Martyn Sanderson

Martyn Sanderson
Born	(1938-02-24)24 February 1938 Westport, New Zealand
Died	14 October 2009(2009-10-14) (aged 71) Ōtaki, New Zealand

Martyn Sanderson MNZM (24 February 1938 – 14 October 2009) was an actor, director, producer, writer and poet from New Zealand. Described as one of the founding fathers of modern theatre in New Zealand. In New Zealand he had appearances in 26 films, but he also worked internationally including in Australia and Samoa.

Biography

Sanderson was born the son of a missionary father and a mother who was a writer, he studied literature at Oxford University, and after a brief study of theology, he abandoned his initial plans of joining the priesthood and a married a ceramic artist, Liz Earth. After returning to his native NZ, he was one of the founders of Downstage Theatre (now the Hannah Playhouse) in 1964 in Wellington, with a vision of a small professional company performing challenging works in an intimate venue, it is now one of the longest serving theatre companies in New Zealand. He emigrated to Australia in 1966, where he started producing his own documentaries and acting in film roles including the British-Australia production of Ned Kelly. In 1972, his family relocated to Hawkes Bay, where Sanderson toured with the multi-media group Blerta, and worked on films with Blerta members Bruno Lawrence and director Geoff Murphy. That decade he won a New Zealand Feltex Award for playing aviator Richard Pearse in a television film of the same title, and was nominated again for playing a British general in the historical miniseries The Governor, the most expensive TV drama made in New Zealand in that decade.

Sanderson's work as a screen director included a number of shorts featuring New Zealand poets, plus the 1989 feature Flying Fox in a Freedom Tree. Based on a work by Albert Wendt, Flying Fox is about a young Samoan caught between the values of his homeland and European colonisers.

He wrote a documentary One of those Blighters on Ronald Hugh Morrieson and the screenplay for the 1986 film of Morrieson's last novel, Pallet on the Floor.

Sanderson's other screen credits include Geoff Murphy's Utu, Jane Campion's An Angel at my Table, The Scarecrow, Old Scores, The Harp in the South, The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, a recurring guest role in the first two years of Shortland Street, Poor Man's Orange, the Hercules episode The King of Thieves and The Rainbow Warrior. At the time of his death he was working on a play called Muntu with his second wife, Wanjiku Kiare Sanderson and directed by Kenyen artist and playwright Wakanyote Njuguna, through the African Connection Aotearoa, that they also founded. Sanderson died of emphysema on 14 October 2009.

Honours

Sanderson was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2005, "for services to literature and the theatre".

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role
1970	Ned Kelly	Fitzpatrick
1977	Autumn Fires
1977	Wild Man	Snake
1977	Solo	Jules Catweazle
1979	Jack Winter's Dream	Ballarat Jake
1979	The Journalist	Bert
1980	A Woman of Good Character	Reverend
1980	Squeeze	Father
1981	Bad Blood	Les North
1982	Beyond Reasonable Doubt	Len Demler
1982	The Scarecrow	Ned as Adult (voice)
1984	Wild horses	Jones
1984	Trial Run	Alan West
1984	Utu	Vicar
1985	The Lost Tribe	Bill Thorne
1985	Sylvia	Inspector Gulland
1986	Queen City Rocker	Drunk Husband
1988	The Tale of Ruby Rose	Bennett
1988	Never Say Die	Farmer
1988	Mauri	Hospital Doctor (uncredited)
1990	An Angel at My Table	Frank Sargeson
1991	Old Scores	"Acid" Aitken
1993	Desperate Remedies	Maori Warrior / Townspeople
1994	The Last Tattoo	Ralph Simpson
1995	Savage Play	Henry
1996	Juloratoriet	Stephen Eliot
1996	Chicken	Bryce Tilfer
2001	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	Gate Keeper

External links

• Martyn Sanderson at IMDb