Lee Tamahori

Subsequently, he directed a variety of works both in his native country and in Hollywood, including the neo-noir Mulholland Falls (1996), 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 dramas Mahana (2016) and The Convert (2023). 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.

Tamahori was born in Wellington on 22 April 1950, the son of Piripi and Patricia Tamahori. 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.

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. 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.

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

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. 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.

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