Trivia

Michiels was married to his F.C. De Kampioenen (1990) co-star Ann Tuts (Doortje Coppens-Van Hoeck) in the early 1990s.

Margriet Hermans, a Belgian talk show host, for her show Margriet (1989) conducted an interview with Michiels in 1993. In it, Michiels said nothing. Before he went on the air with Hermans, he would have smoked a large amount of pot before he entered the building. She described it as the most awkward moment she ever had on her show. He may have done it on purpose, as he had said in many interviews that he did not understand the point of programs covering show business.

His co-stars Herman Verbruggen and the late Johny Voners have described him as "Everyone should have a bit of Walter Michiels in him or her but he himself had too much of him" and "Walter's an idealist, he's too good for this world", respectively.

Michiels has lived in Jamaica for six months in the mid-nineties.

He got the part of Pico Coppens when co-creator Willy Vanduren saw his performance as Mercutio in Romeo en Julia (1991). Ann Tuts played Julia in the Flemish version of the famous Shakespeare play directed by Dirk Tanghe. Tuts helped him get the part of Pico, although Michiels did not actually want to become a television actor. He stated he accepted for the money it would make, not out of pure passion for acting. The Flemish Romeo and Juliet released as a TV movie in 1991.

Did not like the show he co-starred in; F.C. De Kampioenen (1990). Did not want to become television actor in the first place and wanted to stay a stage actor. His passion for art and poetry did not come to full blossom, due to his public demise and subsequent problems. After his downfall, in a documentary Michiels was seen painting on canvas in his apartment.

Carry Goossens, his co-star on the sitcom F.C. De Kampioenen, said Michiels could have become the best actor of Flanders and with a big career ahead of him [even internationally].

Michiels has had a fairly large scar in his neck for over thirty years.

He saw his biography, written by his cousin and author Karel Michiels, canceled in 2011 because the publishing company complained about his mental state.

Marijn De Valck has been 'credited' for Michiels's dismissal from VRT and the show F.C. De Kampioenen. Devalck testified about Michiels drinking multiple pints during pause breaks, appearing drunk on set numerous times. When he approached management to complain about that, VRT would have made a decision to fire Michiels. Devalck added Michiels walked out himself and said he 'never returned'.

Has had severely deteriorating physical condition and mental health since the 2010s. A forced penal internment was imposed on him in May 2023. After he had opposed this on appeal in 2004, he was no longer able to continue living independently and in a safe way by that time or some seventeen years later.

Brother Nico Michiels (PhD), born 1961 or two years Walter's senior, works in Germany as a professor Zoology at Tübingen University in Baden-Württemberg.

Was approached and asked if or whether he could repair people's television set, Michiels said in 2004. Repairing television sets was the extra income of his character Pico Coppens, a technician. First seen carrying out the job in the show's third title Vogelvrij (1990), the character's profession was high school teacher in technical subjects at a vocational school.

Son of a Flemish Marxist and green politician, Jan Michiels. His father passed away in early January 2021, aged 83.

Has two sisters, Marjan and Greet. Marjan had been living in France for a brief period.