Kiwi acting icon Grant Tilly dies

ANDREW GORRIE/Fairfax NZ ROBERT KITCHIN/Fairfax NZ DIEGO OPATOWSKI/Fairfax NZ CRAIG SIMCOX/Fairfax NZ SUPPLIED DOMINION POST

Grant Tilly, who was a keen model car collector.

Grant Tilly with pieces from his art exhibition at the South Coast Gallery in 2007.

Grant Tilly with cartoonist Tom Scott in 2006.

Grant Tilly and Dorothy McKegg in Circa's production of Spreading Out in 2004.

Actor Dorothy McKegg with Grant Tilly in a scene from Middle Age Spread at Circa Theatre in 1977.

Grant Tilly, left, with former Prime Minister Helen Clark, centre, and Ray Henwood in 2000.

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Kiwi actor and artist Grant Tilly, well known for his stage and TV roles, has died, aged 74.

Tilly starred in many stage and television productions including Foreskin's Lament, The Daylight Atheist, Gliding On and Middle Aged Spread.

Wellington's Circa Theatre, which he helped found, this afternoon issued a statement on Twitter and Facebook regarding Tilly's death:

"It is with extreme sadness that we note the death of Grant Tilly. Grant was a founding member of the Circa Council and one of the country's most talented and best known actors. He made a great contribution to the theatre scene in New Zealand. He will be sorely missed. Our sincere condolences go out to his family and friends."

Fellow actor and Circa Council member Sue Wilson said Tilly was "one of our finest actors".

Cartoonist, Tom Scott, who wrote The Daylight Atheist - in which Tilly played the solo role as an angry, bitter and alcoholic father -  described Tilly as a fantastic actor and artist.

"He was like a force of nature on stage. Some of the best performances I have seen...Grant at his best had no equal.''

He would also be remembered for his delicate and evocative Wellington cityscapes, which illustrated a series on Wellington by David McGill which ran for many years in The Evening Post.

Even in later years when his health and eyesight were failing, he still had tremendous energy and he did some terrific sculptures and paintings.

"He should have been more celebrated in life than he was."

Tilly designed Circa theatre in 1976 when it was first established in the old Ilott building in Harris St and also designed the present Circa theatre, near Te Papa.

He won actor of the year at the annual Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards in 2009 for playing an 80-year- old Otago farmer in Home Land, by New Zealand playwright Gary Henderson.

Tilly was married twice. He had three sons by his first wife Fay and a daughter by his second wife Ruth.

He grew up and was educated in Wellington.

He studied drama in the Britain in the 1960s but then returned to the capital.

The Mt Cook resident officially retired in the late 1990s, but he continued to perform in plays such as Tom Scott's The Daylight Atheist.

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