Biography of Pieter-Dirk Uys & Net Worth

Pieter-Dirk Uys (/ˈeɪs/; born 28 September 1945) is a South African performer, author, satirist, and social activist. One of his best known roles is as Evita Bezuidenhout, an Afrikaner socialite.

Background & Early Life

Uys was born in Cape Town on 28 September 1945, to Hannes Uys, a Calvinist Afrikaner father, and Helga Bassel, a Berlin-born Jewish mother. Hannes Uys, a fourth-generation South African of Dutch and Belgian Huguenot stock, was a musician and organist in his local church. Bassel was a German concert pianist, whom the Nazis expelled from the Reichsmusikkammer in 1935 as part of their campaign to root out Jewish artists. She later escaped to South Africa and managed to take her grand piano with her, with which she taught her daughter, Tessa Uys (b. 1948), now a concert pianist based in London. Bassel spoke little about her Jewish past to her children. It was only after her suicide that they discovered she was fully Jewish.Uys and his sister had an NG Kerk upbringing and their mother encouraged them to embrace the Afrikaner culture.

Awards and Honours

• The 2011 TMSA Naledi Lifetime Achiever Award
• Special Teddy Award at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) 2011
• Reconciliation Award in 2001
• Mrs. Evita Bezuidenhout was awarded the Living Legacy 2000 Award in San Diego
• The lifetime achievement award from the Cape Tercentenary Foundation
• Doctor honoris causa from
  • Rhodes University: D.Litt. (Hon.), 1997
  • University of Cape Town: D.Litt. for distinguished, socially responsible creative work in 2003
  • University of the Western Cape: D.Ed. (Hon.), 2003
• 2018 Hertzog Prize for drama