So Long Chewie. We’re all Going to Miss you
1944-2019
Sad, sad new just in. The actor Peter Mayhew has passed away at his Texas home his family has announced. No details as to the cause of death has been given as yet, but it is widely known his health has been failing in recent years.
Mayhew was born on 19 May 1944 in Barnes, Surrey, UK where he was also raised. His height was not a product of gigantism; “I don’t have the big head”, Mayhew said when asked about the cause of his height. His peak height was 7 feet 3 inches (2.21 m).
Mayhew got his first acting job in 1976 when the producers of Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger discovered him from a photograph in a newspaper article about men with large feet, and cast him in the role of the minotaur.
When casting his first Star Wars film, creator George Lucas needed a tall actor who could fit the role of the hairy alien Chewbacca. He originally had in mind 6-foot-6-inch (1.98 m) bodybuilder David Prowse, but Prowse chose to play Darth Vader. This led Lucas on a search in-which he discovered Mayhew, who was working as an orderly in the radiology department of King’s College Hospital, London, and said that all he had to do to be cast in the role of Chewbacca was stand up.
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