Mr. Wim

Willem de Lange Sr. (1934-2017) was the landlord of journalists' café Scheltema in Amsterdam. When Juan Zapata's Another Forever was filmed in Holland, Scheltema was chosen as one of the locations and De Lange played himself. Café cat Antonio played himself as well, sitting on Daniela Escobar's lap. The feline quadruped didn't appear in the credits though. In the early 1960s Willem de Lange became a waiter at Scheltema and took over the establishment in late 1967. De Lange handed over to his son Wim Jr. and daughter Joke who are the present proprietors, but even long after retirement he still dropped by every morning to cast his eye over the place. De Lange was also owner of the gym he established above the bar. In addition, he was the masseur of famous soccer players like Johan Cruijff and the Scapino Ballet dancers. Also, he was attendant to the Dutch national men's field hockey team. He served in the same capacity for the national soccer team in the 2000 European Championships. In the early 1970s he coached judoka Wim Ruska, who subsequently won two gold medals at the Munich Olympics. Just prior to his 50 year anniversary as Scheltema's landlord, Willem de Lange passed away, aged 83.