he ran prison workshops. In later years he painted colourful acrylic colour explosions and sold works for the foundation, including a 2022 exhibition.
After an open-heart operation in 2018 he recovered and kept working, including the anniversary programme 75 Hoera! and a pastor role beside Jesse in Sweet Dreams (2023). That film won six Golden Calves and was the Dutch international-feature Oscar submission for 2024. A fifth divorce was reported the same year. In early July 2026 he was hospitalised with breathlessness; the heart problems could not be repaired. He died peacefully in Amsterdam on 6 August 2026, aged 82, with loved ones present. A public farewell at Het Zonnehuis in Amsterdam-Noord on 17 August drew hundreds; a procession passed places tied to his life before burial at Zorgvlied.
Biography adapted from Dutch Wikipedia Peter Faber (acteur): https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Faber_(acteur) ; English Wikipedia Peter Faber (actor): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Faber_(actor) ; NOS, 7 Aug 2026: h.
In their own words
“Ik kan het, ik wil het, ik doe het nu.”
Motto of his foundation and youth work (I can, I want to, I do it now). Peter Faber Stichting / NOS.
“The same discipline to leave the dressing room at quarter past eight, sick or broke, is needed to get out of bed in daily life.”
Paraphrase of his public comments on discipline as a transferable life skill, from foundation interviews and Parool coverage of his youth work. Not a single claimed verbatim sentence.
“He was not such a good father, more an available man good at fun things; he lived his life sincerely as he could.”
English rendering of his 2018 remarks on fatherhood to Sara Berkeljon, cited in the Volkskrant obituary. He was candid that fun fatherhood came more easily than steady parenting.
“Shireen is mijn grootste liefde.”
On Shireen Strooker: Shireen is my greatest love. Story magazine interview.
“He was always friendly and very versatile; stage actor and film actor, moving between forms while staying human.”
Producer Haig Balian, NOS, August 2026. English rendering of the tribute.
“Ik ben niet bang voor de dood, maar laten we daar nog maar mee wachten.”
On death, Privé, cited by NU.nl: I am not afraid of death, but let's wait a bit longer.
Yes. That spirit stayed with him his whole life.