- published: 30 Mar 2010
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George Winiata Henare, CNZM, OBE (born 1946) is an acclaimed New Zealand actor with a distinguished career spanning more than three decades.
In 1988, he was awarded an OBE for Services to Theatre. In 2008, he received a prestigious Laureate Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand and was also honoured with the Te Waka Toi Award, Creative New Zealand for outstanding contribution to Māori theatre. He became a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the theatre in the New Year Honours announced on 31 December 2009. Henare is from the Māori tribes of Ngati Porou and Ngati Hine.
Henare was born in Gisborne in 1946, the third youngest in a family of ten children. He lived on a farm until the age of 12 on the East Coast of New Zealand's North Island.
Henare has a distinguished career as an actor in New Zealand with more than 30 years on stage and screen. Henare began his acting career after a stint as a postman and a trainee teacher. He has played lead roles in film, television, opera and theatre as well as radio and voice work. An early success was landing a role in a New Zealand Opera production of Porgy and Bess in 1965. He later toured Australia in Jesus Christ Superstar and Phantom of the Opera.