Jerry Van Rooyen was born as Gerard van Rooijen on 31 December 1928 in The Hague (The Netherlands). He took his first music lessons at the age of eight and soon after he joined a brass band on trumpet. Later he studied music at the Dutch conservatory in The Hague and graduated as a music teacher.

His professional career started in 1944, as first trumpeter in a Dutch revue show. From 1955 on he worked for the famous Dutch radio orchestra The Ramblers as first trumpeter and arranger, but he also kept jamming with his own jazz combo in nightclubs. Later on Van Rooyen moved to Paris, where he conducted and arranged for Fontana Records, working with Michel Legrand, Claude Bolling and Gilbert Bécaud.

In 1965 he met film producer Pier A. Caminneci in Berlin, for whom he did at least seven film scores. These were probably some of the weirdest, most off-beat film scores of their time but gave Jerry Van Rooyen a good opportunity to explore new musical territories. He wrote the score for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich and furthermore worked with Quincy Jones, Benny Bailey, Stan Getz, the WDR Bigband and the Metropole Orkest.

Jerry van Rooyen is a brother of Ack van Rooyen.

Jerry Van Rooyen passed away 14 September 2009, at age 80 in a retirement home in Goor (Netherlands).