William Takaku
William Takaku was a Papua New Guinean film, television and theatre actor. He was also a screenwriter and a former theatre director.Career
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he travelled far from his birthplace on the island of Bougainville, as a storyteller and spokesperson for his people. They had recently expelled from the island copper mining operations which had been polluting the river they depended upon. In June 1991, he was a guest speaker and storyteller at the International Gathering of Mother Earth's People, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
He was for a time director of the National Theatre Company in Papua New Guinea.
He co-wrote, with Albert Toro, and directed the television miniseries Warriors in Transit. Takaku has also directed the Milne Bay Provincial Theatre Group.
As an actor, he co-starred as Man Friday alongside Pierce Brosnan in the film Robinson Crusoe and he appeared as Magnus in the television miniseries The Violent Earth.
