Luke out! Star Wars actor is saved by guide after slip on Skellig rocks

ACTOR Mark Hamill was saved from falling down treacherous mountainside by a quick-thinking guide during filming for the new Star Wars trilogy. The 63-year- old is reprising his role as Luke Skywalker in the new films, but would have been a ‘goner’ had he not been caught by a guide when he slipped on the rocks last year, it was claimed.

He was climbing the steps of Skellig Michael, a UNESCO World Heritage Site off the coast of Co. Kerry, when he slipped, the Sunday Times reported yesterday.

A witness to his near miss told the paper that Hamill, pictured, would have been a ‘goner’ had the guide from the Office of Public Works not caught him.

Last year, the mountain was closed to the public for three days, with a Navy ship anchored nearby to guard it, during filming for the movie.

In recent years several people have fallen to their deaths, such is the nature of the steep and unforgiving terrain.

Hamill is not the only Star Wars actor to suffer misfortune on the set of the massively anticipated films – the first instalment of which is directed by JJ Abrams and is due to be released in December.

In June of last year, Harrison Ford was airlifted to hospital after the Millennium Falcon spaceship crushed his ankle and broke his leg in an accident on the set.

Crew members hastily pulled him out from underneath the prop and he was stretchered off set and flown to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, which specialises in fractures.

Ford’s accident, at the start of an evening shoot in Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire, came just days after fans learned the Millennium Falcon ship – piloted by Ford’s character Han Solo – would appear in the new film.

Reprising his buccaneering role from the early films for Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, it is believed Ford was about to start a scene involving the 111ft vehicle.

Production was halted for eight weeks while Ford recovered from surgery, which fixed his shattered limb with metal plates.

The cast and crew continued to shoot scenes i n Britain without Ford’s presence.

Earlier t his month, i t was announced by Arts Minister Heather Humphreys that film crews would return to Skellig Michael to shoot scenes for Star Wars: Episode VIII, which is due out in cinemas in May 2017.

Ms Humphreys said the news was a ‘win for Ireland and the Irish film industry’ – despite objections from conservationists who are worried about the impact that shooting the film would have on the local wildlife of the tiny, unpopulated island.