Poniman was born in
Banda Aceh,
Aceh,
Dutch East Indies, on 5 July 1910. He completed elementary school at a
Hollandsch-Inlandsche School (an elementary school for
indigenous Indonesians). As a youth he gained acclaim for his skills as a
kroncong musician, writing such songs as "Potong Padi", "Senja Sunyi", "Hening", "Pendekar Satria", and "Sumpah si Dia". By the late 1930s he had reached the colonial capital at
Batavia (later
Jakarta). In 1940, Poniman was contracted by
Union Films to appear in the company's first feature film,
Kedok Ketawa. Poniman, aside from taking a small role in the action film, was responsible for the film's soundtrack. Later that year he was associated with
Oriental Film and took two supporting roles in the company's
Fifi Young vehicles,
Zoebaida (1940) and
Pantjawarna (1941). When Young and her husband, the director
Njoo Cheong Seng, migrated to Majestic Film, Poniman joined them. He made one final film,
Air Mata Iboe (1941), before the
Japanese occupation began in March 1942 and closed all but one of the Indies' film studios. During the
Indonesian National Revolution, which began in 1945 and lasted until the Dutch recognized Indonesia's independence in 1949, Poniman became a soldier and bore arms. After the revolution he spent time as a truck driver on the Jakarta–
Semarang route, but in 1951 he returned to film, starring in
Dunia Gila alongside
Rd. Mochtar and
Titien Sumarni. He completed the bulk of his film work in the subsequent eight years, appearing in such films as
Pahit-Pahit Manis (1952),
Putri Solo (1953),
Djandjiku Djandjimu (1954), and
Malam Minggu (1955). Domestic film production began to falter in the late 1950s. Poniman left the industry to become a trader. At one point he also took up photography and began producing documentary films for his own Poniman Show and Film Company. Poniman never regained his stardom, despite resurfacing to complete three films in 1963 and making a brief comeback in the early 1970s, appearing in four films (including a remake of
Putri Solo in 1974). He died on 1 January 1978 in Jakarta, aged 67, three years after completing his final film (
Rahasia Perawan). ==Filmography==