Acclaimed Kiwi film director Lee Tamahori has died after a battle with Parkinson’s disease.
Tamahori, aged 75, died peacefully at home surrounded by his close family.
The filmmaker spoke of his health battle in April, telling Whakaata Māori: “Mentally, I still have my marbles in my head.”
‘Once Were Warriors’ director dead at 75 – Watch on TVNZ+
Tamahori forged a successful career in Hollywood and Europe largely due to the phenomenal success of his first feature film, Once Were Warriors, which was released in 1994.
The powerful and confronting film, based on Alan Duff’s book, sparked national debate over its depiction of domestic violence in an Auckland urban Māori family.
The project’s global success also launched the Hollywood careers of Temuera Morrison (Jake the Muss), Rena Owen (Jake’s wife Beth) and Cliff Curtis (Uncle Bully).
Tamahori went on to direct several blockbusters, including the James Bond film Die Another Day (2002), The Edge (1997) starring Anthony Hopkins, and Next (2007) with Nicolas Cage.
The Kiwi also directed an episode of the acclaimed TV show The Sopranos.
Career success
Tamahori was born in Wellington in 1950 and began his career as a commercial artist and photographer before joining the Kiwi film industry as a boom operator in the late 1970s.
He progressed to making international award-winning commercials for a decade before his feature film debut with Once Were Warriors.
The movie won international acclaim and remained the highest-grossing Kiwi film for many years. To this day it remains the fourth most successful New Zealand ever made, grossing $6.8 million (fourth behind Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Boy and The World’s Fastest Indian.)
Warriors won Best Film at the Durban International Film Festival, Montreal World Film Festival, New Zealand Film and Television Awards and the Rotterdam Film Festival. Time magazine named the film one of the year’s 10 best.
Tamahori also reunited with Morrison for the 2016 film Mahana, about two families battling for supremacy in the shearing sheds.
The director briefly courted controversy in 2006 when he was arrested in Los Angeles for allegedly offering sexual services to an undercover police officer while dressed in drag. He was eventually sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to complete 15 days of community service, including cleaning the streets of Hollywood.
Speaking to Whakaata Māori earlier this year, Tamahori said the incident made headlines in New Zealand but had little impact on his career.
“Nobody gave a sh*t over there, it was only here. It was early internet savagery. But, you know, you make your bed and you lie in it.”
Tamahori’s final feature film was The Convert, which was released in March last year.
