Biography

He was awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1974 Queen's Honours List before being awarded Knight of the Order of New Zealand in the 1999 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to Dance.

He received several honours and awards in his lifetime, including a Fulbright Fellowship and the Turnovsky Award.

Trimmer also appeared in dramatic roles in television and on stage - he took the title role in the 1986 television series The Fireraiser and in 2004 toured New Zealand with Helen Moulder in her play Meeting Karpovsky. A year later, he appeared with Dame Kate Harcourt in Blood, Guts and Khaki, a tribute to New Zealand's heroes of war. He said in an interview in 2006 that acting was like an extension of his character work in ballet.

Returning to the New Zealand Ballet in 1962, he began taking lead roles in what he later recalled as the company's golden years when it had a big following and was accompanied by an orchestra in the big towns rather than recorded music. All that ended in 1968 when a fire in the Ballet's storehouse destroyed 15 years of props and costumes - all uninsured.

In his later years, he took up pottery and occasionally exhibited his work.