John Bach

John Bach

Born: June 5, 1946
in Cardiff, Wales, UK
John Bach (born 5 June 1946) is a British-born New Zealand actor who has acted on stage, television and film over a period of more than four decades. Though born in the United Kingdom, he has spent most of his career living and working in New Zealand.

In 1997, his leading role as the titular detective character of Duggan was created for him, firstly in a couple of telemovies, then in a successful New Zealand series.

Movies for John Bach...

Reunion
Title: Reunion
Character: Jack
Released: November 5, 2020
Type: Movie
A pregnant woman returns to her recently-deceased grandparents’ old family home to spend time with her estranged mother. What begins as a tenuous reunion slowly turns terrifying.
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Mistress, Mercy
Title: Mistress, Mercy
Character: Judge Anderson
Released: July 15, 2018
Type: Movie
This docu-drama dives beneath the sensational headlines to unravel the truth about a murder case that rocked New Zealand and catapulted teenage dominatrix Renee Chignell and cricket umpire Peter Plumley Walker into the national consciousness.
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Title: Roman Empire
Character: Marcus Aurelius
Released: November 11, 2016
Type: TV
This stylish mix of documentary and historical epic chronicles the reign of Commodus, the emperor whose rule marked the beginning of Rome's fall.
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The Light Between Oceans
Title: The Light Between Oceans
Character: Mayor Jock Johnson
Released: September 2, 2016
Type: Movie
A lighthouse keeper and his wife living off the coast of Western Australia raise a baby they rescue from an adrift rowboat.
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Judgement Tavern
Title: Judgement Tavern
Character: The Judge
Released: June 9, 2016
Type: Movie
Judgment Tavern tells the story of Lucia, a young girl carrying her father's living head as they search for his fleeing body. On a cold dark night, they take shelter in a small village tavern - where a mysterious stranger with unfinished business is waiting.
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Title: Jack Irish
Character: Senator Michael Longmore
Released: February 11, 2016
Type: TV
Jack Irish is a man getting his life back together again. A former criminal lawyer whose world imploded, he now spends his days as a part-time investigator, debt collector, apprentice cabinet maker, punter and sometime lover – the complete man really. An expert in finding those who don’t want to be found – dead or alive, Jack helps out his mates while avoiding the past. That is until the past finds him.
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Title: Gallipoli
Character: Sir Ian Hamilton
Released: February 9, 2015
Type: TV
As dawn breaks on April 25, 1915, ANZAC troops go into battle on the beaches of the Gallipoli peninsula. Landing in the dark chaos, Tolly, Bevan and their mates struggle to establish a tenuous foothold on the treacherous slopes and deep ravines. They endure the next eight months on the peninsula learning lessons of survival. By the time of the final evacuation they have also learned the skills of combat and what it means to be a young man in war.
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Title: Hope and Wire
Character: Vernon
Released: July 3, 2014
Type: TV
Hope and Wire is a dramatized edition of what happened to a group of New Zealanders after the 2010 Christchurch earthquakes telling the "real story". They didn't need any extra drama, Christchurch survivors know that.
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The Cure
Title: The Cure
Character: Lionel
Released: February 6, 2014
Type: Movie
When a young female scientist discovers that the pharmaceutical company she works for had developed a cure for cancer years earlier, she attempts to release it to the world. Knowing that they make more money from chemotherapy drugs than the cure, the company does everything it can to stop her.
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Title: Wentworth
Character: Vinnie Holt
Released: May 1, 2013
Type: TV
Bea Smith is locked up while awaiting trial for the attempted murder of her husband and must learn how life works in prison. A modern adaptation and sequel of the iconic Prisoner series.
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Rest for the Wicked
Title: Rest for the Wicked
Character: Frank
Released: November 24, 2011
Type: Movie
Ex-cop Murray(Tony Barry), is compelled to come out of retirement for one last case, when he finds out his old nemesis Frank (John Bach) is now in the Knightsbridge Gardens Retirement Village. In order to catch his man, Murray goes undercover by becoming a resident. He also discovers a world of sex, drugs and rocking chairs where life is lived and being old does not mean feeling past it. However Murray discovers that things are not always what they may seem to be.
