Cyril Townsend
Cinematographer
Lifelong film fan Cyril Townsend began working part-time as a projectionist at the age of 15. After WWll he was a camera salesman, cameraman — including filming the 1953 royal tour — and did extended sessions managing cinemas around the Hutt Valley. Rarely without a camera, Townsend began shooting for the new medium of television in the early 60s. Retired to Paraparaumu, he died in late 2010, aged 92.
One doesn’t expect to get honours. You do what you do because you want to, and because it’s your hobby. Cyril Townsend, on receiving the NZ Order of Merit, Evening Post, 5 June 2000
