John Callen (born 4 November 1946) is an English-born New Zealand actor and director. He portrayed Óin, brother of Glóin in the 2012-2014 The Hobbit film trilogy.[1]

John Callen
Callen on 6 April 2015 at the Hobbitcon III convention in Bonn, Germany
Born (1946-11-04) 4 November 1946 (age 78)
England, United Kingdom
NationalityNew Zealand
OccupationActor/Director

Career

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He has performed in movies, including The Rainbow Warrior (as David Lange, the 32nd Prime Minister of New Zealand) and TV shows, as well as directing The Tribe, and lent his voice to Power Rangers Jungle Fury. He has performed in Goodbye Pork Pie, Pictures, Send a Gorilla, Feathers of Peace, Fly (Best Actor in a Short Film), Treasure Island Kids (x3), Love Birds in 2010 (with Sally Hawkins and Rhys Darby), and many TV series and films including Close to Home, Pioneer Women, Roche, Moynihan, 221B Baker Street, Xena – Amazon High (with Selma Blair and Karl Urban), The Man Who Lost His Head (with Martin Clunes), and Bliss (2010).

He has also directed many works for television including Shortland Street, The Tribe, Epitaph, Taonga, and The Kiwi Who Saved Britain (2010). Most recently he appeared in Love Knots and Good Grief series 2. He has performed in and/or directed more than 100 stage plays including performances as Macbeth, Shylock, Polonius and Claudius, and has won best actor and best supporting actor for his theatre work.

He has appeared in a number of TV adverts and voiced more than 150 documentaries and thousands of adverts. He recently won NZ Actors Equity Lifetime Achievement Award.[2]

Filmography

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Films

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Year Work Role Notes
1981 Goodbye Pork Pie Directed by Geoff Murphy
1988 Send a Gorilla Chris Dean Directed by Melanie Read
1993 The Rainbow Warrior Prime Minister David Lange Directed by Michael Tuchner and starring Sam Neill & Jon Voight
2006 Treasure Island Kids: The Battle of Treasure Island Conrad Directed by Gavin Scott
2011 Love Birds Professor Craddock
2012 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Óin
2013 The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
2014 The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
2014 Syrenia Joseph Ford https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3456012/

Television

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Video games

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YouTube

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  • Viva La Dirt League - Inspiring commander (2021) (Episode "Silent hero genius - Battle Plan"[3]), Old mentor (2021) (Episode "Mentor"[4]), Reader (2023) (Episode: "Being forced to read in video games"), Santa (2023) (Episode: "When fake Santa runs into real Santa"), The Administrator (2024) (Episode: "Who is the Windows Administrator?")

References

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  1. ^ "Peter Jackson Announces 'Hobbit' Cast". accesshollywood.com. Associated Press. 21 October 2010. Retrieved 22 October 2010.
  2. ^ John Callen
  3. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Silent hero genius - Battle Plan. YouTube.
  4. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Combat training in games - Mentor. YouTube.
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