Trivia

She began her career in 1955 with a role in the film Het wonderlijke leven van Willem Parel by Gerard Rutten, during which time she also acted under the pseudonym Femke Talma.

She was a member of various theater companies for many years and also appeared in films and TV drama series in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Boersma was a member and vice-chairman of the Council for the Arts and its successor, the Council for Culture.

Femke Boersma is a Dutch actress. In 1958 she graduated from the Amsterdam School of Drama .

After ten years with the Nederlandse Comedie, she played for nine years with the Zuidelijk Toneel/Globe, and in the 1980s she played and directed with Theater '80, a women's theatre group of which she was one of the founders.

Immediately after graduating, she landed a contract with the Nederlandse Comedie, which was based at the Amsterdam Stadsschouwburg. Her most successful production was "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," by American playwright Edward Albee. Translated by Gerard Reve, the play filled theaters nationwide and was performed 250 times.

She didn't finish high school, but she breezed through drama school. At her graduation ceremony, she was told she possessed a "jeune amoureuse" (young lady), suited for roles with "psychological depth.".

Her life was divided into two parts. In the first, she was a well-known actress; in the second, she played a background role as the wife of politician Frits Bolkestein.

Her acting career was already somewhat on the decline when she met Frits Bolkestein. At Barlaeus Gymnasium, she'd already had a platonic relationship with Bolkestein, three years her senior. He'd taught her to dance at school dances. Her father wouldn't let her take dance lessons because it was considered bourgeois. "I'd rather throw my money down the drain," he'd said. In the 1980s, Frits Bolkestein sought her out again. When they reconnected, he brought along his own English-language play, Floris, Count of Holland. It seemed unplayable to Boersma, and it was never performed, but she took a liking to him again.

She was a teacher at the directing department of the Theater School in Amsterdam from about 1978 to 1995.

Frits Bolkestein became European Commissioner in Brussels in 1999. He bought an apartment there, but Femke Boersma, a native Amsterdammer, didn't feel at home there and rarely visited after a while. Partly for this reason, Bolkestein didn't seek a second term at the European Commission, even though the cabinet wanted him to stay.

As a high school student, Boersma showed more talent for acting than for studying. At 18, her blonde hair and slightly surprised expression got her spotted in the comedy film "Het wonderlijke leven van Willem Parel" (The Wonderful Life of Willem Parel). Willem Parel, a dialect-speaking Amsterdammer, was a well-known character for Wim Sonneveld at the time. In the film, Femke played his girlfriend.

In recent years, Boersma has spent time outside of Amsterdam. Since 2022, she lived with her husband at the Rosa Spier Huis ( a retirement home founded in 1963 where many notable Dutch artists lived out their final years) in Laren, until his death.

Her father was a revolutionary socialist and hid left-wing Jews during World War II. He was betrayed in 1943. When the police arrived, Femke and her mother were forced to bring her father; two Jewish women living with them were arrested and sent to extermination camps. Femke's father was also arrested but survived the war.

Retired from acting