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Title: This Is Not My Life
Released: July 29, 2010
Type: TV
This Is Not My Life is a 2010 New Zealand television mystery thriller which originally aired on Television New Zealand's TV ONE channel on Thursday nights. Set in the 2020s, the show centres on Alec Ross who awakes one morning to find that he doesn't know who or where he is and doesn't recognise his wife or children. The story is set in the fictional town of Waimoana. The series is written by Rachel Lang and Gavin Strawhan and directed by Robert Sarkies and Peter Salmon. Thirteen episodes have been produced. Though the show only lasted one season, it has been announced American network ABC has purchased the series to adapt for an American audience.
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Title: Spartacus
Character: Magistrate Calavius
Released: January 22, 2010
Type: TV
Torn from his homeland and the woman he loves, Spartacus is condemned to the brutal world of the arena where blood and death are primetime entertainment.
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Piece of My Heart
Title: Piece of My Heart
Character: Mike
Released: November 26, 2009
Type: Movie
Adapted from Renee's 1995 novel Does This Make Sense to You?, the TV movie lays bare the pain caused by forced adoptions inflicted on unwed and teenage mothers in 1950s and 60s Aotearoa
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Title: Legend of the Seeker
Character: Herald
Released: November 1, 2008
Type: TV
The adventures of woodsman Richard Cypher, who discovers that he was born to fulfill a prophecy of becoming a guardian hero to oppressed people. With the help of a mysterious woman named Kahlan and a wise old wizard named Zedd, he must stop a ruthless and bloodthirsty tyrant from unleashing an ancient evil and enslaving the world.
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The Hollow Men
Title: The Hollow Men
Character: Michael Bassett (voice)
Released: July 7, 2008
Type: Movie
The 'stolen' insider emails that informed Nicky Hager's best-selling account of National's 2005 election campaign return in Alister Barry's (Someone Else's Country) new film - just in time to caution us against campaigning politicians in 2008. Addressing each other like schoolboy Machiavellis, party leader Don Brash and his advisors spelled out how they'd copy the big boys in Australia and the US in order to win the votes of people who'd never support the kind of policies such men are widely presumed to represent. The dividing and conquering began at Orewa.
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The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Title: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Character: British Homeguard 1
Released: May 15, 2008
Type: Movie
One year after their incredible adventures in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Peter, Edmund, Lucy and Susan Pevensie return to Narnia to aid a young prince whose life has been threatened by the evil King Miraz. Now, with the help of a colorful cast of new characters, including Trufflehunter the badger and Nikabrik the dwarf, the Pevensie clan embarks on an incredible quest to ensure that Narnia is returned to its rightful heir.
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My Name Is Bruce
Title: My Name Is Bruce
Character: Shot in the Leg Guy
Released: October 1, 2007
Type: Movie
B Movie Legend Bruce Campbell is mistaken for his character Ash from the Evil Dead trilogy and forced to fight a real monster in a small town in Oregon.
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Title: The Lost Children
Released: March 1, 2006
Type: TV
New Zealand. 1867. The rugged desolate coast of Taranaki. Three children washed ashore from a shipwreck. No food, no shelter.... no adults. Follow along as they search for their parents.
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Title: Hercules
Character: Creon
Released: May 16, 2005
Type: TV
A chronicle of the life of the Greek hero who after killing his three sons must perform five labors to repent.
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Title: Kidnapped
Released: February 27, 2005
Type: TV
15-year-old Davie Balfour is poised to receive a vast inheritance when he's lured onto a cargo ship, knocked unconscious, and kidnapped by his malevolent uncle Ebenezer, who devises a scheme to sell him into slavery. But Davie's unforeseen rescue at the hands of a Scottish rogue, Alan Breck, with them racing across the Scottish moors, with English bounty hunters in hot pursuit.
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Kidnapped
Title: Kidnapped
Character: Cluny
Released: February 27, 2005
Type: Movie
15-year-old Davie Balfour is poised to receive a vast inheritance when he's lured onto a cargo ship, knocked unconscious, and kidnapped by his malevolent uncle Ebenezer, who devises a scheme to sell him into slavery. But Davie's unforeseen rescue at the hands of a Scottish rogue, Alan Breck, leaves them racing across the Scottish moors, with English bounty hunters in hot pursuit.
