Bruce Robert Allpress (25 August 1930 – 23 April 2020) was a New Zealand actor.

Biography

Allpress grew up in Dunedin, the second son of William and Gladys Allpress. He began performing in the 1960s in a vaudeville minstrel show called the Cheeseman Singer Series. He began working in television drama with a role in the series Hunter's Gold, then spent several years as a regular character on the late 1970s soap opera Close to Home.

He appeared in many television dramas and also presented on television and radio productions. In the mid-1980s, he was a regular on The Billy T. James Show, as well as featuring alongside Tommy Lee Jones in the pirate adventure film Nate and Hayes. He also played the role of a blind piano tuner in The Piano (1993) directed by Jane Campion. His most known role is Aldor, archer of Rohan that accidentally shot the first Uruk-hai from their army in the 2002 film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Allpress died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at the age of 89 on 23 April 2020.

Awards

In 1981 and 1983, Allpress was awarded the Feltex Television Award for Best Actor in the series Jocko.

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
1981Beyond Reasonable DoubtDetective Sam Keith
1981Bad BloodInspector Calwell
1982The ScarecrowUncle Athol
1983Nate and HayesMr. Blake
1985Came a Hot FridayDon's Dad
1985Should I Be Good?Neville Oswald
1987Erebus: The AftermathPeter GrundyTV miniseries
1990The Shrimp on the BarbieMr. Ridley
1993The PianoBlind Piano Tuner
2002The Lord of the Rings: The Two TowersAldor
2006OzzieCharles "Charlie" Foster
2007The Water Horse: Legend of the DeepJock McGowan
2008Power Rangers Jungle FuryMaster Phant
2011No Rest for the WickedMr. Maxwell

External links