Beryl Margaret Te Wiata (née McMillan; 15 April 1925 – 4 May 2017) was a New Zealand actor, author, and scriptwriter.
Early life and family
Born in
Christchurch
Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...
on 15 April 1925, Te Wiata was the daughter of Ethel Laura McMillan (née Hamilton) and Archibald Neil McMillan.
She was educated at
Wellington East Girls' College
Wellington East Girls' College (WEGC, Maori name: Te Kura Kōhine o te Rāwhiti o Te Upoko o Te Ika) is a state single-sex girls' secondary school which sits directly above Mount Victoria Tunnel, Wellington, New Zealand. Serving Years 9 to 13 ( ...
from 1939 to 1941, and the
Central School of Speech and Drama
The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama was founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as The Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students. It became a ...
in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
from 1949 to 1950.
In 1948 she was working as a secretary in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
when she met opera singer
Inia Te Wiata
Inia Morehu Tauhia Watene Iarahi Waihurihia Te Wiata (10 June 191526 June 1971) was a New Zealand Māori bass-baritone opera singer, film actor, whakairo (carver) and artist.
Early life
Inia Te Wiata was born in Ōtaki, New Zealand, into the ...
.
They married on 24 October 1959 at
Evesham
Evesham () is a market town and parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon. It lies within the Vale of Evesha ...
,
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
, England, and had one daughter,
Rima
Rima, also known as Rima the Jungle Girl, is the fictional heroine of W. H. Hudson's 1904 novel '' Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest''. In it, Rima, a primitive girl of the shrinking rain forest of South America, meets Abel, a pol ...
, who became an actor and entertainer.
Inia Te Wiata died in 1971,
and Beryl Te Wiata returned to New Zealand with her daughter two years later.
Career
Beryl Te Wiata was a film, television and stage actress. Her television appearances included roles on ''
Shortland Street
''Shortland Street'' is a New Zealand prime-time soap opera centring on the fictitious Shortland Street Hospital, first broadcast on TVNZ 2 on 25 May 1992. It is New Zealand's longest-running drama and soap opera, being broadcast continuously ...
'', ''
Mercy Peak
''Mercy Peak'' was a New Zealand television series that ran for three seasons on local network TV One, between 2001 and 2004. The series rated well in New Zealand (especially in its second series) and won multiple awards for its cast. Though an ...
'', ''
Outrageous Fortune'', ''
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'' is an American television series filmed in New Zealand, based on the tales of the classical Greek culture hero Heracles (Hercules was his Roman analogue). Starring Kevin Sorbo as Hercules and Michael Hurst as ...
'', and ''
Xena: Warrior Princess''.
She was also a panelist on the New Zealand version of the television advice show ''
Beauty and the Beast
''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' ( ...
'', hosted by
Selwyn Toogood
Selwyn Featherston Toogood (4 April 1916 – 27 February 2001) was a New Zealand radio and television personality.
Early life and family
Born in Wellington on 4 April 1916, Toogood was the son of Henry Featherston Toogood and Ethel Lois Co ...
.
She appeared in movies including the 1981 mystery horror ''
Strange Behavior
''Strange Behavior'' (also known as ''Dead Kids'') is a 1981 slasher film written and directed by Michael Laughlin, co-written with Bill Condon, and starring Michael Murphy, Louise Fletcher, and Dan Shor. Its plot follows a series of bizarre ...
'', ''
Mesmerized'' in 1986, and the 1993 biopic ''
Bread & Roses'' based on the life of
Sonja Davies
Sonja Margaret Loveday Davies (née Vile; 11 November 1923 – 12 June 2005) was a New Zealand trade unionist, peace campaigner, and Member of Parliament. On 6 February 1987, Davies was the third appointee to the Order of New Zealand."The O ...
.
She wrote most of the comic sketches for, and starred in, two one-woman stage shows, ''Mrs. Kiwi Arthur presents'' and ''Mrs. Kiwi Arthur presents … more'' in the early 1980s.
She wrote a biography of her late husband, titled ''Most happy fella: a biography of Inia Te Wiata'', first published in 1976,
as well as his biography for the ''
Dictionary of New Zealand Biography
The ''Dictionary of New Zealand Biography'' (DNZB) is an encyclopedia or biographical dictionary containing biographies of over 3,000 deceased New Zealanders. It was first published as a series of print volumes from 1990 to 2000, went online i ...
''.
In 2007, she compiled and wrote the liner notes for 49 tracks performed by Inia Te Wiata, released by the
National Library of New Zealand
The National Library of New Zealand ( mi, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa) is New Zealand's legal deposit library charged with the obligation to "enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations" (''Nat ...
.
Death
Beryl Te Wiata died on 4 May 2017, aged 92. She is survived by her daughter, Rima Te Wiata.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Te Wiata, Beryl
1925 births
2017 deaths
People from Christchurch
People educated at Wellington East Girls' College
Alumni of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
New Zealand film actresses
New Zealand television actresses
New Zealand stage actresses
20th-century New Zealand non-fiction writers
20th-century New Zealand women writers
New Zealand soap opera actresses
20th-century New Zealand actresses
21st-century New Zealand actresses
New Zealand expatriates in England