Loved For His Laughter

He Was a Ray of Lighttribute

Actor Ray Henwood might have started his life about as far away from Aotearoa as it’s possible to get, but when he died last week he was claimed by New Zealand’s acting community as one of their own – and one of their very finest.

Growing up in Swansea, Wales, Ray caught the acting bug at church and continued to explore his love of theatre at high school – although he also excelled at science. He graduated from university with an honours degree in chemistry and might have stayed in the UK if he hadn’t missed out on several research posts.

Casting around for other opportunities, he noticed an ad for maths, chemistry and physics teachers in New Zealand, and before long he was standing in front of a blackboard at Mana College in Porirua.

In 1960s Wellington, amateur theatre was thriving and he moonlighted as a thespian. It was in one of these productions that he met his wife Carolyn, whom he married in 1969.