Bruno Lawrence

Acting

Bruno Lawrence

Born 1941-02-12 · Worthing, West Sussex, England, UK

Born David Charles Lawrence in Worthing, West Sussex, England, he migrated with his family to New Zealand in 1946, settling in New Plymouth before moving to Wellington in 1948. Lawrence spent most of his life in New Zealand, but also worked extensively in Australia. He was a renowned jazz and rock drummer, playing drums in many bands, including Max Merritt & The Meteors, Quincy Conserve, Blerta, and The Crocodiles. His last recording was with Bernie McGann, Larry Gales and Jonathan Crayford on "Jazz at the St. James" in 1989. In the early 1970s, Lawrence founded Blerta ("Bruno Lawrence's Electric Revelation and Travelling Apparition"). The multi and theatrical co-operative toured New Zealand and in parts of Australia. Blerta saw him performing alongside many people he would work with later as an actor, including director Geoff Murphy, and actors Martyn Sanderson and Ian Watkin.

Acting credits

The Quiet Earth poster
6.6

After a top-secret experiment misfires, a scientist may be the only man left alive in the world.

The Quiet Earth

1985

Race for the Yankee Zephyr poster
5.9

In a lake high in the mountains of New Zealand, hunter Gibbie Gibson discovers a plane wreck from WW2. When word gets around, a gang of crooks turns up and threatens him and his daughter, because they know there is 50 million dollars of gold in the wreck. Gibbie, his partner and helicopter pilot Barney, and his daughter Sally, are caught up in a race for the Yankee Zephyr.

Race for the Yankee Zephyr

1981

Spotswood poster
5.4

Wallace is an efficiency expert, managing the high-profile downsizing of a major auto parts factory. But when he is hired to evaluate a small moccasin factory which seems from another era, Wallace has to reconsider the rapid modernization he advocates, as he is confronted by the human faces such plans hurt.

Spotswood

1992

Initiation poster
5.5

After the death of his mother, teenage Danny visits his father Matt Malloy on a lonesome farm in Australia, where he lives with a girlfriend and her daughter Stevie. The farm has been going bad lately, so Matt starts smuggling Marijuana for a drug connection. When Danny joins him on one of his flights, the two-seater crashes in the middle of nowhere. Since his father is wounded, he has to conquer the jungle alone in search for help.

Initiation

1987

Numero Bruno poster
9.0

Numero Bruno is a warts and all biography of widely popular actor, musician and counter-cultural hero Bruno Lawrence. Lawrence's intense, charismatic screen presence was key to ground-breaking Kiwi films, Smash Palace, The Quiet Earth and Utu. Directed by Steve La Hood, this documentary features interviews with family and friends, and liberal excerpts from Lawrence's film and musical work, including performances by 70s alternative Aotearoa icons Blerta and clips showcasing his seminal collaborations with Geoff Murphy.

Numero Bruno

2000

Battletruck poster
4.6

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.

Battletruck

1982

Grievous Bodily Harm poster
5.0

A schoolteacher (John Waters) becomes obsessed with the idea that his wife (Joy Bell) did not die in a car accident, as everyone else thinks.

Grievous Bodily Harm

1988

Goodbye Pork Pie poster
6.7

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.

Goodbye Pork Pie

1981

An Indecent Obsession poster
4.6

Sister Honour Langtree (Wendy Hughes), is in charge of a military hospital for psychiatric patients. She however transgresses boundaries by developing a sexual attraction for a new patient.

An Indecent Obsession

1985

Death Warmed Up poster
4.5

A kid is hypnotized by a scientist to kill his parents and ends in a mental institution. As a grown up he returns to seek revenge over the scientist.

Death Warmed Up

1984

Smash Palace poster
6.3

Al Shaw's life revolves around motor racing and his back country junkyard, the "Smash Palace". His French wife, Jacqui, doesn't appreciate the lack of attention due to Al's obsession with cars. When Al finds her in the arms of another man, he takes his daughter, Georgie and heads for the bush, desperately hoping to hold on to the only family he has left.

Smash Palace

1981

The Delinquents poster
5.1

A small town in Australia, in the late 1950s: Brownie and Lola are deeply in love. But because they are under-age, their parents are against their relationship and try to separate them.

The Delinquents

1989

Utu poster
7.0

In New Zealand in the 1860s the native Māori 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.

Utu

1983

Making Utu poster
NR

Making of documentary on the set of New Zealand's first epic Utu (1983), working with little money and dealing respectfully with matters of cultural protocol. Merata Mita discusses complex issues of inter-cultural conflict.

Making Utu

1983

The Rainbow Warrior poster
5.4

Peter Wilcox, as skipper of the 'Rainbow Warrior', a Greenpeace ship, docks in Auckland, July 1985, preparing for a protest against French nuclear testing in the south pacific. When a bomb rips open the vessel, killing a crew member, he must convince the police superintendent that this is an act of terrorism. Determined not to allow outside forces to threaten their harbor, the police embark on a pursuit of the persons responsible. The events that follow nearly bring down an allied nation's government.

The Rainbow Warrior

1997

Jack Be Nimble poster
5.0

Jack and Dora, abandoned by their parents as babies, are desperate to find each other after years of adoption. Jack's young life has been spent with a sadistic family. Dora, whose life has been somewhat better, has developed extra-sensory powers which tell her that Jack's in danger and drives her to search for him.

Jack Be Nimble

1993

Rikky and Pete poster
4.4

Rikky and her brother Pete struggle to keep their lives from spinning out of control in small town Australia.

Rikky and Pete

1988

Wild Man poster
10.0

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.

Wild Man

1977

Heart of the Stag poster
4.4

Chilling story of a farmhand who realizes his popular boss has been committing incest with his daughter for years.

Heart of the Stag

1984

The Rainbow Warrior Conspiracy poster
5.5

Dramatisation of the sinking of the Greenpeace ship 'The Rainbow Warrior' by French agents in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1985.

The Rainbow Warrior Conspiracy

1988

The Rogue Stallion poster
5.3

After her father’s death, Anna Peterson moves with her family from Australia to a run-down ranch in New Zealand, where they face an unwelcoming community. Drawn to horses, Anna becomes captivated by a wild stallion being hunted by a neighboring rancher.

The Rogue Stallion

1990

No artwork available
6.0

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.

Wild Horses

1984

Bridge to Nowhere poster
4.2

Kids on an outing in the forest come up against a mysterious hermit who lives on the other side of a bridge, and he is definitely not happy to see them.

Bridge to Nowhere

1986

Beyond Reasonable Doubt poster
6.7

A docu-drama covering one of the most famous cases in New Zealand history, the murder of Harvey and Jeanette Crewe in 1970.

Beyond Reasonable Doubt

1980

Behind the camera