# Martyn Sanderson

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

## Early life

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 married a ceramic artist, Liz Earth.

## Career

After returning to his native NZ, Sanderson 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.

## Death

Sanderson died of emphysema on 14 October 2009 aged 71.

## Honours

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

## Selected filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Type |
| | Richard Pearse | Richard Pearse | TV movie |
| 1970 | Ned Kelly | Fitzpatrick | Feature film |
| 1977 | Autumn Fires | | |
| 1977 | Wild Man | Snake | Feature film |
| 1977 | Solo | Jules Catweazle | Feature film |
| 1979 | Jack Winter's Dream | Ballarat Jake | |
| 1979 | The Journalist | Bert | Feature film |
| 1980 | A Woman of Good Character | Reverend | |
| 1980 | Squeeze | Father | Feature film |
| 1981 | Bad Blood | Les North | Feature film |
| 1982 | Beyond Reasonable Doubt | Len Demler | Feature film docudrama |
| 1982 | The Scarecrow (aka Klynham Summer) | Ned as Adult (voice) | Feature film |
| 1983 | Patu! | Co-ordinator | Documentary film |
| 1984 | Wild Horses | Jones | TV movie |
| 1984 | Trial Run | Alan West | Feature film |
| 1984 | Utu | Vicar | Feature film |
| 1985 | The Lost Tribe | Bill Thorne | Feature film |
| 1985 | Sylvia | Inspector Gulland | Feature film |
| 1986 | Queen City Rocker | Drunk Husband | Feature film |
| 1988 | The Tale of Ruby Rose | Bennett | Feature film |
| 1988 | Never Say Die | Farmer | Feature film |
| 1988 | Mauri | Hospital Doctor (uncredited) | Feature film |
| 1990 | An Angel at My Table | Frank Sargeson | Feature film |
| 1991 | Old Scores | 'Acid' Aitken | TV movie |
| 1993 | Desperate Remedies | Maori Warrior / Townspeople | Feature film |
| 1993 | The Rainbow Warrior | Uncle Emile | TV movie |
| 1994 | The Last Tattoo | Ralph Simpson | Feature film |
| 1995 | Savage Play | Henry | Feature film |
| 1996 | Juloratoriet | Stephen Eliot | |
| 1996 | Chicken | Bryce Tilfer | |
| 2001 | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | Gate Keeper | Feature film |
| 2001 | Blerta Revisited | | Documentary film |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Type |
| 1977 | The Governor | British General | TV docudrama miniseries |
| 1979 | Children of Fire Mountain | | TV miniseries |
| 1986 | The Harp in the South | Hughie Darcy | TV miniseries |
| 1992–93 | Shortland Street | | TV series, recurring guest role |
| 1987 | Poor Man's Orange | Hughie Darcy | TV miniseries |
| 1995 | Hercules | | TV series, episode: "The King of Thieves" |
| 2001–02 | Atlantis High | Grandpa Gordon | TV series |