Geoff Murphy, who has died aged 80, emerged as a pioneering director of the Kiwi film industry before enjoying modest success as a purveyor of Hollywood genre fictions. Although he cut a droll, somewhat weather-beaten figure in later years, this former longhair retained a taste for the raucous, pedal-to-the-metal action showcased in his breakthrough film, Goodbye Pork Pie (1980).

This leaning brought him to the attention of American producers looking to deliver carefully budgeted spectacle, and in the US, Murphy became a sequel specialist, overseeing Young Guns II (1990), Under Siege 2: dark Territory (1995) and Fortress 2: Re-Entry (2000) among others: projects that sporadically yielded fond memories and multiple video rentals, if few critical plaudits.

Geoffrey Peter Murphy was born on October 12 1938 in Wellington, where he attended St Vincent de Paul school and later St Patrick’s College. After failing the Air Force exam – dashing youthful hopes of becoming a fighter pilot – Murphy entered teaching, only to fall in with the Blerta collective, a rotating troupe of actor-musicians (Murphy was a handy jazz trumpeter) organised around his college pal, Bruno Lawrence.