Michael Haigh
{{Short description|New Zealand actor, narrator and teacher}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Michael Haigh
| honorific_suffix =
| image = Gliding On NZ TV Series Screenshot 1984.jpeg
| caption = Haigh in 1984
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1935
| death_date = 31 October 1993
| death_place =
| occupation = Actor, teacher
| years_active = 1950s–1993
}}
Michael Haigh (1935 – 31 October 1993) was a New Zealand actor, narrator and teacher.{{Cite book|last=Smythe|first=John|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8P_bOZslQMYC&dq=Michael+Haigh+nz&pg=PA468|title=Downstage Upfront: The First 40 Years of New Zealand's Longest-running Professional Theatre|date=2004|publisher=Victoria University Press|isbn=978-0-86473-489-1|language=en}}{{Cite book|last1=Martin|first1=Helen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n3pZAAAAMAAJ&q=Michael+Haigh+nz|title=New Zealand Film, 1912-1996|last2=Edwards|first2=Sam|date=1997|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-558336-6|language=en}}
Early life
Haigh grew up in Wellington, New Zealand. His parents separated when he was 10 years old. Haigh was estranged from his father, an actor, and his mother, Dorothy, a radio broadcaster, raised him.{{Cite web |title=Michael Haigh |url=https://www.nzonscreen.com/profile/michael-haigh/biography |access-date=30 May 2021 |website=NZ On Screen |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Wenley |first=James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bA75DwAAQBAJ&dq=Michael+Haigh+nz&pg=PT232 |title=Aotearoa New Zealand in the Global Theatre Marketplace: Travelling Theatre |date=18 October 2020 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-57513-6 |language=en}}
Career
File:Circa Theatre WGTN 01.jpg
Haigh grew interested in theatre while attending Rongotai College. After leaving school he considered going into either journalism or teaching, but he settled on teaching and attended Wellington Teachers’ Training College in the 1950s. During this time, Haigh was active with The Thespians and Unity Theatre in Wellington.
Haigh was a teacher for 15 years. For the last seven of those years, Haigh, his wife, and two children were based in the far north of New Zealand, where he was teaching. In the 1960s he moved back to Wellington, as he had decided to become an actor as he no longer wanted to work in teaching.{{Cite web |title=Haigh, Michael, 1935–1993|url=https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22436569|access-date=30 May 2021|publisher=National Library of New Zealand |language=en}}
His first television role was playing an officer in Gone up North for a While in 1972. In 1976 he was one of the founding members of Circa Theatre in Wellington, along with Ray Henwood, Grant Tilly, Susan Wilson, Jean Betts and others.{{Cite web|last=specified|first=Not|date=1982-01-01|title=Michael Haigh|url=https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22891773|access-date=2021-06-04|website=Michael Haigh {{!}} Items {{!}} National Library of New Zealand {{!}} National Library of New Zealand|language=en}} The idea was conjured at a dinner party at Haigh's house in Miramar. It was the second professional theatre in Wellington, after Downstage.{{Cite web|date=19 May 2016|title=Wellington's Circa Theatre celebrates the "Big Four-O"|url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/stage-and-theatre/80086397/wellingtons-circa-theatre-celebrates-the-big-fouro|access-date=30 May 2021|website=Stuff|language=en}}{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/37434951|title=Circa 1976-1996|date=1996|publisher=The Council of Circa Theatre|others=John Reid, Ruth Jeffrey, Council of Circa Theatre|isbn=0-473-04155-3|location=Wellington [N.Z.]|oclc=37434951}}{{Cite web|last=Nicolaidi|first=Mike|date=1978|title=Circa Theatre at the Crossroads? |url=https://www.art-newzealand.com/Issues11to20/circa.htm|access-date=2021-05-31|website=Art New Zealand}}
The first play he directed was Roger Hall's Middle Age Spread at Circa Theatre in 1977.
Haigh went on to act in more television drama with Landfall: A Film About Ourselves, Moynihan and Close to Home.{{Cite web|date=9 January 2015|title=Glide Time a smash hit and sell out show|url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/64804371/glide-time-a-smash-hit-and-sell-out-show|access-date=30 May 2021|website=Stuff|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=Screen|first=NZ On|title=Credits {{!}} Landfall - A Film about Ourselves {{!}} Television {{!}} NZ On Screen|url=https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/landfall-1975/credits|access-date=2021-10-25|website=www.nzonscreen.com|language=en}}
His final role was in the 1992 New Zealand film Absent Without Leave.{{Cite web|title=Michael Haigh|url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0354100/|access-date=30 May 2021|website=IMDb}} Haigh died in Wellington on 31 October 1993.
Filmography
- Gone Up North for a While (1972)
- Richard John Seddon - Premier (1973)
- One of Those People that Live in the World (1973)
- Country Calendar - Fred Dagg (1974)
- Landfall - A Film about Ourselves (1975)
- Close to Home (1975-1983)
- Men and Super Men (1975)
- Moynihan (1976-1977)
- The Les Deverett Variety Hour (1978)
- The Deep End - The Captain’s Play (1980)
- Keeling Over (1980) - As Narrator
- Gliding On (1981-1985)
- Loose End - The Pumice Land (1981)
- Carry Me Back (1982)
- Bad Blood (1982)
- Among the Cinders (1983)
- Rabbiter’s Rest - A Fair Cop (1983)
- Wild Horses (1984)
- Country GP (1984-1985)
- Mr Wrong (1985)
- Footrot Flats - The Dog’s Tale (1986)
- Dangerous Orphans (1986)
- Send a Gorilla (1988)
- Absent Without Leave (1992)
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.nzonscreen.com/profile/michael-haigh/biography Michael Haigh biography at NZ On Screen]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Haigh, Michael}}
Category:20th-century New Zealand actors
Category:New Zealand schoolteachers
Category:New Zealand male television actors
Category:New Zealand male film actors
Category:New Zealand male voice actors