Tanumafili II, Malietoa (1913–2007)

Samoan head of state, constitutional monarch 1962–2007. Upon independence in 1962, he became joint head of state with Tupua Tamasese Mea'ole, and in 1963, when Mea'ole died, he became sole head of state. He held his position for life, but subsequent heads of state were to be elected by the legislative assembly.

Educated in New Zealand, he succeeded to the title of Malietoa (head of one of the country's four traditional royal families) on his father's death in 1940. In the same year, he became a Fautua (adviser) to the New Zealand governor of (Western) Samoa. In 1958 Tanumafili joined the New Zealand delegation to the United Nations and chaired the constitutional convention that paved the way for independence.