Temuera Morrison

**Temuera Derek Morrison** (born 26 December 1960) is a New Zealand actor, most notable for portraying bounty hunter Jango Fett in the *Star Wars* series. He also voiced Boba Fett for the 2004 special edition of *Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back*, and other media.

## Personal life

Morrison was born in the town of Rotorua, in the North Island of New Zealand, the son of Hana (née Stafford) and Laurie Morrison, a musician.He is of Māori, Scottish, and Irish descent forward Howard Morrison a knight in full voice His sister was performer Taini Morrison and his uncle was musician Sir Howard Morrison. His secondary education took place at Wesley College, Auckland and Western Heights High School, Rotorua. Morrison lives in New Zealand, and divides his time filming there and in Australia and the United States. He has an adult son, James, and two young daughters, Te Rauna Morrison and Te Kahu Morrison, from a relationship in the late 1980s with singer Kim Willoughby from the all-girl group When The Cat's Away. Temuera Morrison's partner of seven years Ashlee Howden-Sadlier is 26 years his junior and is of Tūhoe and Ngāti Porou descent.

## Career

His first film he was Rangi in the 1973 film Rangi's Catch. He trained in Drama under the New Zealand Special Performing Arts Training Scheme. One of his earliest roles was in the 1988 film *Never Say Die*, opposite Lisa Eilbacher. After this he played Dr. Hone Ropata on the television soap opera *Shortland Street* from 1992–1995; he was immortalised when another character rebuked him with the line "You're not in Guatemala now, Dr. Ropata!"

In 1994 he received attention as the violent and abusive Māori husband Jake Heke in *Once Were Warriors*, a film adaptation of Alan Duff's novel of the same name. The role won him international acclaim and he received the 1994 award for best male performance in a dramatic role from the New Zealand Film and TV Awards. He reprised the role in the sequel, *What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?*, for which he received the Best Actor award from the New Zealand Film Awards. He said in 2010 that his role as Jake the Muss was *a millstone round his neck*.

He has appeared in supporting roles in *Speed 2: Cruise Control* (1997) and *The Beautiful Country* (2004). In 2005, Morrison became the host of the talk show *The Tem Show* on New Zealand television.

Morrison was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to drama. Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 4 January 2013.

He started writing an autobiography in 2009, which he hoped would inspire others to *reach for the stars*
He released his debut album, "Tem", through Sony Music Entertainment NZ in late November 2014 based on covers his father and uncle, Sir Howard Morrison, used to play for him/ perform live on stage, growing up.

### *Star Wars*

In recent years, Morrison has received much popularity from his role as the bounty hunter Jango Fett in *Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones* (2002). Part of the film's plot involves an army of clones created with Jango's DNA; Morrison also provided acting and voice work for the soldiers. He reappeared as a number of clones in *Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith*, the latest film of the series, and rerecorded the lines of the character Boba Fett (Jango's "son") and another clone in the 2004 DVD re-releases of the original *Star Wars* trilogy, replacing the voice of Jason Wingreen.

He has since portrayed Jango Fett and his clones in a number of *Star Wars* works such as video games, all produced by LucasArts. He played the commando "Boss" in *Star Wars: Republic Commando*, voiced all the troopers in *Star Wars: Battlefront*, and returned again to voice the bounty hunters Jango Fett and Boba Fett in *Star Wars: Battlefront II* as well as the clone advisor. He then again portrays Jango again in *Star Wars: Bounty Hunter*, which reveals the origins of Jango Fett, and played Boba Fett in the 2006 game *Star Wars: Empire at War*. He also reprised his roles uncredited as Jango Fett, Boba Fett, and the clones in the video games *Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron*, *Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron*, and *Lego Star Wars The Video Game*.

### Other roles

Temuera returned to Shortland Street for six weeks in June/July 2008 as Dr Hone Ropata.

In 2008, Morrison also appeared on New Zealand skit comedy television show Pulp Sport where he appeared in a sketch that made fun of him being cloned.

Morrison portrayed Abin Sur in the 2011 superhero film *Green Lantern*.

## Video Games

 2004
 2005
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 2006
 2015

## External links

1. ↑ Template:Cite news
2. ↑ http://www.starwarsunderworld.com/2015/10/report-temuera-morrison-returns-as-boba.html