Kitty Courbois

Kitty Courbois was born into a wigmaker family in Nijmegen, Netherlands. She has six brothers and sisters.^[3] Her youngest brother is jazz musician Pierre Courbois.^[4]

Her first breakthrough role came in 1961 with a restaging of Tennessee Williams's The Rose Tattoo, directed by Ko van Dijk. Her debut as Rosa Delle Rose was met a positive reception and she was regarded as a talented actor with a bright future.^[3]

Courbois appeared in her first theatrical film in the Helden in een schommelstoel segment of the Italian anthology film, Gli eroi di ieri… oggi… domani, by fellow Dutch creatives, director Frans Weisz and writer Remco Campert.^[5][6] This would mark her first collaboration with Weisz.^[4] A take on the spaghetti Western, It follows two American cowgirls that end up in Rome and began a love affair with a twist singer, one integrated herself in Italy and one remains firmly American, Courbios played the latter character.^[5] It was released in 1964.^[6]

In 1969, Courbois starred in the TROS television programme, Kitty in Flipperland also known as Anno Domini '69 alongside Ramses Shaffy, the pop group Zen and the cartoonist of Lucky Luke among others.^[7] Courbois was the creative lead on the project, it was based her own ideas which was built around gambling and slot machines which considered herself an enthusiast of.^[8] The show ran into production problems and would court controversy. On February 6, during filming that involved fireworks, Courbois sustained minor burns and was brought to a local hospital for treatment. She would resume production afterwards.^[9] The programme was cancelled at first by TROS leadership citing the reasons of "the quality not reaching reasonable standards" and "to protect Kitty Courbois".^[7] In response, producer Rijk de Gooyer and director Jop Pannekoek gave their notices. Courbois was surprised by the rejection.^[8] The programme was ultimately broadcast on its original date of February 21.^[10] It was met a negative response by audiences.^[11]

She had a supporting role in Paul Verhoeven's Flesh and Blood. In it she was part of a mercenary group under the lead of Rutger Hauer's character. For the role she took horse riding lessons under the guidance of Oeg van den Berg.^[12]