Michael Haigh

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Michael Haigh (1935–31 October 1993) was a New Zealand actor, narrator and teacher. He grew up in Wellington. His parents split when he was 10, and he was raised by his mother, Dorothy, a radio broadcaster, while his father was an actor he didn’t see much.

Haigh found an interest in theatre at Rongotai College. He trained to be a teacher at Wellington Teachers’ Training College in the 1950s and taught for 15 years. For seven of those years he lived in the far north of New Zealand with his wife and two children.

In the 1960s he returned to Wellington to pursue acting. His first TV role came in 1972 in Gone up North for a While. In 1976 he helped found Circa Theatre in Wellington, a project discussed at a dinner party at his Miramar home. Circa became Wellington’s second professional theatre after Downstage. His first play as a director was Roger Hall’s Middle Age Spread at Circa in 1977. He acted in TV dramas such as Landfall: A Film About Ourselves, Moynihan and Close to Home. His final role was in the 1992 film Absent Without Leave. Haigh died in Wellington on 31 October 1993.