Lawrence Makoare

After early screen work as a stuntman, Lawrence Makoare went on to don various disguises for The Lord of the Rings trilogy, including that of fearsome Uruk-hai Lurtz in the first film. In the same period he was nominated for an NZ Film Award for Crooked Earth, after co-starring opposite Temuera Morrison as a Māori radical running a dope operation. Since then he has played baddie Mr Kil in Bond movie Die Another Day, and was nominated again after playing a legendary warrior in Toa Fraser action film The Dead Lands. Makoare's work also includes big budget TV series Marco Polo and Cook Islands murder mystery Tatau.

In the main roles, Makoare and (Temuera) Morrison have screen presence to burn... Peter Calder, in an NZ Herald review of Crooked Earth, 18 August 2001