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Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars
Title: Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars
Character: Einstein
Released: October 17, 2004
Type: Movie
When the evil Scarran Empire initiates a great war, the Peacekeeper Alliance has only one hope: to reunite human astronaut John Crichton, once absorbed by the Peacekeeper galaxy through a wormhole.
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Title: Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars
Character: Einstein
Released: October 17, 2004
Type: TV
When a full-scale war is engaged by the evil Scarran Empire, the Peacekeeper Alliance has but one hope: reassemble human astronaut John Crichton.
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Ike: Countdown to D-Day
Title: Ike: Countdown to D-Day
Character: Air Marshal Leigh-Mallory
Released: May 31, 2004
Type: Movie
The story of the senior-level preparations for the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944 from the time of Dwight D. Eisenhower's appointment as the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, to the establishment of the beachhead in Normandy.
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The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Title: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Character: Madril
Released: December 1, 2003
Type: Movie
Aragorn is revealed as the heir to the ancient kings as he, Gandalf and the other members of the broken fellowship struggle to save Gondor from Sauron's forces. Meanwhile, Frodo and Sam take the ring closer to the heart of Mordor, the dark lord's realm.
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The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Title: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Character: Madril
Released: December 18, 2002
Type: Movie
Frodo and Sam are trekking to Mordor to destroy the One Ring of Power while Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn search for the orc-captured Merry and Pippin. All along, nefarious wizard Saruman awaits the Fellowship members at the Orthanc Tower in Isengard.
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Title: The Lost World
Character: Balar
Released: April 3, 1999
Type: TV
Early 20th-century adventurers find themselves fighting for survival after their hot-air balloon crashes into a remote part of the Amazon, stranding them on a prehistoric plateau.
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Title: Farscape
Character: Einstein
Released: March 19, 1999
Type: TV
A freak accident during an experimental space mission catapults Astronaut John Crichton across a thousand galaxies to an alien battlefield.
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Title: The Day of the Roses
Character: Tom Weir
Released: October 18, 1998
Type: TV
On January 18th, 1977, a crowded commuter train heading for Sydney, came off the track and struck the pillars of an overhead road bridge, crushing part of the train and killing 83 passengers and injuring more than 200 others. This story follows the coronial inquiry into the crash with flash-backs to the main story, and the efforts of the rescuers to free the injured victims.
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Title: Duggan
Released: October 1, 1997
Type: TV
Duggan was a TVNZ police drama from 1997, featuring New Zealand actor John Bach as Detective Inspector John Duggan and Fiona Mogridge as Ruth Duggan. Unlike other New Zealand police drama series, Duggan was produced as a series of one-off programmes, akin to British crime series of the time such as Inspector Morse and Midsomer Murders. In all, 13 episodes were made between 1997 and 1999.
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Title: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Character: Thierry Arronax
Released: May 11, 1997
Type: TV
New England, 1886: a creature of unknown origin is destroying ships at sea. It is the job of Professor Pierre Aronnax, a marine expert, and Ned Land, the iron willed sailor, to learn the truth about the monster roaming the seas. In their search, they come across the sophisticated submarine Nautilus, secretly cruising under the ocean, and its charismatic captain Nemo.
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Title: Mysterious Island
Released: June 15, 1995
Type: TV
Mysterious Island is a Canadian television series based on Jules Verne's novel L'Île mystérieuse. It ran for one season in 1995. The beginning of the series is much as in the novel. A group of refugees attempting to escape the American Civil War in a balloon wind up stranded on a remote Pacific island, where they are able to improvise a comfortable living for themselves while they wait for a passing ship. As time passes, they become suspicious that some unseen force is watching and directing their movements. The main difference between the protagonists of the series and those of the novel is the addition of a female character, the wife of Pencroft. The unseen watcher, Captain Nemo, is more active and less benevolent than in the novel. Able to monitor the island through steampunk-style closed-circuit television and other advanced devices, he treats the castaways as human laboratory specimens, influencing their environment to test their behaviour under stressful conditions. As the series progresses, his tests become more extreme as their continued co-operation threatens his preferred thesis that all humans are, at base, selfish and untrustworthy. In the series finale, Nemo apparently succeeds in breaking up the group; this proves to be a ruse by the protagonists, who are now certain of Nemo's existence. After they penetrate his hideaway, Nemo admits that the 'experiment' is ruined, and offers to return the castaways to civilisation in his submarine. In a final twist, he puts out to sea without them, apparently leaving them alone on the island, without his influence for good or ill.
