Pleuni Touw

Pleuni Touw (born 8 November 1938) is a Dutch film, television and theatre actress best known for her role in the 1974 miniseries De Stille Kracht, which featured the first televised nude scene in Dutch history.

Life and career

Touw was born in Bergen op Zoom on 8 November 1938.

In 1962, Touw signed with the Arnhem School of Theatre. She began her film career in 1968, shortly after divorcing her first husband, working in comedies; she had found few opportunities in theatre, complaining that older actresses were able to play young characters for more than fifty years. Touw worked for the media tycoon Joop van den Ende several times.

In 1974, Touw starred in De Stille Kracht, a drama based on the novel of the same name by Louis Couperus. The series had a nude scene, the first in Dutch television, which showed Touw bathing while betel spit ("blood" in other sources) spontaneously appears on her body. The scene remained controversial afterwards, and although Touw gained popular recognition she was passed over for later roles; she later commented that, had she been in the United States, producers would have said "grab that girl, she will be good for the box office" and hire her. Afterwards she found herself typecast as playing seductive women.

In December 1975, she married fellow actor Hugo Metsers, the son of a businessman, notorious for his role in the 1971 erotic film Blue Movie.