Martha Stelloo

Martha Stelloo (1908-1996) was an actress/entertainer who was born in Numansdorp, The Netherlands. She was the daughter of Jan Stelloo and Apolonia van der Valk. She lived in Rotterdam during her youth with her family and eight brothers and sisters.
Stelloo began acting at the age of fourteen and joined several theatre groups. At the age of 21, she became a singer and entertainer and has entertained thousands of people before and after World War II. In 1946, she returned to acting and performed with her longtime stagegroup T.O.P. performing leading roles, many of them by Aad Bauber. She trained to stay in good acting condition with her colleague, Rien van Nunen.
Martha Stello had a great memory for roles and remembering her long lines. She also took over many lead roles when other actresses became sick, because Martha Stello was able to print any scenario in her brain after reading it only one time.
In 1948 she introduced her daughter Adriana to the theatre who performed with her. Martha Stelloo was married to Henry Klipping and later to Simon Schaarsberg. She continued acting and entertaining until 1959. Now married to Lubertus W. Dokter, the fashion designer and photographer, she has given up acting. From now on Martha Stelloo would only give private performances for the people she liked and would refuse many offers. In 1968 her grandson, Sydney Ling, convinced her to act in his first movies and did so until 1978. Martha Stelloo and Sydney made about 13 movies, among them Lex the Wonderdog, which gained Ling listing in the Guinness Book of World Records and its ancillary publications as the world's youngest film director, writer and producer.
Stelloo appeared in several documentaries and did quite a few comedy videos with a famous street musician, Sigurd Cochius. In 1996, she did her last "normal" performance by playing herself in a documentary, Grandmother Martha, directed by Ling about her life and about what she thinks about life. The camera follows Martha Stelloo day and night and listens to her positive and negative remarks, the last days of her life. Grandmother Martha currently holds the record as the 3rd longest film documentary at a running time of 24 hours and 12 minutes.

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