Biography

Lawrence Makoare was born on March 20, 1968 in Bastion Point, Auckland, New Zealand. He is an actor, known for Die Another Day (2002), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001).

This hulking Kiwi actor almost always plays villainous brutes due to his size.

This Kiwi actor played three different roles in "Lord of the Rings" series, more speaking parts than any other actor in it, although his face is never seen. In "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" he played Lurtz, the muscular, arrow-throwing leader of the Uruk-Hai and in "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" he played Gothmog, the macho leader of Saruman's new and improved Orcs who is described by his creators as "a cross between John Wayne and the Elephant Man", and lastly, the Witch King of Angmar; the helmeted, towering Nazgul (formerly a human King) who engages Eowyn in battle. All three of his villainous characters are killed by the heroes.

After acting out the Character Lurtz in Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring, Director Peter Jackson ask Lawrence to return and shoot two other chacters for The Return of the King. The first day Lawrence Returned, Peter said he was going to film the Nazgul scenes with him flying the Nazgul over Gondor, so Lawrence had to sit on a Barrel and pretend to be flying. After filming those shots, he returned to the set and had to Film the Gothmog scenes riding on the Warg sitting on the same barrel as the Nazgul.

The deformed Orc leader Gothmog (Lawrence Makoare) does not appear in the original novel of "The Lord of the Rings", at least not explicitly. The name appears twice in J.R.R. Tolkien's works. First, Gothmog was the name of the Lord of the Balrogs in "The Silmarillion", about the history of Middle-Earth centuries before the events in "The Lord of the Rings". Second, there is a character named Gothmog in "The Return of the King", the "Lieutenant of Morgul" who takes command of Mordor's armies after the Witch-King is slain. However, Tolkien never made clear whether this Gothmog was an orc or another Ringwraith, so the makers of the film decided on the former.

Scenes were re-shot with the WitchKing (Lawrence Makoare) because his helmet was too similar to Sauron's in The Fellowship Of The Ring and Peter Jackson was concerned that audiences would confuse the two.

Has five children: Sharai, Hore, Harley, Billie and Jesse.

I always play the bad guys. In the next 007 film (Die Another Day) I play the bad guy. It's a type cast thing.

(on losing a limb to Aragorn) "It was really weird, I thought they would use a blue sock or something to cover my arm, so they can use the blue screen effect, but they didn't. We were in the forest just like you see it, I was asking them if they want me to hold my arm behind my back and the WETA digital guys just said 'no it's ok, we'll take care of it later'."

My whole body, literally head to toe was covered in prosthetics. The head came in 5 pieces, the body came in all different stages, my arms, and my chest was glued on, my legs, feet, fingers, and hands! Every-single-part of my body was completely covered!

[About the ball-and-chain weapon he used as the Witch-King in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' (2003)] "Some people call it a mace, some call it a morning-star, I called it 'damned heavy'."