Dame Gaylene Preston, Ian Mune remember Utu actor Zac Wallace after his death

Wallace was a trade union official when picked to appear in a major role in the movie Utu.

The film industry is paying tribute to the seismic contribution of Anzac Wallace - the actor whose performance in Utu remains one of New Zealand cinema's most iconic.

Wallace, who was born in 1945, died this morning after living with terminal cancer for the last two years.

A larger than life character, his journey to movie-making remains singular.

After a stint in Paremoremo Prison's D Block in the 1970s, Wallace ended up on the construction of Mangere Bridge, a worksite that would turn into one of New Zealand's longest running industrial disputes.

Filmmaker Merata Mita documented that struggle finding Wallace a straight-talking union organiser.

She suggested him as the lead character for Geoff Murphy's Utu, the classic 1983 film. It told the story of Te Wheke a warrior exacting Utu on British soldiers in the 1870s for their sacking of his village.

Dame Gaylene Preston made the documentary for the film and told 1 NEWS that the whole crew were "activist artists".

"We knew that it was saying something, that had never been said before.

"It was about the New Zealand Wars and it was about us and we'd lived it through the Springbok Tour, Zac had lived it through leading the union on the Mangere Bridge so Zac gives this core performance full of passion and rage and he inhabits Te Wheke.

"It was a remarkable performance, and a brave casting choice.

"This is somebody who had never acted before," Dame Gaylene said.

She recalled too sharing an "extraordinary moment" with Wallace in Cannes after its showing at the famous film festival.

"He and I sat in this amazing restaurant ... Zac told me about the prison riot he was in, it was two very incongruous things."

While she had many friends shooting the movie, none of them wanted to be filmed for the documentary and in many ways she felt like she had "leprosy." Wallace led the small group who were kind to her.

Veteran Ian Mune cried this afternoon when told of the news.

"I think his portrayal of Te Wheke is the greatest performance of New Zealand cinema... Geoff's movie is probably for me the most significant New Zealand movie. That movie is monumental."

The penultimate scene where Te Wheke is killed by his brother, was nothing short of Greek tragedy, Mune said.

He remembers seeing Wallace around 2013 when Utu redux was released.

"His eyes which were such fearsome things were gentle. And he said he was looking forward to the film because he ... didn't really make much of it at the time. He was curious to look at it now and see what it meant."

The actor's body was due on at Waatea Marae late this afternoon.

He helped find the land that the marae, a bustling centre of education, media and advocacy now stands on. 

Marae chairman Willie Jackson met his friend more than 35 years ago when he was a union organiser, and not long out of Paremoremo Prison.

"For him his love was here in the community. We were so lucky that he supported this marae, got the land for it.

"Guys like him come along once in a generation so we were all very lucky to know him and he played a part in many of our lives."

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