I've had a great many varied roles
over the course of my career in film
and television.
SAVING STAR WARS (2003) - I had the pleasure of playing myself
in this fan run film, directed by Garry Wood of Woodworks
Films. Most of the action takes place
during the Celebration 2 convention
where a group of fans are trying to
steal a briefcase from George Lucas
who is attending the convention with
the briefcase chained to his wrist containing
the script of Episode 3. Worked on the
film for 10 days and ended up saving
George and the briefcase from the fans.
The film is now out on DVD. It was nominated for best screen
play and won the best supporting actor
role at the London Film Festival. Gary is to be congratulated on
the tremendous amount of work that he
and the production team have put into
making Saving Starwars so successful.
STAR WARS EPISODE VI - RETURN
OF THE JEDI (1982) - This for
me was the weak part of the trilogy
and unfortunately turned out to be the
worst film experience I have ever had.
You can read about this in my book 'Straight
from the Force's Mouth'. I did not like
the introduction of the Ewoks, although
the kids loved it. The premise that
a bunch of teddy bears with sticks and
stones could defeat the might of the
Storm Troopers was totally unbelievable
and spoilt the film for me, even though
I did not have a great involvement.
Did not go on location, although the
locations this time were better, being
the Northern California redwood forests
and the desert scenes filmed in
Yuma, New Mexico.
THE ROSE MEDALLION
(1981) - A three episode thriller
for the BBC in which I had the co lead
playing Stanley, the cousin of the male
lead, with Donald Sumpter playing a seedy run down
detective. Anna Nicholas supplied the
glamour for the production and the special
effects had the task of creating Sicily
in the Cheddar Gorge area where the
filming took place. Another great acting
role for myself with plenty of dialogue
and acting opportunities. The story
was a search for missing treasure that
involved the Mafia hence the Sicily
connection.
HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
(1981) - I played the bodyguard
to Hotblack Desiato in the final episode
'The Restaurant at the end of the Universe'.
Former Dr. Who, Peter Davidson played
the pig that wanted to be eaten and
spoke the role with a strong West Country
accent. In interviews that he subsequently
did he was always asked how he arrived
at the voice of the pig, to which he
replied 'I just listened to Dave Prowse'.
Douglas Adams was the author of the
book and it was a pleasure to meet and
talk with him on set.
STAR WARS EPISODE V - THE EMPIRE
STRIKES BACK (1978) - This for
me was my favourite of the Star Wars
movies. We had a wonderful director,
Irvin Kershner, who I rank as one of
the best directors I have ever worked
with. It was, of course, a big reunion
for us all and by now we all knew that
we were involved in a cinematic phenomena.
Once again I did not go on location
- Norway for the snow scenes - and my
work was in the studio in Elstree. The
old team were back together plus new
cast members like Caroline Blakiston
who played Mon Mothma and my old friend
Bruce Boa who played General Reikeen.
Bruce and I remained good friends right
up until his death. In fact
it was me who introduced him to the
convention scene. Come to think of it,
it was also me that introduced Peter
Mayhew, Kenny Baker, Warwick Davis,
and Jeremy Bulloch to the Sci Fi convention
scene when I got them together for the
Men Behind the Masks venture. Peter
Sujitsky was the lighting cameraman
on the movie and I thought the carbon
freezer scenes were sensational. Although
it looked great, working on the set
and trying to fight a light sabre scene
with Luke was very difficult in as much
as the temperature on set was over 130
degrees Fahrenheit.
[next
page] |