{"id":644390,"date":"2019-05-03T12:01:50","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T12:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"
\"Peter<\/div>

British-born actor Peter Mayhew, who played Ch"},"modified":"2019-05-03T12:01:50","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T12:01:50","slug":"star-wars-actor-peter-mayhew-passes-on-at-74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/05\/03\/star-wars-actor-peter-mayhew-passes-on-at-74\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Wars actor Peter Mayhew passes on at 74"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Peter<\/div>\n

British-born actor Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca the Wookiee, the loyal, furry companion of space buccaneer Han Solo in five of the \u201cStar Wars\u201d movies, has died at age 74, his family said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Mayhew, whose face was never seen in the \u201cStar Wars\u201d films \u2013 his entire body was always clothed in his Wookiee costume \u2013 died at his North Texas home on Tuesday, according to the family\u2019s statement on Twitter.<\/p>\n

No cause of death was given.<\/p>\n

The lanky performer made his first appearance as the beloved, bleating Chewbacca character in the landmark 1977 sci-fi action-thriller \u201cStar Wars\u201d.<\/p>\n

He went on to co-star in four more films in the blockbuster series \u2013 \u201cThe Empire Strikes Back\u201d, \u201cReturn of the Jedi\u201d, \u201cRevenge of the Sith\u201d and \u201cThe Force Awakens\u201d.<\/p>\n

He retired from playing Chewbacca for health reasons, although his family recalled that for Mayhew\u2019s final turn as the heroic Wookiee in \u201cThe Force Awakens\u201d, he `fought his way back from being wheelchair-bound to stand tall\u2019 once more as the woolly character in the 2015 film.<\/p>\n

He also served as an off-camera consultant on the final 2017 film in the series, \u201cThe Last Jedi\u201d, helping to tutor his successor in the Chewbacca role, Joonas Suotamo, on the ways of convincingly playing a Wookiee.<\/p>\n

Co-stars saluted Mayhew as a performer whose inner poise and grace shone through in his character.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeter Mayhew was a kind and gentle man, possessed of great dignity and noble character,\u201d said Harrison Ford, who as Han Solo, shared many scenes with Mayhew.<\/p>\n

\u201cChewbacca was an important part of the success of the films we made together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Hamill, who starred as Luke Skywalker in the franchise, called Mayhew \u201cthe gentlest of giants\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big man with an even bigger heart who never failed to make me smile, and a loyal friend who I loved dearly,\u201d Hamill wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n

Suotamo remembered Mayhew as \u201can absolutely one-of-kind gentleman and a legend of unrivaled class\u201d.<\/p>\n

Chewbacca, tall, shaggy and clothed only in a bandoleer, was introduced to movie audiences in the original \u201cStar Wars\u201d film as co-pilot of the Millennium Falcon, the spacecraft captained by his best friend, Solo, played by Harrison Ford.<\/p>\n

Solo affectionately referred to him as Chewie.<\/p>\n

The character of Princess Leia, played by the late Carrie Fisher, was more dismissive of Chewbacca at first, memorably snapping: \u201cWill someone get this big, walking carpet out of my way,\u201d early in the first \u201cStar Wars\u201d picture.<\/p>\n

A trusty sidekick who spoke in a language of dog-like growls and bellowing moans understood by his compatriots, Chewbacca was the most notable member of the fictional humanoid Wookiee species of his heavily forested home planet.<\/p>\n

Another actor supplied the character\u2019s vocalizations.<\/p>\n

Deprived of recognizable speech and with facial expressions limited by the Wookiee mask he wore, Mayhew relied on body language to portray the emotional range of a character that could be both fearsome and sensitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cChewie transformed me,\u201d Mayhew once said of performing in the costume, according to a profile posted on the official StarWars.com website run by Lucasfilm studio.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe attitude was different. The walk was different. Do the scenes, come back, take the mask off, Peter was back.\u201d
Mayhew, who stood seven feet, four inches (2.24 m) tall, was discovered while working as a hospital orderly in London.<\/p>\n

A photograph of him published in a local paper caught the eye of film producers, and he was cast as a Minoton in the 1977 film \u201cSinbad and the Eye of the Tiger,\u201d co-starring Jane Seymour, according to his official Facebook page.<\/p>\n

About a year later, after returning to his job at King\u2019s College Hospital, Mayhew was called by filmmaker George Lucas to audition for the role of Chewbacca, a role he not only created for the original \u201cStar Wars\u201d film and reprised in four others, but inhabited in various television and personal appearances over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeter was a wonderful man. He was the closest any human being could be to a Wookiee \u2013 big heart, gentle nature \u2026 and I learned to always let him win.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a good friend and I\u2019m saddened by his passing,\u201d Lucas said in a statement late on Thursday<\/p>\n

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