Lee Tamahori

Warren Lee Tamahori (Template:IPAc-en; 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Awards">Template:Cite web</ref> 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.

Early life

Tamahori was born in Wellington on 22 April 1950, the son of Piripi and Patricia Tamahori.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name=indie>Template:Cite news</ref>

Career

Early work

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.<ref name=indie/>

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'.<ref name=mi6>Template:Cite web</ref>

Feature films

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), which starred Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin,<ref name="vlessing">Template:Cite web</ref> 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<ref name="sopranos"/> and the thriller Along Came a Spider (2001).<ref name="vlessing"/>

Tamahori's next film was the sequel to XXX (2002), titled XXX: State of the Union (2005), starring Ice Cube and Willem Dafoe; 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. Next starred Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore and Jessica Biel. The drama The Devil's Double starring Dominic Cooper 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Adrien Brody was cast in 2014 as the Emperor<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> opposite Sophie Cookson as the young woman, similarly cast in 2014.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The film is unfinished and its release has been Template:As of by legal challenges.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The movie was released in New Zealand in March 2016 after debuting at the Berlin International Film Festival.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2022, Tamahori directed the historical drama The Convert starring Guy Pearce and Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

Tamahori was married twice and had two sons, one from each marriage.<ref name=mi6 />

Legal issues

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.<ref name="SMH">Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name="McCammon">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="LAT">Template:Cite news</ref>

Death

Tamahori died at home in Auckland from Parkinson's disease on 7 November 2025 at the age of 75.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Notes
1989	Thunderbox	Short film<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1994	Once Were Warriors	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1996	Mulholland Falls	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1997	The Edge	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2001	Along Came a Spider	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2002	Die Another Day	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2005	XXX: State of the Union	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2007	Next	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2011	The Devil's Double	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2016	Mahana	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2023	The Convert	Also writer<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Television

Year	Title	Episode(s)	Template:Abbr
1990–1992	The Ray Bradbury Theater	"Usher II"	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
		"The Long Rain"
		"Silent Towns"
2000	The Sopranos	"Toodle-Fucking-Oo"	<ref name="sopranos">Template:Cite web</ref>
2020	Billions	"The Chris Rock Test"	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

• Lee Tamahori The Hollywood Interview
• Lee Tamahori NZ On Screen biography
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