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Ivor David Munro (1 July 1944 – 5 August 1999)
[David Boardma]
''The Independent'', 12 August 1999 was an English
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
maker. He collaborated on 20 documentary films for television with the Australian-born journalist,
John Pilger
John Richard Pilger (; born 9 October 1939) is an Australian journalist, writer, scholar, and documentary filmmaker. He has been mainly based in Britain since 1962. He was also once visiting professor at Cornell University in New York.
Pilger ...
, with many of their works receiving awards. ''
Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia'', their 1979 documentary about the suffering people of
Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...
, resulted in viewers donating more than £45 million in aid.
Early life and education
His parents were Hugh Munro (an actor and television director) and Pamela Barnard
(an actress and later longstanding floor manager in Drama at the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
). His grandfather was the actor
Ivor Barnard
Ivor Barnard (13 June 1887 – 30 June 1953) was an English stage, radio and film actor. He was an original member of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, where he was a notable Shylock and Caliban. He was the original Water Rat in the first L ...
. Ivor Munro had a brother Tim Munro, who also became an actor, and sister Hatty.
Following a series of jobs, beginning as a farm labourer after leaving school, Munro became an actor for a time. He appeared in such series as ''
Orlando
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...
'', (1966–67), ''
Z-Cars
''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by the BBC, it debuted ...
,'' ''Tightrope'' (1972), and in the play ''The Bells'' (
Vaudeville Theatre
The Vaudeville Theatre is a West End theatre on the Strand in the City of Westminster. As the name suggests, the theatre held mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days. It opened in 1870 and was rebuilt twice, although each ...
).
Career in film-making
A connection with the actor
David Swift via Tempest Films,
[David Swif]
"David Munro"
''The Guardian'', 14 December 1999 an independent production company, led to Munro being introduced to the Australian-born journalist
John Pilger
John Richard Pilger (; born 9 October 1939) is an Australian journalist, writer, scholar, and documentary filmmaker. He has been mainly based in Britain since 1962. He was also once visiting professor at Cornell University in New York.
Pilger ...
. The two men first worked together on ''Do You Remember Vietnam?'' (1978), first shown by the
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
network.
In 1979 their film, ''
Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia'', exposed the extent of
the genocide perpetrated by
Pol Pot
Pol Pot; (born Saloth Sâr;; 19 May 1925 – 15 April 1998) was a Cambodian revolutionary, dictator, and politician who ruled Cambodia as Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea between 1976 and 1979. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist a ...
and the
Communist Party of Kampuchea
The Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK),, Romanization of Khmer#UNGEGN, UNGEGN: , Romanization of Khmer#ALA-LC Romanization Tables, ALA-LC: ; french: Parti communiste du Kampuchea also known as the Khmer Communist Party,[Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...]
. Broadcast on British TV, it resulted in nearly £45 million being donated spontaneously by viewers, to help Cambodians.
In total Munro and Pilger collaborated on 20 films for television, for which Munro gained several awards and commendations.
Munro made several films on his own: notably, ''Knots'' (with the Actors Company) based on
R. D. Laing
Ronald David Laing (7 October 1927 – 23 August 1989), usually cited as R. D. Laing, was a Scottish psychiatrist who wrote extensively on mental illnessin particular, the experience of psychosis. Laing's views on the causes and treatment o ...
's poems; ''Going Back,'' about the experiences of the first four US soldiers to return to Vietnam after the war; and ''The Four Horseman'', his trilogy of films about war in the
Third World
The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " First ...
.
Marriages and family
He was married three times, the first two relationships were with the actresses
Sharon Duce
Sharon Duce (born 17 January 1950) is a British actress.
Born in Sheffield, she trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art then became a stage actress at the Sheffield Repertory Theatre, the York Theatre Royal, and the Theatre in th ...
and
Susan Penhaligon
Susan Penhaligon (born 3 July 1949) is a British actress and writer known for her role in the drama series ''Bouquet of Barbed Wire'' (1976), and for playing Helen Barker in the sitcom '' A Fine Romance'' (1981–1984).
She appeared in the so ...
. His son with Penhaligon, Truan Munro has worked in the film industry. His third wife was Layhing Siu, to whom he was married at the end of his life. Their daughter Natalia, was born eighteen months before Munro's death from cancer.
He also had a step-daughter, Pilar.
References
External links
*
1944 births
1999 deaths
English documentary filmmakers
English male television actors
English television directors
20th-century English male actors
{{tv-director-stub