Originating from Niel in Antwerp and trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, he quickly moved from stage to screen, gaining early recognition with a leading role in Fons Rademakers’s Mira (1971) and later becoming a household name through the television series Sil de strandjutter (1976). His theatrical reputation was cemented at the International New Scene with Dario Fo’s Mistero Buffo, while h…