Willem Duys (17 August 1928 – 2 June 2011) was a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

and television presenter, commentator,

tennis player Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cove ...

and

music producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

. Duys was born in

Bussum Bussum () is a commuter town and former municipality in the Gooi region in the south east of the province of North Holland in the Netherlands near Hilversum. Since 2016, Bussum has been part of the new municipality of Gooise Meren. Bussum had ...

. He first started a career as a tennis player. Having made the final NK Older Youth (Van Lennep Cup) in 1946, he won the Spieghel Hilversum and Heide B tournament, took the semi-finals Plaswijck Kralingen and won the B tournament in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

. He also reached the final three men's doubles Flehite A with Peter Scholtz and was 1956 men's singles champion Unilever (following Jan de Soet). After retiring from tennis in mid 1956 Duys began writing for various music magazines and was invited to act as an announcer on AVRO in 1956. He became a television presenter in 1959. From 1963 until 1979 he presented the TV program "Voor de Vuist Weg", generally considered to be the first

talk show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Sh ...

on Dutch television. In 1974 he received the Gouden Televizierring for this program. He regularly presented the Grand Gala du Disque and was a commentator for large tennis matches. For eight years (1962, 1963, 1974–1976, 1978, 1979 and 1983) he was the regular Eurovision Song Contest Commentator for Dutch television viewers. Duys also presented the Sunday morning radio show "Muziek Mozaïek" for four decades. A TV version of that show ran for six seasons. In 1999, after a

cerebral infarction A cerebral infarction is the pathologic process that results in an area of necrotic tissue in the brain (cerebral infarct). It is caused by disrupted blood supply ( ischemia) and restricted oxygen supply ( hypoxia), most commonly due to thromboemb ...

, he retired. He worked for the AVRO for more than forty years. Willem Duys lived alternately in Saint-Paul, Alpes-Maritimes and

Naarden Naarden () is a city and former municipality in the Gooi region in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It has been part of the new municipality of Gooise Meren since 2016. History Naarden was granted its city rights in 1300 (the only t ...

and thereafter in Hilversum. He died in Hilversum on 2 June 2011 from a

lung infection Lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) is a term often used as a synonym for pneumonia but can also be applied to other types of infection including lung abscess and acute bronchitis. Symptoms include shortness of breath, weakness, fever, co ...

External links

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Biography of Willem Duys
1928 births 2011 deaths Dutch game show hosts Dutch television talk show hosts Dutch radio personalities Dutch radio producers Dutch record producers Dutch male tennis players Dutch magazine editors Deaths from pneumonia in the Netherlands People from Bussum People from Naarden Nationaal Songfestival presenters {{netherlands-tv-stub