Played Boba Fett in original ‘Star Wars’ trilogy
LOS ANGELES — Jeremy Bulloch, the English actor who first donned a helmet, cape and jetpack to play Boba Fett in the original “Star Wars” trilogy, died Thursday.
Bulloch died at a London hospital from health complications after years of living with Parkinson’s disease, his agents at Brown, Simcocks & Andrews said in a statement. He was 75.
As the Mandalorian bounty hunter Boba Fett, Bulloch made off with a frozen-in-carbonite Han Solo in 1980’s “The Empire Strikes Back,” then zoomed around the desert of Tatooine in a jetpack in 1983’s “Return of the Jedi.”
“Today we lost the best bounty hunter in the galaxy,” tweeted Billy Dee Williams, who as Lando Calrissian appeared in key scenes with Bulloch in the films.
Mark Hamill tweeted that Bulloch was “the quintessential English gentleman.”
“A fine actor, delightful company & so kind to everyone lucky enough to meet or work with him,” the Luke Skywalker actor said. “I will deeply miss him & am so grateful to have known him. #RIP_DearJeremy.”
Fett had just a few minutes of screen time — though important ones — between the two movies, and he speaks just four lines of dialogue that were performed by another actor. But he quickly became a cult favorite and emerged as one of the most beloved figures in the “Star Wars” galaxy, inspiring characters and plotlines in other franchise properties — most notably “The Mandalorian” on Disney+, where Boba Fett has recently resurfaced.
The phenomenon made Bulloch a big draw on the convention circuit, where he was a regular in later years.
Born in Leicester, England, Bulloch began acting in commercials as a teenager and would have more than 100 credits in a career spent mostly in British TV, with small roles on shows including “Dr. Who,” “Crown Court” and “Sloggers.
He also appeared in a pair of James Bond films, 1981’s “For Your Eyes Only” and 1983’s “Octopussy.”
Bulloch also played a pair of tiny “Star Wars” roles without the mask: Lieutenant Sheckil in “The Empire Strikes Back” and Captain Jeremoch Colton in 2005’s “Revenge of the Sith.”
Bulloch was the first of four actors to have taken on the role in some form. Jason Wingreen performed the voice in the original trilogy; Temuera Morrison — who played Boba’s father Jango Fett in 2002’s “Attack of the Clones” — plays an aging, ravaged Boba in Season 2 of “The Mandalorian”; and Daniel Logan played Boba as a boy in “Attack of the Clones.”
“CONVENTIONS WONT BE THE SAME WITHOUT YOU MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU ALWAYS,” Logan wrote on Instagram along with a photo of himself and Bulloch.
When the prequels were still in development in 1999, Bulloch told The Associated Press he would like to return for the role.
“But if he has to show his face, he would be much younger, and I would probably need a good plastic surgeon!” Bulloch said.
He would settle instead for the tiny role of Captain Colton, an Alderaanian pilot, and one more flight through the “Star Wars” galaxy instead.
Bulloch is survived by his wife, Maureen, and their three sons.