Lionel Ngakane (17 July 1928 â€" 26 November 2003) was a South African
filmmaker and actor.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.
filmmaker and actor.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.
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