In the few years before his death he was known for playing Saint Nicholas around alternative Pete characters. In the year 2019 he made an exception when fellow actor Maaike Bakker portrayed a traditional Black Pete in the movie De brief voor Sinterklaas (2019). Before those years he primarily performed Saint Nicholas around brown colored and black colored Black Petes, sometimes completely traditional.
He was the son of Ellen (Stokvis) and Abraham Rutger van der Vlugt. His mother was Jewish, and was arrested by the Nazis in 1943 and killed in the Holocaust. His maternal grandmother, Debora (Farbstein) Stokvis, was killed as well.