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Title: The Man from Snowy River
Character: Dandy Jim O'Rourke
Released: September 23, 1994
Type: TV
The Man from Snowy River is an Australian television series based on Banjo Paterson's poem "The Man from Snowy River". Released in Australia as Banjo Paterson's The Man from Snowy River, the series was subsequently released in both the United States and the United Kingdom as Snowy River: The McGregor Saga. The television series has no relationship to the 1982 film The Man from Snowy River or the 1988 sequel The Man from Snowy River II. Instead, the series follows the adventures of Matt McGregor, a successful squatter, and his family. Matt is the hero immortalized in Banjo Paterson's poem "The Man from Snowy River", and the series is set 25 years after his famous ride.
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The Last Tattoo
Title: The Last Tattoo
Character: Austen Leech
Released: July 1, 1994
Type: Movie
In 1943, U.S. marines are stationed near Wellington. One of them is murdered by the boss of the Hotel Workers Union, who is sitting pretty, exempt from military service and living it up on black market profits. Girls under the control of the union - of whom the victim's fiancee, Rose, is one - give sexual favours to the Americans, in return for information. The marine assigned to investigate the murder, tries to find Rose through a public health nurse who traces VD infections. However they discover there it more going on than they realized, involving a conspiracy amongst the Union, the government and the U.S. military.
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Title: The Feds
Character: Commander Rainer Bass
Released: September 20, 1993
Type: TV
The Feds is a series of Australian television films starring Robert Taylor, which were first broadcast on the Nine Network 1993-1996. The Feds revolves around the activities of the Australian Federal Police, who protect the national interests from crime in Australia and overseas. Nine telemovies were produced in the series.
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The Sound and the Silence: The Alexander Graham Bell Story
Title: The Sound and the Silence: The Alexander Graham Bell Story
Character: Alexander Graham Bell
Released: July 18, 1993
Type: Movie
True story of Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone, inspired by his mother.
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CrimeBroker
Title: CrimeBroker
Character: Frank MacPhee
Released: July 1, 1993
Type: Movie
High court judge Holly McPhee devises blueprints for criminal operations and offers them for sale to the crime world. Her scrupulous operation falls apart when she takes part in a multi-million dollar bank robbery and becomes an accessory to murder.
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Typhon's People
Title: Typhon's People
Character: Daniel Harrington
Released: January 1, 1993
Type: Movie
A scientist in New Zealand has a secret lab where experiments are performed on humans. When he is assassinated, opposing forces rush to his hideaway to suppress or expose his secrets.
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Title: Golden Fiddles
Character: Walter Balfour
Released: August 18, 1991
Type: TV
Golden Fiddles is a 1994 Australian mini series based on the novel by Mary Grant Bruce. It was sot from 23 July to 16 September 1991 and was re-edited into a TV movie in 1994.
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Old Scores
Title: Old Scores
Character: Ewan Murray
Released: January 1, 1991
Type: Movie
Former Welsh rugby hero Bleddyn Morgan has his life in New Zealand interrupted by a deathbed confession that leads to a replay of a controversial 1966 All Blacks/Wales rugby match - with the original teams. The now old men pull on their jerseys one more time while Morgan deals with his past on his return home. (from IMDB)
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Blood Oath
Title: Blood Oath
Character: Major Roberts
Released: July 26, 1990
Type: Movie
On an obscure Pacific Island just north of Australia, the Japanese Empire has operated a prisoner of war camp for Australian soldiers. At the close of World War II, the liberated POWs tell a gruesome tale of mass executions of over eight hundred persons as well as torture style killings of downed Australian airmen. In an attempt to bring those responsible to justice, the Australian Army establishes a War Crimes Tribunal to pass judgement on the Japanese men and officers who ran the Ambon camp. In an added twist, a high ranking Japanese admiral is implicated, and politics become involoved with justice as American authorities in Japan lobby for the Admiral's release. Written by Anthony Hughes
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Georgia
Title: Georgia
Character: William Karlin
Released: October 12, 1989
Type: Movie
A young woman investigates the death of her mother, who drowned when her daughter was still a baby. The question is: was it murder, suicide or merely an accident?
