Jeremy Bulloch obituary
Jeremy Bulloch, who has died aged 75, was a busy character actor who staked a claim for cinematic immortality by playing the inscrutable Boba Fett in the Star Wars films. A masked, enigmatic bounty hunter with a jet pack and distinctive costume design, Boba Fett debuted in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), capturing and carbon-freezing Han Solo (Harrison Ford) in order to convey him to the slug-like paymaster Jabba the Hutt.
Despite relatively limited screen time and dialogue (his few lines were post-dubbed by the American actor Jason Wingreen), both Bulloch and Boba Fett became much loved contributors to the franchise and he reprised the role in Return of the Jedi (1983). In the eventual Star Wars prequels Boba Fett was played by the child actor Daniel Logan, and so Bulloch was instead hired to play the spaceship pilot Captain Colton in the third of them, Revenge of the Sith (2005).
Unlike his onscreen villain, Bulloch was genial, good humoured and modest, playing down his contribution to the success of Boba Fett. He insisted he only got the part because he was a good fit for the costume, having been brought in by his half-brother, the producer Robert Watts, but his precise body language and smouldering presence were, in fact, integral to the character’s appeal.
Bulloch was born in Market Harborough, Leicestershire. His mother, Aziz (known as Diana, nee Meade), already had three sons from a previous marriage when she married the aeronautical engineer (and later mushroom grower) McGregor Bulloch in 1944. Jeremy was the middle of three children from this second union. The family moved around and so his education was peripatetic: St Leonard’s school in Blandford Forum, Dorset, a private tutor in Wincanton, Somerset, then Dorset House in Littlehampton, West Sussex.
Having failed his 11-plus exams Jeremy – and most of his siblings – enrolled at the Corona theatre school in London and was soon working, making his professional debut in a breakfast cereal commercial. He started appearing in films, as an extra in A Night to Remember (1958) and Carry on Teacher (1959), before playing more substantial roles on television, in the series Counter-Attack! (1960), The Chequered Flag (1960) and Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School (1960-61).
He made his theatrical debut in 1962 at the Pembroke theatre, Croydon, and hit the West End in 1964 in I Love You, Mrs Patterson (St Martin’s theatre, directed by Frith Banbury). His big screen break came in 1962 when he was cast in the film Summer Holiday as Edwin, one of four mechanics, led by Cliff Richard, who persuade London transport to lend them an old bus which they renovate and take on a road trip, provoking both mayhem and music.
With a cheerful, open face and a light, melodic voice, he was perfect for juvenile leads and had a short run in Compact (1965), an early BBC initiative to create a rival soap opera to Coronation Street, and was then one of the originating stars of the next attempt, The Newcomers (1965). His three-year stint included the much publicised wedding of his character, Philip Cooper, for the show’s 200th episode (designed to steal the thunder of the rival soap’s imminent nuptials of Elsie Tanner).
A solid career as a character actor in both drama and comedy followed, with appearances in most popular shows of the time – Doctor Who (1965 and 1973), Dr Finlay’s Casebook (1970), Crown Court (1972), Man About the House (1974), The Professionals (1978) and Richard II (BBC Shakespeare, 1978). He then became a regular in the thoughtful sitcom Agony (1979-81), playing one of the groundbreakingly nonstereotypical gay couple living next door to the advice columnist Jane Lucas (Maureen Lipman).
His later TV work included Chocky (1984), Chocky’s Children (1985), Robin of Sherwood (1984-86, as the decent and stoical village headman Edward of Wickham), Faith (1994), Sloggers (1994-95), Spooks (2002), Doctors (2006-08) and Law & Order: UK (2009).
Bulloch appeared in three James Bond films: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), For Your Eyes Only (1981) and Octopussy (1983), in the last two playing the gadget man Q’s assistant Smithers.
He wrote an autobiography, Flying Solo (2005), contributed to Elstree 1976 (2015), a documentary about Star Wars actors, and was a popular guest at conventions around the world, endearing himself to fans due to his selfdeprecation and unstarry conduct. He withdrew from public appearances in 2018 due to the effects of Parkinson’s disease.
He met Maureen Walker, a model, on holiday in 1967 and they married three years later. She survives him, as do their sons, Jamie and Robbie, another son, Christian, from his brief 1965 marriage to Sandra Ford, which ended in divorce, and 10 grandchildren.
• Jeremy Andrew Bulloch, actor, born 16 February 1945; died 17 December 2020