Jean-Pierre De Decker(1945-2001)

Born in 1945, Jean-Pierre De Decker, a Flemish Belgian from Gent, died too early, at the age of fifty-six, but despite his premature demise, his was a full life. He indeed started his artistic career in his native town as a director for the Arcateater where he staged several plays before being hired by the B.R.T., the Flemish television channel. His output was prolific since he made no fewer than thirty-seven TV movies or mini-series, one of which, _Dierbaar(1991)_ won the Best Belgian TV Film of the Year. De Decker made only one film for the cinema, _Springen(1986)_, but it was singled out as the Belgian submission for the 1986 Academy Award of the Best Foreign Language Film.