Lochner de Kock

Lochner de Kock (1950- ) is a South African actor, director, playwright and Afrikaans singer and lyricist.

Biography

Born Lambertus Lochner de Kock in Pretoria on 23 July 1950, he moved with his family to The Hague in the Netherlands before he was a year old, so that his father could continue his studies in History. He later temporarily stayed with his parents' domestic help in Austria.

Back in South Africa, he attended school at the Oost-Eind Primary School in Pretoria. His father was initially a professor of History at the University of Pretoria and then accepted a similar position at the University of the Western Cape. The family then moved to Cape Town, where Lochner matriculated at the D.F. Malan High School in Bellville. At the University of Stellenbosch, he qualified as a physical education teacher and then did his military service. As a keen gymnast, he was the Western Province gymnastics champion in 1971.

He spent a year in London, where he became a pole vaulter in the Billy Smart Circus[1]. In 1973, he returned to South Africa to study Drama. He completed a B.A. Drama degree at at the University of Pretoria, and obtained a B.A. Drama Honours degree with distinction from the University of Stellenbosch.

He also became well known as a chef, having written a number of cookbooks over the years, and gradually evolved into a well known singer.

He and his partner Christine Pretorius have one daughter, Cara de Kock.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

He worked for SWAPAC (the South West Africa Performing Arts Council) for a year, the became a full-time actor for PACT (from 1975 to 1977), before turning free lance until 1982.

As a playwright:

He wrote various educational plays for classroom use, among them Die Onsigbare Professor, Oupa waag 'n Kans and Piet Soek Werk. (Copies of the texts found in the Stellenbosch Drama Department's theatre archives and now held in the Performing Arts Research Collection (PARC) at the Africa Open Institute for Music, Research and Innovation, with offices at Pieter Okkers House, 7 Joubert Street, Stellenbosch, South Africa.)

He also wrote the play HTLV-3 and the television drama Grande Dame.

As a performer:

He has appeared in the University of Pretoria Drama Department production of Die Nag van Legio, in Die Kaukasiese Krytsirkel (1973), The Fall and Redemption of Man (1973), Die Wintersprokie (1974), Pavane (USAT 1974).

For PACT playwork he did The Exception and the Rule (1975), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1977).

Other productions include Die Storm (1978), Hello Out There (circa 1979), Woyzeck (in the title role, in Afrikaans 1981), Measure for Measure (1981), Die Swerfjare van Poppie Nongena (1984).

As a director

He directed Karol (1981).

As singer and lyric writer:

Best known for his hit single Tussen Treine (Afrikaans for "Between Trains") which he recorded with Richard van der Westhuizen.