Temuera Morrison

Temuera Derek Morrison is a Kiwi actor known for his critically acclaimed role of Jake ''The Muss'' Heke in the 1994 film Once Were Warriors. He gained international recognition for portraying the bounty hunter Jango Fett in Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones (2002), and Commander Cody in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith (2005).

EARLY LIFE
Morrison was born in the town of Rotorua, in the North Island of New Zealand. He is the son of Hana and Laurie Morrison, a musician. He belongs to the Mori tribe, and is of the Scottish and Irish descent. He hails from an art family as his sister Taini Morrison, who died in 2009, was a Maori arts performer in New Zealand, and his uncle Sir Howard Morrison, who also died in 2009, was a musician. He pursued his secondary education at Wesley College, Auckland and Western Heights High School, Rotorua. The actor trained in Drama under the New Zealand Special Performing Arts Training Scheme.

PERSONAL LIFE
Morrison has a son James, and two daughters Te Rauna and Te Kahu from a relationship with singer Kim Willoughby, a member of the all-girl group When The Cat's Away. The couple dated in the late 1980s.He was in a relationship with Angela Marie Dotchin for six years. He also has a daughter Aorangi from Peata Melbourne. The actor has been dating Ashlee Howden-Sadlier, who is 26 years younger to him.

MOVIE CAREER
Morrison stepped into the film industry with the role of Rangi in Rangi's Catch directed by Michael Forlong, a 1973 British film for children that was set and shot in New Zealand. He appeared in John Laings 1984 drama Other Halves as Tony, followed by the role of a young cop in Mauri, and Det. Sgt. Harris in Ian Munes The Grasscutter. After this, he featured in a lead role as a New Zealand reporter Alf Winters in the 1988 film Never Say Die, opposite Lisa Eilbacher. Even though Morrison did a commendable job in all his roles, he only gained recognition for his role as the violent and abusive Mori husband Jake ''the Muss'' Heke in Once Were Warriors, a film adaptation of Alan Duff's novel of the same name. Not only did the film turn out to be one of the most successful movies released in New Zealand, but also was sold to many countries. . Morrison gained international acclaim for his role in the film and also received the award for Best Male performance in a Dramatic Role at the New Zealand Film and TV Awards in 1994. His seamless and impressive performance got him cast in the sequel of the film, What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? (1999), in which he reprised the role of Jake. His impressive portrayal of the character, once again, won him the Best Actor award at the New Zealand Film Awards.

The actor had a handful of releases in 1996 like Barb Wire, The Island of Dr. Moreau and Broken English. In the following year, he appeared in a supporting role in Speed 2: Cruise Control as the officer Juliano, with the movie starring Sandra Bullock and Jason Patric in the lead. In subsequent years, he was seen in movies like the adventure-comedy Six Days, Seven Nights in the role of Jager, and the Australian thriller Little White Lies as Tim, followed by the film Crooked Earth that opened to negative reviews and failed to perform at the box office.

One of the biggest roles in the career of Morrison was as the bounty hunter Jango Fett in Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones (2002) that got him a lot of attention and critical acclaim. This followed with a supporting role in the 2004 movie The Beautiful Country as Snakehead, after which he was again seen in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, the third and final instalment of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, as one of the clone troopers. He voiced for all the clone troopers in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Not only this, he re-recorded the lines of the character Boba Fett and another clone trooper in the 2004 DVD re-releases of the original Star Wars trilogy, replacing the voice of Jason Wingreen.

The actor's next feature film was Rain of the Children in 2008 written, directed and produced by Vincent Ward, in which Morrison played the role of the prophet Rua Kenana, with Rena Owen in the lead. In the consecutive year, he made an appearance in the American romantic comedy Couples Retreat directed by Peter Billingsley in the role of Briggs. The action-thriller film Tracker in 2011, directed by Ian Sharp saw the actor co-star with Ray Winstone, with the latter playing the role of a former guerrilla from the Boer War who has to capture a Maori sailer Keremea portrayed by Morrison. He worked on another film in the year, which was the American superhero movie Green Lantern as Abin Sur, based on the DC Comics character of the same name. His 2012 release includes Fresh Meat, a horror comedy film opposite Kate Elliot. Directed by Danny Mulheron, the film revolves around a modern-day family of criminals, and had its world premiere at the 32nd Hawaii International Film Festival on 15 October 2012. Next year, he was cast with Stan Walker in the film Mt. Zion, which received average critical praises of being a good drama with decent humour.

Morrison's 2016 project includes the American 3D computer-animated fantasy adventure Moana, which will feature him in a voice role for the character of Chief Tui. The film is directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, and featurs the voices of Dwayne Johnson, Rachel House, Jemaine Clement, Nicole Scherzinger and Alan Tudyk.

TELEVISION CAREER
Morrison stepped into the television industry with his role as Selwyn Broadhead in the 1986 television series Seekers, co-starring Randolph Mantooth, Edie Adams, and Neville Brand. In his first television project itself, he got the chance to appear in ten episodes. In the next year, he bagged roles in two television series including Adventurer as Maru and a young cop in Mauri. In 1990, he was seen in a guest role in Shark in the Park appearing in a single episode. The actor then gained an important role in the American horror film From Dusk till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter as The Hangman. The movie was released directly to video and featured Marco Leonardi, Michael Parks, and Ara Celi in pivotal roles. This was a prequel to the 1996 film From Dusk till Dawn and was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Home Video Release. After this, Morrison played Hone Ropata in the television soap opera Shortland Street from 19921995. He then starred in a television movie Ihaka: Blunt Instrument in 2001, followed by the TV series Mataku in which he was the host. The actor also became the presenter of the talk show The Tem Show. In 2008, he featured in the skit comedy television show Pulp Sport, in which he appeared in a sketch that made fun of him being cloned. Another film The Marine 2 in 2009, in which he featured in the character of Damo, was directly released to video. After this, the actor was seen in two episodes of Spartacus: Gods of the Arena as doctor. He again worked on a direct to video film in 2012 The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption directed by Roel Reine in the role of King Rasmusan. His other popular TV series include Happy Hour as the host and Tatau as Anaru Vaipiti. His 2016 project includes the TV movie Hard Target 2 as Madden starring Scott Adkins, Robert Knepper, Ann Truong and Rhona Mitra.

VIDEO GAMES
Morrison portrayed Jango Fett and his clones in many Star Wars video games. He not only played the commando Boss in Star Wars: Republic Commando, but also voiced for all the troopers in Star Wars: Battlefront. Deeming his voice to be perfect for the characters, he again lent his voice to the bounty hunters Jango Fett and Boba Fett in Star Wars: Battlefront II. He also voiced for the clone advisor and the narrator of the Star Wars game The 501st Journal.

Morrison featured in Star Wars: Bounty Hunter as Jango, and played Boba Fett in the 2006 game