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Lee Tamahori

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Lee Tamahori
Tamahori in 2002
Born
Warren Lee Tamahori

(1950-04-22)22 April 1950
Wellington, New Zealand
Died7 November 2025(2025-11-07) (aged 75)
Auckland, New Zealand
EducationTawa College
OccupationFilm director
Years active1976–2025

Warren Lee Tamahori (/ˌtɑːməˈhɔːri/; 22 April 1950 – 7 November 2025) was a New Zealand film director.

His feature directorial debut, Once Were Warriors (1994), was a widespread critical and commercial success. It is considered one of the greatest New Zealand films ever made.[1][2] Subsequently, he directed a variety of works both in his native country and in Hollywood, including the survival drama The Edge (1997), the Alex Cross thriller Along Came a Spider (2001), the James Bond film Die Another Day (2002), the political biopic The Devil's Double (2011), and the period drama Mahana (2016).

He won the New Zealand Film Award for Best Director for Once Were Warriors, with a second nomination for Mahana, and another win for The Convert.

Early life

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Tamahori was born in Wellington on 22 April 1950, the son of Piripi and Patricia Tamahori.[3][4] He was of Māori ancestry on his father's side and British on his mother's. He grew up in Tawa, a northern suburb of Wellington, where he was educated at Tawa School and Tawa College. He began his career as a commercial artist and photographer.[5]

Career

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Early work

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Tamahori began working in the film industry in the late 1970s, opening the door to his film career while working for nothing. He worked as a boom operator for Television New Zealand, and on the feature films Skin Deep, Goodbye Pork Pie, Bad Blood, and Race for the Yankee Zephyr.[5]

In the early 1980s, Goodbye Pork Pie director Geoff Murphy promoted Tamahori to assistant director on Utu, and he then worked as first assistant director on The Silent One, Murphy's The Quiet Earth, Came a Hot Friday, and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. In 1986, Tamahori co-founded the production company Flying Fish, which specialised in making commercials. He made his name with a series of high-profile television commercials, including one for Instant Kiwi which was awarded Commercial of the Decade.[6]

Feature films

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Tamahori had directed a number of shorter dramas for television before he made his feature film debut in 1994 with Once Were Warriors, a gritty depiction of a violent Māori family. The film had problems finding funding, but it went on to break box office records in New Zealand. Overseas it sold to many countries and had very positive reviews from Time, The Village Voice and The Age. Time, The Age and Première named it one of the 10 best films of the year. Tamahori moved to Hollywood and directed the period crime drama Mulholland Falls (1996), which was not received well critically or commercially. That was followed by the successful wilderness film The Edge (1997)[7] and Die Another Day (2002), the twentieth and most successful James Bond film made up until that point. Tamahori also directed an episode of The Sopranos[8] and the thriller Along Came a Spider (2001).[7]

Tamahori's next film was the sequel to XXX (2002), titled XXX: State of the Union (2005); Tamahori replaced the original film's director, Rob Cohen. In 2007, he directed Next, a science fiction action film based on The Golden Man, a short story by Philip K. Dick. The drama The Devil's Double came out in 2011, a dramatisation of Latif Yahia's claims that he was forced to become a body double to Uday Hussein, a son of Saddam Hussein.[9]

In 2012, Tamahori was attached to the action epic Emperor, about a young woman seeking revenge for the execution of her father by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.[10][11][12] The film is unfinished and its release has been held up by legal challenges.[13]

In 2015, Tamahori directed Mahana (aka The Patriarch), his first feature made in New Zealand since Once Were Warriors. The drama, set in a rural area, was based on the novel Bulibasha by Witi Ihimaera.[14] The movie was released in New Zealand in March 2016 after debuting at the Berlin International Film Festival.[15] In 2022, Tamahori directed the historical drama The Convert.[16]

Personal life

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Tamahori was married twice and had two sons, one from each marriage.[6]

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In January 2006, Tamahori was arrested on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, United States, when according to the Los Angeles Police Department, he entered an undercover policeman's car while wearing a woman's dress and offered to perform a sex act in exchange for money.[17] In February 2006, he pleaded no contest in a Los Angeles court to a charge of criminal trespass in return for prosecutors dropping charges of prostitution and loitering. He was placed on 36 months' probation and ordered to perform 15 days of community service.[18][19]

