Actor Frank Whitten has passed away, aged 68. Whitten was a familiar face on New Zealand and Australian television and cinema screens for the past three decades including his role as Grandpa Ted West in Outrageous Fortune.

Read the tributes so far and use the comment box to add yours.

Actor Frank Whitten has passed away, aged 68. Whitten was a familiar face on New Zealand and Australian television and cinema screens for the past three decades including his role as Grandpa Ted West in Outrageous Fortune.

Read the tributes so far and use the comment box to add yours.

• South Pacific Pictures

Actor Frank Whitten died peacefully in his sleep on Saturday morning (February 12).

South Pacific Pictures Chief Executive John Barnett said: “All of us are deeply saddened to hear of Frank Whitten's passing.

“Most recently we have been particularly proud to have worked with him through six seasons of Outrageous Fortune, as he brought the iconic role of Grandpa into the homes of hundreds of thousands of viewers, both in New Zealand and around the world. We will miss him very much.”

Speaking on behalf of her Outrageous Fortune cast mates, Whitten’s co-star and friend Robyn Malcolm said: “We feel deeply for Frank’s family and our thoughts, love and grief are with them.

“We were Frank’s screen family for only a few years but in that time we got to know him and adore him as a wicked, irreverent man of lethal wit, a heart of gold and one of the best actors we’ll ever work with. We all respected him enormously but in good ‘Outrageous’ spirit we treated him with the disrespect and irreverence he loved.

“Like his screen character he never said a lot but when he did it mattered. He’ll hate that we are saying lovely things about him, but tough Frank - you deserve it.”

Whitten’s family will hold a small private funeral service this week and have requested privacy at this sad time.

• New Zealand Film Commission

It is with great sadness that the New Zealand Film Commission receives news of the passing of actor Frank Whitten.

NZFC Deputy Chief Executive, Mladen Ivancic, says Frank Whitten holds a special place in New Zealand’s film history.

“Frank Whitten starred in Vincent Ward’s Vigil, which has the distinction of being the first New Zealand film to be selected for competition at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival,” Mr Ivancic said.

The Los Angeles Times described Vigil as “A film of elemental beauty and growing tension as a young girl on the brink of coming of age, resists the presence of a stoic handyman who threatens to take the place of her dead father, a shepherd in a remote, rugged region of New Zealand. Superb!”

Mr Ivancic offered sincere condolences on behalf of the staff and Board of the NZFC to Frank Whitten’s family, friends and colleagues.

• Biography - NZ On Screen

Whitten played the clever, irascible, fitfully senile former safecracker on Outrageous Fortune. But his acting career stretched back to 1984's landmark film Vigil, and beyond.

Growing up in the Waikato in the 50s, Whitten considered becoming a jockey, or an artist. But the elaborate stories told by his grandfather kickstarted an interest in acting. Aged 21, "with very little experience and even less money", he left for England to become an actor.

Over the next 18 years Whitten worked in a children's theatre company that developed plays with, and for, working-class children. He also spent time as an improvisational tutor at leading British drama school the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

In 1982 Whitten returned to New Zealand and began acting in theatre. Two years later, he appeared on-screen as an exploitative guru of a commune in Trespasses, the movie spin-off of police show Mortimer's Patch. The film's star was Irish legend Patrick McGoohan (The Prisoner).

The same year, Whitten commanded attention as the enigmatic farmer who enters the isolated rural world of a young child in Vigil - the first feature directed by Vincent Ward. The film won praise around the world, with the Los Angeles Times hailing it as "an extraordinary visual and psychological experience".

The mid-80s proved an especially busy period for Whitten. He joined actors Michael Hurst and Jay Laga-aia on teen series Heroes, playing roadie to a group of young musicians. Whitten followed it by playing one of the main roles on historical drama Heart of the High Country, based on the novel by English author Elizabeth Gowans.

June 1986 saw the premiere of ensemble drama Open House, in a prime time 7.30pm slot. Whitten played the co-ordinator of the community house at the centre of the show. Open House set out to explore bicultural issues in an urban setting, but those explorations were curtailed by disappointing ratings.

Whitten went on to act extensively in both New Zealand and Australia, often as "nasty" characters. The New Zealand work included the acclaimed short film Accidents, and small movie roles in the romance Arriving Tuesday, the thriller Zilch, ghost story The Returning, and two forgotten international thrillers shot down under: Chill Factor and Restless (also known as Hot Target).

On television, Whitten appeared in episodes of Erebus: The Aftermath, Gloss, City Life cult-themed mini-series The Chosen, and Kiwi-filmed international co-productions The Ray Bradbury Theatre and Mysterious Island.

His resume of Australian productions was extensive: including hospital series All Saints, the live action remake of Peter Pan and award-winning mini-series The Leaving of Liverpool, which follows two English children transplanted to Australia after World War 2.

In 2007, Whitten's ongoing role on Outrageous Fortune won him a best supporting actor award at the Air New Zealand Screen Awards. He argued that the show has been successful because it "reflects a kind of fantasy, blue-collar New Zealand."

Aside from having written an acclaimed play of his own - Trifecta - there is another Whitten role that should be mentioned: for 12 years, he appeared on the Speights ‘Southern Man' advertisements, and wryly delivered the iconic "good onya mate" line.

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