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Tony winning South African actor and playwright Winston Ntshona dies at 76
7:37 CAT | 06 Aug 2018
Photo: Twitter
The theatre pioneer and anti-apartheid activist passed away on Thursday at the age of 76.
Winston Ntshona, the veteran South African actor and playwright has died, his family confirmed on Thursday. He was 76.
Ntshona had been ill for eight years, reports Times Live South Africa. Ntshona had a long and successful career in theatre, earning two Tony awards in 1975 along with his collaborator John Kani—who most recently starred in Black Panther—for their plays Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, focusing on South Africa’s discriminatory “pass laws,” and The Island, about two cellmates at Robben Island who stage a production of Antigone.
Both artists were briefly arrested altering performing the anti-apartheid plays in South Africa the following year.
He also appeared in other notable films including The Wild Geese, The Dogs of War, Marigolds in August, Tarzan and the Lost City, and he had a standout role in the 1989 film A Dry White Season, in which he played a father whose son is beaten by white police officers during an apartheid protest.
He earned a Lifetime Achievement Award at the South African Film and Television Awards in 2011.
“When we started our involvement in local theatre, it was just entertainment. South Africa was a strange place,” said Ntshona in a 2001 interview with The Globe and Mail. “Everyone was totally oblivious to the need to express the plight of the black people. Everybody wanted to forget there was pain—they just wanted to be entertained. This worried us, and when the time was ripe, one picked up the responsibility to do something about one’s life.”
Parliament expresses shock, sorrow at death of Winston Ntshona
Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Arts and Culture says its shocked and saddened by the passing of actor and playwright Winston Ntshona.
The anti-apartheid activist passed away on Thursday, at the age of 76.
Committee chairperson Xoliswa Tom says it’s admirable how Ntshona used the art to inform the world and to raise awareness about the injustice of the apartheid.
Tom says the creative industry has lost a giant.
“South Africa has lost a giant, but the biggest loser here is the creative industry. We’re hoping the people involved in art can bring it to the centre of society where it belongs, because art is about us and who we are.”
A scene from “The Island” Winston Ntshona & John Kani #RIPWinstonNtshona #Theatre ??✊? pic.twitter.com/hu1iG9sI7F
— Modibe Modiba (@Modibe_Theatre) August 2, 2018
It is with great sadness that I received the news of the passing of my dearest brother Winston Ntshona this morning in Pirt Elizabeth. To his wife and family I share your pain. He was my brother. John Kani
— JohnKani (@JohnKani2) August 2, 2018
The greatest pleasures as a theatre goer was that I once got to see John Kani and Winston Ntshona perform Sizwe Banzi is Dead. pic.twitter.com/GgjYldBe9B
— Lester Kiewit (@lesterkk) August 2, 2018
A Giant Has Fallen
A compilation of Winston Ntshona’s work
We are because, you were.
RIP Winston Ntshona pic.twitter.com/52G21hSRv7— Vusi Africa (@Vusiafrica) August 2, 2018
SA theatre great and anti-apartheid activist Winston Ntshona has died. Ntshona started his career in 1965 when he formed the Serpent Players in PE with playwright Athol Fugard and actor John Kani. Together they created pioneering South African plays. https://t.co/Oonl5T2tBS
— Amandla! (@AmandlaMobi) August 2, 2018
A giant of South African Theatre has fallen with the passing of legendary Actor & Playwright, ubaba Winston Ntshona; who was a Lifetime Achievement Award Winner at the South African Film TV Awards & a dedicated member of the @ArtsCultureSA Living Legends Legacy Programme (LLLP) pic.twitter.com/IBpF6NT6fQ
— Min. Nathi Mthethwa (@NathiMthethwaSA) August 2, 2018
Winston Ntshona, the South African actor and Tony winner who had movie roles, is dead at 76. He collaborated with his fellow actor John Kani and the playwright Athol Fugard. https://t.co/mcnd2oDQO4
— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) August 5, 2018
Source: Okay Africa / EWN
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