Winston Ntshona

Winston Ntshona (6 October 1941 – 2 August 2018) was a South African playwright and actor. He won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1975.

Biography Born in Port Elizabeth, Zola Winston Ntshona worked alongside fellow South African Athol Fugard on several occasions, most notably in the 1980 film version of Fugard's play Marigolds in August, and played a minor role in Richard Attenborough's acclaimed film Gandhi (1982), and a major role in the film A Dry White Season (1989).

Career Ntshona attended Newell High School in Port Elizabeth, where he met longtime collaborator and South African acting legend John Kani. Between 1963 and 1972, Ntshona worked as a laboratory assistant in a timber factory. In 1967, he joined the Serpent Players drama group alongside John Kani, and Athol Fugard. Black members of the drama group all had day time jobs. Rehearsals and workshops would take place in the evenings or during weekends. This was a first for black actors at the time. a play critical of the Apartheid government's pass laws of the time. Sizwe Banzi is Dead was invited to play for a one-off show in New York, but word of the play soon spread to Europe. A national tour of England was followed by an invitation to play at London's Royal Court Theatre for a six-week run. They returned to the United States for an extensive run of the show on Broadway. Between 1967 and 1972 Ntshona appeared in over 20 stage productions for the Serpent Players.

With Fugard and John Kani, Ntshona wrote the 1973 play The Island, in which he and Kani starred in a number of major international productions over the next 30 years. He and Kani were co-winners of the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for their performance in both The Island and Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, which he also co-wrote.

Arrests In October 1976 Ntshona and Kani were arrested and thrown into solitary confinement for 15 days by the then Transkei government. The order was given by the Minister of Justice George Matanzima, who was also brother to the Prime Minister of the Transkei homeland, Kaiser Matanzima. They were held under the Transkei's Proclamation R.400, because Matanzima believed the play Sizwe Banzi Is Dead had 'inflammable, abusive and vulgar subject matter'.

Filmography Year Title Role Notes 1978 The Wild Geese President Julius Limbani 1979 Ashanti Ansok 1980 Marigolds in August Daan 1980 The Dogs of War Dr. Okoye 1982 Gandhi Porter 1988 The Stick The Witchdoctor 1989 A Dry White Season Gordon Ngubene 1990 Night of the Cyclone Quett 1992 The Power of One Mlungisi 1994 The Air Up There Urudu 1998 Tarzan and the Lost City Mugambe 2000 I Dreamed of Africa Old Pokot Chief 2001 Malunde Grandfather Khumalo 2006 Blood Diamond Old Mende Man