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DavinaWhitehouse

  • Actor
  • Director
Davina-Whitehouse-Key-Profile.jpg

The late, great, Davina Whitehouse arrived in New Zealand from England in 1952, having already performed in more than 40 films. Active across multiple mediums — radio, stage, television and film — she also spent four years as an NZ Film Commission board-member. Whitehouse was still acting into her 80s.

Biography

In the foreword to Davina Whitehouse’s autobiography An Acting Life, Kate Harcourt calls Whitehouse not only a “mentor for me, for my generation, and the generation after that”, but also “foremost among those who helped to encourage and develop the New Zealand ‘voice’” — in all senses of the word.

Screenography

Dark Knight (TV series)
2000 — 2001 As: Old Crone Series
1998 As: Miss Dwelf Series
1995 As: Miss Judd Television
Rugged Gold
1994 As: Grandmother Kitteridge Television
1992 As: Paquita's Grandmother Film

Awards

1998 Film and Television Awards
Rudall Hayward Award for Lifetime Achievement in Films

1997 NZ Film and Television Awards
Nominated for Best Actress: for Face Value - House Rules

“Acting is not something to pick up for a while and dabble with, it needs a lifetime of sacrifice and devotion, it demands training, knowledge and hard, grinding work. To survive you need the thickest hide, tremendous ambition, versatility, patience, and stickability, and above all, luck.”

— Davina Whitehouse, in her book Davina - An Acting Life