Wim T. Schippers
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Wim T. Schippers (born 1 July 1942 in Groningen) is a Dutch artist, comedian and voice actor, loosely related to the international Fluxus-movement.
He demonstrated his ' a-dynamic' ideas on a number of Fluxus-festivals, notably in Scheveningen, The Hague, in 1964 [1]. In 1986 he drew some international attention as theater director, with Going to the dogs, a 'play' of 46 minutes with six well-trained Alsatian dogs, reading newspapers, watching TV, barking at the screen when they saw another dog on it, and occasionally relieving themselves.
Furthermore, Schippers is responsible for the voices of Ernie, Kermit, Guy Smiley and Count Von Count on Sesamstraat, the Dutch co-production of Sesame Street, since Sesamstraat's first season in 1976. Paul Haenen delivers the role of Bert. Together, Schippers and Haenen have recorded a whole series of self written Bert and Ernie record albums, and they also appear as Bert and Ernie in interviews.[citation needed] Reportedly, Jim Henson was so impressed by Schippers' and Haenen's performances, that they are the only Bert and Ernie in the world who are allowed to write their own material.[citation needed] In the beginning, Schippers' Ernie voice was an imitation of Jim Henson's Ernie. In later seasons when the American sketches became a little more fast-paced, Schippers' voice grew a lot higher and energetic.[citation needed]
Apart from his work for Sesamstraat, Schippers was also the presenter of the National Science Quiz on Dutch television for many years.[citation needed]
