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Name: ZAPHIRO, Denis Ronald Photius (Capt.)
Nee: son of Photius Philip Constantine Zaphiro
Birth Date: 6 Jan 1926 Hampstead, London
Death Date: 2004 Hounslow
Profession: An ex 'Bimbashi' (Captain) of the Sudan Defence Force. A gifted artist, an expert bush pilot, and one of Kenya's Senior Game Rangers. Cass - George Adamson's assistant
Area: Ulu
Book Reference: Kinloch, Cass, Hut
General Information:
Gazette 20 Feb 1951 appt as game ranger
Clive James, Unreliable Memoirs, The Blaze of Obscurity We were met at the grass-strip airport by Denis Zaphiro, our guide for the safari. Denis, last of the Great White Hunters, was now a Great White Guide, a condition he preferred, because he had never really liked killing animals. He especially hadn’t liked the kind of people who do like killing them. I presumed that he had made an exception in the case of Ernest Hemingway, whom he had accompanied on his last safari, the one that had culminated in the plane crash that had finally reduced Papa’s lethal urge to a glimmer. Though Denis was old enough to be my father, he was still in good shape: flat stomach, loping stride, hawk-like features, the works. He even had the mandatory cut-glass voice, ideal for making polite suggestions in either English or Swahili. He was also very clever. In his lightweight khaki safari outfit and bush hat, he looked and sounded better qualified than Stewart Granger playing roughly the same role in King Solomon’s Mines. But Denis was no actor. Hardly anybody with an authentic personality is, but Denis was an extreme case of not being an actor. His challenge, after I got back alone into the passenger compartment of the aircraft, was to stride towards it while our crew, who had all got out of it, filmed him coming up to me as I stepped down....
Clive James, Unreliable Memoirs, The Blaze of Obscurity We were met at the grass-strip airport by Denis Zaphiro, our guide for the safari. Denis, last of the Great White Hunters, was now a Great White Guide, a condition he preferred, because he had never really liked killing animals. He especially hadn’t liked the kind of people who do like killing them. I presumed that he had made an exception in the case of Ernest Hemingway, whom he had accompanied on his last safari, the one that had culminated in the plane crash that had finally reduced Papa’s lethal urge to a glimmer. Though Denis was old enough to be my father, he was still in good shape: flat stomach, loping stride, hawk-like features, the works. He even had the mandatory cut-glass voice, ideal for making polite suggestions in either English or Swahili. He was also very clever. In his lightweight khaki safari outfit and bush hat, he looked and sounded better qualified than Stewart Granger playing roughly the same role in King Solomon’s Mines. But Denis was no actor. Hardly anybody with an authentic personality is, but Denis was an extreme case of not being an actor. His challenge, after I got back alone into the passenger compartment of the aircraft, was to stride towards it while our crew, who had all got out of it, filmed him coming up to me as I stepped down....
In a convoy of Toyota Land Cruisers, we all drove off to camp, where Denis, out from under the camera’s looming threat, proved delightful company.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-02-14-bk-42847-story.html Denis Zaphiro, the hunter who spent several months with the Hemingways in 1953, said: “Ernest was probably drunk the whole time though he seldom showed it except by becoming merrier, more lovable. . .”--and more full of hot air. But when he wasn’t drinking, Zaphiro found him to be depressed, morose and silent.