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The Ray Bradbury Theater: A Sound of Thunder
Title: The Ray Bradbury Theater: A Sound of Thunder
Character: Travis
Released: August 11, 1989
Type: Movie
S04E06 of "The Ray Bradbury Theater." A company provides big game hunters with expeditions to the past to kill dinosaurs. They only have one rule that's there to protect the time line: Never get off the beaten path.
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The Heroes
Title: The Heroes
Character: Donald Davidson
Released: January 1, 1988
Type: Movie
Based on a true story, The Heroes follows one of the most extraordinary and heroic exploits of World War II. After months of rigorous training in the north of Australia, a team of 14 men, most barely out of their teens, set sail from Cairns on board a leaky old fishing boat called 'The Krait'. Their mission, code-named Operation Jaywick, became a tense voyage through thousands of kilometres of Japanese held territory to launch a daring attack on Singapore Harbour. The raid is a success but within sight of safety they encounter a Japanese destroyer, and all prepare to die rather than be taken prisoner.
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Title: The Great Bookie Robbery
Character: Mike Power
Released: November 15, 1986
Type: TV
On 21st April 1976, gunmen held up more than 50 members of Melbourne’s venerable Victorian club, escaping with several million dollars in untraceable cash.The robbery had been so brilliantly planned and executed that police were left without a single clue–and so strict was the robbers’ code of silence that not even the underworld was aware of their identities.
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Pallet on the Floor
Title: Pallet on the Floor
Character: Jack Voot
Released: January 1, 1986
Type: Movie
A murderous black comedy set in the 1960s. Sam (McCauley) and his small band of hard-drinking and eccentric friends are having a night of it when a drunk truck driver, Jack (Bach), attacks Sam's Maori wife Sue (O'Brien). In the struggle, Sam and friends end up killing Jack. None of them regrets this, but it has been observed by Miriam (Gruar) who decides to blackmail Sam. Jack's brother Joe (Napier) comes looking for revenge and ends up being killed by Basil (Spence). Their jobs at the freezer works are terminated, and Basil has his own idea about how to get out of their troubles.
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Other Halves
Title: Other Halves
Character: Jim
Released: October 1, 1984
Type: Movie
A Polynesian street-kid and a much older middle-class housewife are both incarcerated in the same mental hospital - she for attempted suicide and he for habitual crime. A friendship grows between them such that she offers him a place to stay upon his release. However, difficulties arise with his continued criminal activities and dependence on her for support - then his gang moves in with them. The film is based upon Sue McCauley's award winning autobiographical novel.
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Heart of the Stag
Title: Heart of the Stag
Character: Shearer
Released: July 28, 1984
Type: Movie
Chilling story of a farmhand who realizes his popular boss has been committing incest with his daughter for years.
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Utu
Title: Utu
Character: Belcher
Released: June 27, 1984
Type: Movie
In New Zealand in the 1860s the native Maori people fought the British colonials to keep the land guaranteed to them by treaty. The warrior Te Wheke fights for the British until betrayal leads him to seek utu (revenge). The settler Williamson in turn seeks revenge after Te Wheke attacks his homestead. Meanwhile Wiremu, an officer for the British, seems to think that resistance is futile.
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Wild Horses
Title: Wild Horses
Character: Jack
Released: April 18, 1984
Type: Movie
Amid the high country of the North Island interior, wild horse roam and breed. With the trees gone, Dan Mitchell and the Sullivan brothers, turn to the wild horses as a source of income. With rope and snare - and the help of an experienced horse catching team - Sam and Sara's example, the rough ex-loggers learn to respect a delicate balance between the wild horses and their catchers. The best stallions are left to breed and their riding horses are retired back into the wild herds.