Death

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Tamahori died at home in Auckland from Parkinson's disease on 7 November 2025 at the age of 75.[20]

Filmography

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Short film

  • Thunderbox[21] (1989)

Feature film

Ref.:[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]

Television

Year Title Episode(s) Refs.
1990–1992 The Ray Bradbury Theater "Usher II" [32]
"The Long Rain"
"Silent Towns"
2000 The Sopranos "Toodle-Fucking-Oo" [8]
2020 Billions "The Chris Rock Test" [33]

References

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  1. ^ Gates, Charlie (25 January 2014). "Kiwis pick their favourite movie". Stuff.
  2. ^ "Awards | Once Were Warriors | Film". NZ On Screen. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  3. ^ "Lee Tamahori obituary". The New Zealand Herald. 12 November 2025. Retrieved 12 November 2025.
  4. ^ Ruru, Karanama; Bhatia, Ripu (7 November 2025). "Once Were Warriors, James Bond director Lee Tamahori dead at 75". Stuff. Retrieved 12 November 2025.
  5. ^ a b Dutta, Kunal (7 August 2011). "Lee Tamahori: The director who has sympathy with the devil". The Independent. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
  6. ^ a b "Meet the real Lee Tamahori – locals speak up for shamed director". MI6-HQ. 12 March 2006. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
  7. ^ a b Vlessing, Etan (7 November 2025). "Lee Tamahori, 'Once Were Warriors' and 'Die Another Day' Director, Dies at 75". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 12 November 2025.
  8. ^ a b "Toodle-Fucking-Oo". Metacritic. Retrieved 12 November 2025.
  9. ^ Wise, Damon (5 March 2010). "Exclusive Pic From The Devil's Double". Empire. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
  10. ^ Mitchell, Wendy (13 February 2012). "Lee Tamahori signs on for Corsan's Emperor". Screen Daily.
  11. ^ Fleming, Mike, Jr. (19 May 2014). "Cannes: Corsan Pairs Lee Tamahori with Adrien Brody for 'Emperor'". Deadline.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ McNary, Dave (18 August 2014). "TORONTO: Sophie Cookson Starring Opposite Adrien Brody in 'Emperor'". Variety.
  13. ^ Roxborough, Scott (5 July 2017). "'Emperor' Producer Paul Breuls Arrested on Fraud Allegations". The Hollywood Reporter.
  14. ^ Olds, Jeremy (18 December 2015). "Shortland Street's Ngahuia Piripi: 'You've got to embrace who you are'". Stuff.
  15. ^ "Mahana – the NZ Story That Brought Lee Tamahori Home". Scoop. 27 October 2015.
  16. ^ Tuckett, Graeme (12 March 2024). "The Convert: Lee Tamahori's latest is very much a film of two halves". Stuff.
  17. ^ Munn, Eric (5 February 2006). "Tamahori's double life". Sydney Morning Herald.
  18. ^ McCammon, McCammon (24 February 2006). "Tamahori charges dropped, ordered to clean up Hollywood". The New Zealand Herald.
  19. ^ Blankstein, Andrew; So, Hemmy (24 February 2006). "Bust Shows Seamy Side of Street". Los Angeles Times.
  20. ^ Waters, Victor (7 November 2025). "Lee Tamahori 'will be missed' but 'will definitely be remembered'". RNZ. Retrieved 7 November 2025.
  21. ^ "E Tipu E Rea – Thunderbox". NZ On Screen. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
  22. ^ "Once Were Warriors". NZ On Screen. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
  23. ^ "Mulholland Falls (18)". British Board of Film Classification. 17 April 1996. Archived from the original on 1 December 2016. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  24. ^ "The Edge". Metacritic. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
  25. ^ "Along Came a Spider". Metacritic. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
  26. ^ "Die Another Day". Metacritic. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
  27. ^ "XXX: State of the Union". Metacritic. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
  28. ^ "Next". Metacritic. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
  29. ^ "The Devil's Double". Metacritic. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
  30. ^ "Mahana". NZ On Screen. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
  31. ^ "The Convert". NZ On Screen. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
  32. ^ Heisey, Loren (14 June 1993). "The Ray Bradbury Theater Episode Guide". Episode Guides. Retrieved 12 November 2025.
  33. ^ Vigna, Paul (10 May 2020). "'Billions' Recap, Season 5, Episode 2: Chess and Ayahuasca". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 12 November 2025.
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