Colourful, eccentric and incomparable gay performer Warwick Broadhead has died. Close friend Richard Howard says he died peacefully in a chair at his home on Waiheke Island. He was found by a friend who regularly called in to see him. “Warwick had just celebrated his 70th birthday and the opening of his episodic show,” Howard says. “He had had numerous visitors recently and was enjoying his achievements and a small revival in his health. “A bright light of many colours has gone from our world to the next.” Broadhead was known for extravagant and numerous theatrical works, where lines between cast and audience were often blurred. “He was always offbeat, outside the square and moving away from the mainstream, which made him truly original,” says GayNZ.com reviewer Jay Bennie. “He was flamboyant in the most wonderful sense of the word. He was warm and embracing, with a great sense of theatricality and fun both in his work and his everyday life.” Broadhead was also a designer for the 2000 Hero Parade, with a massive unforgettable penis float. In 2002 he managed to recover from four heart attacks and a triple bypass. Other moments of infamy were his marriage to his Grey Lynn villa, which he divorced in a private friends-only ceremony when he moved to Waiheke. He'd more recently been performing from his home on Waiheke Island, and had been amidst an epic 30-month fable entitled Monkey. Broadhead's life was captured by filmmaker Florian Habicht in the film Rubbings From a Live Man, which blurs the lines between documentary and performance art, and features many of the artist's alter-egos. In it, the performer recalls his years growing up gay in Auckland describing his upbringing as a lot of cover up and pretense. "Then I went into the world of theatre," he said, "which is cover-up and pretense." Doug Sanders, who has written of being an HIV-positive gay man for GayNZ.com is also paying tribute to Broadhead. "At what was the lowest time when I was struggling with truly horrible side-effects of a drug combination Warwick visited me with a pot of strawberry jam and we sat on the couch for an afternoon talking about life. “Somehow from that moment I picked up, medically and emotionally, it was a spiritual thing... and I'm not really a spiritual person. Warwick could do that to you. He was amazing." Friend Jeni Little, who sang in a choir he directed from 2006 to 2009, adds “All I can say is that he lived his life like he was going to live forever.” A nephew of Broadhead says not all family members have been able to be advised of his death yet and the family is asking for privacy and some time and space to contact each other and come to terms with their loss. He says he will advise the gay community through GayNZ.com Daily News as soon as possible regarding funeral or related arrangements. Tributes are welcome to news@gaynz.com or on our Facebook page here
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 9th January 2015 - 7:25pm