| Intro | South African filmmaker | ||
| Was |
Film director Writer Actor Television actor |
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| From | South Africa | ||
| Type |
Film, TV, Stage & Radio Literature |
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| Gender | male | ||
| Birth |
17 July 1920, Pretoria, South Africa |
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| Death |
26 November 2003, Rustenburg, South Africa |
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| Star sign | Cancer | ||
| Education |
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Lionel Ngakane (17 July 1928 – 26 November 2003) was a South African filmmaker and actor.
Biography
Born in Pretoria, South Africa, Ngakane was educated at Fort Hare University College and Wits University, and worked on Drum and Zonk magazines from 1948 to 1950. In 1950 he began his career in film as an assistant director and actor in the film version of Cry, the Beloved Country (1951), directed by Zoltan Korda. Shortly thereafter Ngakane went into exile in the United Kingdom. As an actor, he appeared in films, including The Mark of the Hawk in 1957 (with Eartha Kitt), on television – Quatermass and the Pit (1958) and the spy series Danger Man (Deadline, 1962) with Patrick McGoohan – as well as on stage, as in Errol John’s Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, and Wole Soyinka’s play The Lion and the Jewel at the Royal Court Theatre in 1966.
Ngakane returned to South Africa after the end of apartheid in 1994.
He is best remembered for his short film Jemima and Johnny (1965), inspired by the 1958 “race riots” in Notting Hill, London. It won awards at the Venice and Rimini film festivals. He also directed documentaries on apartheid and African development. He was honorary president of the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI), which organization he had originated in 1967 as a lobbying group for the support of African filmmakers. In 1997 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Natal.
In 2003 he was awarded the South African “Order of Ikhamanga in Silver” for his “outstanding achievement in the field of movie-making and contribution to the development of the film industry in South Africa and on the continent”.