Chewbacca star Mayhew tribute
Peter Mayhew shot to fame through the ‘Star Wars’ film franchise
As fans mark May the 4th today, the official day for Star Wars, the celebrations will be laced with sorrow as Peter Mayhew, the towering actor who donned a furry costume to give life to the rugged character of Chewbacca in the original
Star Wars trilogy and two other films, died earlier this week.
Mayhew died at his home in north Texas on Tuesday. He was 74. No cause was given.
As Chewbacca, known to his friends as ‘Chewie’, the 7-foot-3 Mayhew was a warrior with a soft heart, sidekick to Harrison Ford’s Han Solo, and co-pilot of the Millennium Falcon.
Mayhew went on to appear as the Wookiee in the 2005 prequel
Revenge of the Sith and shared the part in 2015’s
The Force Awakens with actor Joonas Suotamo, who took over the role in subsequent films.
“Peter Mayhew was a kind and gentle man, possessed of great dignity and noble character,” Ford said. “These aspects of his own personality, plus his wit and grace, he brought to Chewbacca. We were
partners in film and friends in life for over 30 years and I loved him .... ”
Mayhew defined the incredibly well-known Wookiee and became a amous actor for most of his life without speaking a word or even making a sound — Chewbacca’s famous roar was the creation of sound designers.
“He put his heart and soul into the role of Chewbacca...,” the family statement said. “But, to him, the Star Wars family meant so much more to him than a role in a film.”
Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker alongside Mayhew, wrote on Twitter that he was “the gentlest of giants — A big man with an even bigger heart who never failed to make me smile & a loyal friend who I loved dearly. I’m grateful for the memories we shared & I’m a better man for just having known him.”
Born and raised in England, Mayhew had appeared in just one film and was working as a hospital orderly in London when George Lucas, who shot the first film in England, found him and cast him in 1977’s Star Wars. “Peter was a wonderful man,” Lucas said. “He was the closest any human being could be to a Wookiee: big heart, gentle nature .... ”
Star Wars would become Mayhew’s life. His height, the result of a genetic disorder known as Marfan syndrome, was the source of health complications late in his life. He had respiratory problems, his speech grew limited. Even after he retired, Mayhew served as an adviser to his successor Suotamo, a Finnish basketball player who was put through ‘Wookiee boot camp” before he played the role in Solo.
The 200-plus-year-old character whose suit has been compared to an ape, a bear, and Bigfoot, was considered by many to be one of the hokier elements in Star Wars. The films themselves seemed to acknowledge this. “Will somebody get this big walking carpet out of my way?!” Carrie Fisher, as Princess Leia, says in the original Star Wars.
Mayhew is the third cast member to die in recent years. Fisher and R2-D2 actor Kenny Baker died in 2016. A service will be held on June 29, with a memorial in December at a Los Angeles Star Wars convention.