Paul van Gorcum
3rd of March, 1934
Paul Hubertus Otto van Gorcum is a Dutch (voice) actor, and director, and was born in Frankfurt am Main, in the German state of Hessen.
​
From 1951 till about 1990 van Gorcum played various roles in the theatre in many plays. His work was very diverse from classical plays, to history plays or comical ones. Since van Gorcum was six years old, he was already acting in plays when he played Hansel in a show about Hansel and Gretel. Later he even got acting lessons from the legendary Dutch actor Ko van Dijk jr. In 1951 van Gorcum made his official debut at Het Haags Toneel.
​
Van Gorcum played in many tv-series such as De Kleine Waarheid, De Poppenkraam, and Bassie en Adriaan. In the last series he played the role of the Baron. Bassie en Adriaan was a famous Dutch tv show for kids, and many grew up with the show, including growing up with van Gorcum.
​
Known films with van Gorcum are Turks Fruit, and Een vlucht regenwulpen.
​
In 2019 van Gorcum was honored, and got the prize of Actor of the Nethelands (Acteur des vaderlands).
​
Van Gorcums actual last name when he was born was de Heiden. But when his theatre career started, he was told that the name wasn't interesting enough to make a name for himself. Paul had his first show in Gorcum, a city in the Netherlands, and therefore his decided to change his name to van Gorcum. Now this is his official last name.
​
Van Gorcum is married since 1960, with his wife Lenie van Gorcum, they have two kids together.
​
Other famous roles of him outside of Disney are: Pippi Longstocking's Dad, and Gargamel in the Smurfs,
