Bruno Lawrence
Biography
Bruno Lawrence was a New Zealand musician and actor born in Brighton, United Kingdom. He began as a jazz and rock drummer and founded the 1970s touring ensemble Blerta. He moved into acting and won a 1970 Feltex Television Award for Best Actor for the television documentary Time Out. Roger Donaldson gave him a breakthrough lead role in Smash Palace (1981), playing a former race driver; the performance earned a prize at the Manila Film Festival and critical praise from Pauline Kael. He also made a brief appearance in Geoff Murphy's Goodbye Pork Pie (1981) and appeared in Utu (1983), then starred as a lone scientist in The Quiet Earth (1985), a script he helped write. His other film roles included Race for the Yankee Zephyr (1981), Battletruck (1982), Death Warmed Up (1984), The Delinquents (1989), and The Efficiency Expert (1992). His final screen role was the television producer Brian Thompson in the Australian satire Frontline.
54years old at death
- Born Worthing
- Died Wellington
- Star sign: AquariusThe sign runs January 20 to February 18
- Also credited as David Charles Lawrence
Movie Career
- Films
- 9
- Career span
- 11 years1981 to 1992
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Early training
Lawrence bluffed his way into Victoria University to play with its Jazz Club, and when officials found he was not a student he was banned from classes but stayed with the club from 1958 to 1960.
Behind the camera
In 1967, Lawrence took a break from music for a few months to direct and act in film projects with friends in Wellington.
Behind the camera
For the 1985 end-of-the-world film The Quiet Earth, Lawrence took the leading role of the lone scientist and also helped write the script.
Beyond film
After he learned to play the saxophone, Lawrence joined the all-female band Wide Mouthed Frogs in 1978, alongside Jenny Morris.
Bruno Lawrence movies on Netflix
Best known for
The films on Netflix they are best known for, with the part played in each.
Most often with
Geoff Murphy directed three of these films. Two actors appear in three of them each. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
John Bach's page
Ian Watkin's page
Marshall Napier's page
Angela Punch McGregor's page
Anzac Wallace's page
Margaret Umbers's page
All films by Geoff Murphy
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.