Leendert Jurriaan Jordaan was born in Amsterdam on 30th December, 1885. Educated at the National Academy for Fine Arts in the Netherlands he specialised in political cartoons and worked for De Ware Jacob (1904-1910), De Nederlandsche Spectator (1907-1908), De Wereld (1911-1913), De Notenkraker (1909-1927).

Jordaan moved to De Groene Amsterdammer in 1928. Three years later he became chief cartoonist on the journal. A strong opponent of Adolf Hitler, during the Second World War his anti-Nazi cartoons were published in an underground edition of the journal. Mark Bryant has argued that his cartoon, De Vampyr (1940) is a comment on the Nazi New Order policy: "Jordaan's powerful vampire image has Germany sucking the very lifeblood out of Holland (note the gasmask and bayonet-blade spinal fins)."

Jordaan's most famous cartoon was De Robot (1940). As the author of the book, World War II in Cartoons (1989): "De Robot, the unstoppable war machine. This fine graphic illustration of the Nazi robot by L. L. Jordaan is all the more remarkable in that it was published in the underground newspaper De Groene Amsterdammer in occupied Holland."

In his later years Jordaan worked for Het Parool and Vrij Nederlan. Jordaan, who also worked as a film critic, retired in 1961.

Leendert Jurriaan Jordaan died in Zelhem on 21st April, 1980.