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 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.

Became an Austrian citizen after World War II.

Johannes Heesters appeared regularly as a singer, an activity he carried on till to his death.

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.

As of 2005, he holds the record of being the oldest performer worldwide who is still active, both on stage and on television.

He was the second oldest men living in Germany.

On his 100th birthday Heesters received the title "Kammersänger". In December 2004, aged 101, Heesters appeared in Stuttgart at the Komödie im Marquardt theatre in a show commissioned on the occasion of his 100th birthday, Heesters - eine musikalische Hommage. In 2005 aged 102 he was featured as a soloist in a major concert tour with the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg under the direction of Scott Lawton.

Joseph Goebbels placed Heesters on the Gottbegnadeten list as an artist considered crucial to Nazi culture.

Throughout the war Heesters continued to perform for German soldiers in camps and barracks.

Heesters befriended several high-ranking Nazi-officials and SS-officers. According to German author Volker Kühn, Heesters did in fact perform for the SS in Dachau concentration camp. For this claim he uses as evidence the testimony of Dachau inmate Viktor Matejka who worked for the SS and told Kühn he pulled the curtain when Heesters performed in 1941. In December 2009, Heesters lost his libel suit against Kühn. While acknowledging having visited the camp, Heesters denied having performed as entertainment for the SS troops. In its ruling, the German court did not find that Kühn's allegations were true, but rather that too much time had passed for an accurate determination of fact to be made.

Favourite actor of Adolf Hitler.

He has 2 daughters: Wiesje Ghijs (Wiesje Heesters) and Nicole Heesters.

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.

Grandfather of Saskia Fischer.

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).

He is working on a role as Petrus (Peter, keeper of Heaven's) in the German movie "Ten" (July 2011).

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".

Aged 108 years, Heesters was probably the oldest performer worldwide who was still active both on stage and television.

At age 98, he put health problems such as knee and appendix operations behind him to perform in Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard".

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.

He entered the Guinness Book of Records in 1997 as the world's oldest stage actor.

Johannes Heesters was the oldest performer (singer and actor) worldwide. The Dutch actor, singer and entertainer had a career going back to 1921.

Johannes "Jopie" Heesters (December 5, 1903 - December 24, 2011) spent 90 years on stage.

Starnberg, Bavaria, Germany, 30 miles from Munich. With his wife Simone Rethel. (July 2011)

Immensely popular and durable Dutch-born star of German films and television. The son of a merchant, he initially aimed for a career in the clergy, but eventually studied singing and acting in Amsterdam. From 1934, he performed as a tenor in operettas in Vienna and at the Berlin Metropol, after which he was noticed by the film company Ufa.

One of his last great roles he played an Carl-Heinz Schroth's side in the TV-movie "Sonny Boys" (1982).

To his numerous prices beside the Filmband in Gold 1975 also belong the Media and Television Award "Bambi" to which he had a very special relationship. He got this award in 1967 for the first time, in the next years followed other Bambis in 1987, 1990, 1997 and 2003.

He became the oldest professional actor of the world at the age of 108 and with 87 years as an actor in front of the camera and 90 years on stage.

In his last years he impersonated smaller roles by few occasions, among them "1 1/2 Ritter - Auf der Suche nach der hinreissenden Herzelinde" (2008) and the short movie "Ten" (2011).

As a particular tribute he got a Bambi every year from 2007 as long as he should live, so five more Bambis joined his collection.

From the 60's he only appeared in two more movies on the big screen - "Junge Leute brauchen Liebe" (1961) and "Otto - der Film" (1985). Otherwise he restricted his activity to operettas and TV productions.

Together with the indestructible actress and singer Marika Rökk he formed the dream couple of the German revue film.

During his time in Germany, he performed for Adolf Hitler and visited the Dachau concentration camp which made him a controversial figure for many Dutch.

Heesters decided to become an actor and a singer at the age of sixteen and began vocal training. Heesters specialized in Viennese operetta very early in his career, and made his Viennese stage debut in 1934 in Carl Millöcker's Der Bettelstudent (The Beggar Student).

Heesters was fluent in German from a very early age having lived for several years in the household of a German great uncle from Bavaria.

Heesters became less active in his last years and played smaller roles, as he began to lose his eyesight due to macular degeneration and could not perform on stage for long periods of times. Unable to read a teleprompter, he had to memorize his lines before a show.

Heesters is known to have funded the German war machine by donating money to the weapons industry. This helped to make Heesters a very controversial figure in the late 1970s. Heesters always denied these accusations despite reliable evidence.

The actor Johannes Heesters got a first engagement at the Amsterdamer Sprechbühne after a singing and acting training. Besides he already appeared for the first time in a movie in "Cirque Hollandais" (1924).

Johannes Heesters shifted his activity to the operetta from the middle of the 30's and had great successes in "Der Bettelstudent" at the Volksoper Wien.

Heesters was born in Amersfoort, Netherlands, the youngest of four sons. His father Jacobus Heesters (1865-1946) was a salesman and his mother Geertruida Jacoba van den Heuvel (1866-1951), a homemaker.

He worked as an actor until his death and was one of the oldest performing entertainers in history, performing shortly before his death at the age of 108.

Heesters played smaller roles in his last years, as he began to lose his eyesight due to macular degeneration and could not perform on stage for long periods of times. Unable to read a teleprompter, he had to memorize his lines before a show.

Heesters was fluent in German from an early age, having lived for several years in the household of a German great uncle from Bavaria.