Ali Joego

Ali Joego
Ali Joego in Djaoeh Dimata (1948)
Born	Suratmi (1907-03-17)17 March 1907
Died	18 February 1970(1970-02-18) (aged 62)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1940–63

Ali Joego (Soewandi Spelling Ali Jugo; Perfected Spelling: Ali Yugo; 17 March 1907 – 18 February 1970) was a stage and film actor and director active in the Dutch East Indies and Indonesia. During his twenty-year career he appeared in thirty films and directed seven.

Joego was born in Makassar on the island of Celebes in the Dutch East Indies on 17 March 1907. He and his parents moved to Singapore, part of the British Straits Settlements, where he was raised. Joego did not receive much education.

In the late 1920s Joego returned to the East Indies and became a member of the theatre troupe Dardanella, which was run by the Penang-born actor of Russian descent Willy A. Piedro and his native wife Dewi Dja'. Joego and the troupe, which included Andjar Asmara as the main script writer and actors such as Dja', Ratna Asmara, and Astaman, toured Southeast Asia. In 1936 it undertook a trip to India, hoping to produce a film version of Andjar's stage play Dr Samsi. Under financial duress, this plan collapsed, and Dardanella disbanded; Joego made his way back to the Indies and established his own theatrical troupe.

Joego entered the film industry in 1940, when he and several former Dardanella members joined The Teng Chun's Java Industrial Film (JIF) for the film Kartinah, which was directed by Andjar Asmara and starred Ratna and Astaman. Over the next two years Joego appeared in a further five films, all but one of which was for JIF or one of subsidiaries. His only appearance from the period in a non-JIF film was in Air Mata Iboe (1941), produced by the rival company Majestic. In the film, he depicted a man who becomes a robber and dies of guilt after his son is taken prisoner in his place.