Dutch actor and cabaret artist.
Wim Kan was born in Scheveningen as the third child of a top civil servant Jan Kan (18 May 1873, Nijmegen – 8 May 1947, Den Haag), who in 1926 became Minister of Inner Affairs and Agriculture. His mother was Helena Cornelia Schalkwijk ( 12 February 1882, Rotterdam – 27 September 1951, Den Haag). They married 12 Juni 1902 in Den Haag and got two sons and a daughter.
Wim was expelled from secondary schools several times and he did not finish the Amsterdam Theaterschool. This in contrast to his elder brother Jan M. Kan (12 January 1905, Scheveningen – 12 January 2002, Scheveningen), who like his father had a brilliant career as noted jurist and top civil servant.
In 1930 Wim met his 10 years older partner the revue star Corry Vonk (28 April 1901, Amsterdam – 31 January 1988, Rheden) in the theatre. They married June 28, 1933. He debuted as an actor on October 1, 1931 in the piece ‘Mijn zoon Etienne’. He started writing cabaret texts for his wife Corry Vonk. He was very succesfull in it.
On August 15, 1936 they founded their own company the ABC-cabaret. Their ABC -cabaret became a learning school for young talent like Jenny Arean, Maya Bouma, Wieteke van Dort, Frans Halsema, Marnix Kappers en Frits Lambrechts. In 1938 the cabaret was shown on the first experimental Dutch television.
In the end of year 1939 the ABC-cabaret went for a tour to the Dutch East Indies. As Holland was occupied on May 1940 by the Germans he and his Indian company could not return. On 10 January 1942 Japan invaded the Dutch East Indies. The Dutch colonialists were sent to concentration camps. Men, children and women were separated. Wim Kan was sent to a camp on the Burma Railway separated from his wife. He was lucky that he was not forced to do the heavy labour of the many other war victims ”Death Railway”. But he was always fearing for the faith of his wife.
After the war they could reunite and on 1 March 1946 they returned to the Netherlands. But his war trauma never disappeared and was reactivated on October 1971 when the Japanese Emperor Hirohito visited the Netherlands. Wim Kan saw the 124th Japanese Emperor as a war criminal and sang the song ‘Er leven haast geen mensen meer die het kunnen navertellen’ (Almost all people who can retell the story have died) on 31 December 1972 in his ‘oudejaarsconferentie’. He was one of them, but the Japanese Emperor Hirohito who could also retell the Birma Railroad and other stories of his Japanese shadow past remained silent about it. For the sake of the now current economy.
The Dutch word ”oudejaarsconferentie” has no foreign counterpart, but it points to the Dutch tradition of having a radio or television cabaret send out on the last evening of the year. The major events of the year are reflected on and are reviewed like they were part of a tragic comedy. This Dutch tradition started in 1954. Wim Kan became its first performer and he asked 1000 guilders to do it on the radio. His other major condition was that there should be no censorship. He repeated this tradition for many years and often with an enormousness amount of stage fright.
Spring 1982 Corrie had a stroke that needed a lot of attention. Without her support, Kan’s last ”oudejaarsconferentie” of 31 December 1982 became a a failure. He died 8 September 1983 in Nijmegen of an inoperable brain tumour.

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