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The Lost Tribe
Title: The Lost Tribe
Character: Edward / Max Scarry
Released: October 1, 1983
Type: Movie
Anthropologist Max Scarry mysteriously disappears while doing excavation/research of a lost New Zealand tribe on a remote island. His wife and his twin brother Edward are clueless as to what could have happened, a situation complicated by their city's police suspecting that one of the brothers murdered a local prostitute who was found with a strange tribal charm on her body matching one found in Max's abandoned hut. What most certainly isn't helping matters is the strange behavior of Max's daughter as she seems to have visions beyond possibility, warnings of a supernatural threat and her uncle's fate - and she's the film's narrator, to boot. Edward decides to go to the island to find out exactly what happened, but the deeper he goes into the mystery the more perilous and unknowable his world becomes, leading towards a shocking fate that raises more questions than it answers. (cont. http://view-from-the-paperhouse.blogspot.de/2014/10/the-threat-of-ancient-echoes-lost-tribe.html)
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Bad Blood
Title: Bad Blood
Character: Bert Cropp
Released: November 12, 1982
Type: Movie
During World War 2, a farmer in New Zealand murders seven people. The police, along with local Maori trackers, hunt him in the bush country.
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Carry Me Back
Title: Carry Me Back
Released: June 1, 1982
Type: Movie
Two brothers take their father into the city for the weekend for a rugby game and a night on the town. However, the old man dies in their hotel and the boys need to smuggle his body back to their farm and make it appear that he died there to satisfy a clause in his will or else they won't inherit the property.
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Warlords of the 21st Century
Title: Warlords of the 21st Century
Character: Bone
Released: January 1, 1982
Type: Movie
It's the 21st century, the Oil Wars have made a mess of the planet and the land outside major cities is lawless. After Hunter comes to the aid of Corlie, who has run away from the villainous Straker, he takes her to the peaceful community of Clearwater. Unfortunately for the citizens of Clearwater, Straker fully intends to get Corlie back.
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Goodbye Pork Pie
Title: Goodbye Pork Pie
Character: Snout
Released: February 5, 1981
Type: Movie
Gerry hires a car in Kaitaia with a stolen licence and travels to Invercargill with John, whose wife has just left him. The ultimate New Zealand road trip adventure.
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Beyond Reasonable Doubt
Title: Beyond Reasonable Doubt
Character: Detective Murray Jeffries
Released: January 31, 1980
Type: Movie
A docu-drama covering one of the most famous cases in New Zealand history, the murder of Harvey and Jeanette Crewe in 1970.
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Title: The Governor
Character: John Sheehan
Released: October 6, 1977
Type: TV
Historical television series about Sir George Gray
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Wild Man
Title: Wild Man
Character: Barman
Released: January 1, 1977
Type: Movie
The story of two itinerant con men, the Wild Man and the Colonel, who operate on the West Coast gold mining towns of the New Zealand South Island during the latter part of the last century.
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Title: Close to Home
Released: December 31, 1969
Type: TV
Close to Home is a New Zealand television soap opera which ran on Television One from 1975 to 1983. Set in a suburb of Wellington, it originally revolved around the trials and tribulations of the Hearte family. Most of the Hearte children were written out of the show within its first two years. The older members of the Hearte family remained through most of the show's run and later storylines revolved around their interactions with neighbours and friends. A high point of the series occurred in 1982 with the wedding of Gayle and Gavin. Rehearsals took place in a local community hall in Avalon, and “Close to Home” was mostly shot in the largest NZBC TV studio, No 8, at Avalon Studios, Avalon, Lower Hutt, which had sets round the studio of rooms in various characters’ houses plus the bar of the local hotel. It was criticised for the number of scenes set in the bar, but that was the only place apart from private homes that scenes could be set in without going on location, which was infrequent. The show featured John Bach, who went on to have his own TV seris, Duggan, and appear in various films. Jennifer Ward-Lealand appeared as a school friend of Gayle's after Fiona Lovatt's contract expired. Jim Moriarty played a school teacher. Other cast members included Pat Evison, Ginette MacDonald, and, in a special appearance, The Kokatahi Band.