Famed film director Lee Tamahori has died at the age of 75.
The Hollywood stalwart who hailed from New Zealand had been battling Parkinson’s disease, his family revealed to New Zealand’s public broadcasting company on Friday.
‘His legacy endures with his whānau, his mokopuna, every filmmaker he inspired, every boundary he broke, and every story he told with his genius eye and honest heart,’ his family told RNZ.
He was best known for directing the 2002 James Bond movie Die Another Day which starred Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry.
The slick film saw 007 captured by North Korean agents and serve a grueling prison sentence. He’s finally released, and is convinced that someone in his own agency betrayed him. Also in the movie were Rosamund Pike, Judi Dench and Rick Yune.
Famed film director Lee Tamahori has died at the age of 75. The Hollywood stalwart who hailed from New Zealand had been battling Parkinson’s disease
He was best known for directing the 2002 James Bond movie Die Another Day which starred Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry
Tamahori’s feature directorial debut, 1994’s Once Were Warriors, was a widespread critical and commercial success, and is considered one of the greatest New Zealand films ever made.
He went on to direct the pricey Hollywood drama Mulholland Falls in 1996.
That neo-noir crime thriller film starred Nick Nolte, Melanie Griffith, Jennifer Connelly, Chazz Palminteri, and Michael Madsen.
It was about an elite LAPD squad investigating the murder of a woman in 1950s Los Angeles. It leads to a conspiracy that goes high up.
Lee also directed xXx: State of the Union, Next and The Convert. And he directed an episode of The Sopranos and an episode of Billions.
He has a film in post-production: The Emperor starring Adrien Brody.
He directed Mulholland Falls in 1996, left, with Nick Nolte, Melanie Griffith, Jennifer Connelly, Chazz Palminteri, as well as XXX with Vin Diesel, right