Definite List of Deceased Actors from Star Wars Franchise

Graham Ashley was born on 26 April 1927 in Northampton, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), The Avengers (1961) and BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950). He died on 30 October 1979 in Islington, London, England, UK.

Eddie Byrne was born on 31 January 1911 in Dublin, Ireland. He was an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Island of Terror (1966) and Odd Man Out (1947). He died on 21 August 1981 in Dublin, Ireland.

Richard Marquand was born on 22 September 1937 in Llanishen, Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales, UK. He was a director and producer, known for Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), Nowhere to Run (1993) and Jagged Edge (1985). He was married to Carol Bell and Josephine Marquand. He died on 4 September 1987 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, UK.

Best known for his role as Ralphus the demented dwarf in the infamous film Blood Sucking Freaks (1976), which is also known as Blood Sucking Freaks. Luis DeJesus had been a circus performer, but was actually quite infamous around New York in the Seventies for his role in a stag movie, a charming little ditty entitled The Anal Dwarf (1971). This eight-minute hardcore wonder was a regular attraction in 42nd Street peepshows, especially for people looking for something different. It was probably through this movie that the makers of "Bloodsucking Freaks" discovered DeJesus--"Freaks" director Joel M. Reed also shot porn at the time, though under a different name--but they got more than they bargained for. On the last day of shooting DeJesus and several other members of the cast shocked Reed by staging an orgy; according to Reed, DeJesus "wasn't short in all departments". DeJesus continued to act in porn way into the 1980s, then tried for a more mainstream career with disappointing results. Typical of Hollywood's miscasting of dwarf actors, the only roles were in films like Under the Rainbow (1981), a movie about the alleged wild behavior of the Munchkin cast during the filming of The Wizard of Oz (1939). His last known role was as an Ewok.

DeJesus was often mistaken for Hervé Villechaize. For years many critics thought it was the Fantasy Island (1977) actor who had to stand on a box to mount Veri Knotty in "The Anal Dwarf", despite their very different appearances.

Alex McCrindle was born on 3 August 1911 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He was an actor and producer, known for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Eye of the Needle (1981) and Witch Wood (1964). He was married to Honor Arundel and Sandy . He died on 20 April 1990 in St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, England, UK.

Eileen Baker was born on 11 June 1947 in Preston, Lancashire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) and Wombling Free (1977). She was married to Kenny Baker. She died on 23 September 1993 in Preston, Lancashire, England, UK.

Peter Wilton Cushing was born on May 26, 1913 in Kenley, Surrey, England, to Nellie Maria (King) and George Edward Cushing, a quantity surveyor. He and his older brother David were raised first in Dulwich Village, a south London suburb, and then later back in Surrey. At an early age, Cushing was attracted to acting, inspired by his favorite aunt, who was a stage actress. While at school, Cushing pursued his acting interest in acting and also drawing, a talent he put to good use later in his first job as a government surveyor's assistant in Surrey. At this time, he also dabbled in local amateur theater until moving to London to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on scholarship. He then performed in repertory theater in Worthing, deciding in 1939 to head for Hollywood, where he made his film debut in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939). Other Hollywood films included A Chump at Oxford (1940) with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Vigil in the Night (1940) and They Dare Not Love (1941). However, after a short stay, he returned to England by way of New York (making brief appearances on Broadway) and Canada. Back in his homeland, he contributed to the war effort during World War II by joining the Entertainment National Services Association.

After the war, he performed in the West End and had his big break appearing with Laurence Olivier in Hamlet (1948), in which Cushing's future partner-in-horror Christopher Lee had a bit part. Both actors also appeared in Moulin Rouge (1952) but did not meet until their later horror films. During the 1950s, Cushing became a familiar face on British television, appearing in numerous teleplays, such as 1984 (1954) and Beau Brummell (1954), until the end of the decade when he began his legendary association with Hammer Film Productions in its remakes of the 1930s Universal horror classics. His first Hammer roles included Dr. Frankenstein in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Dr. Van Helsing in Horror of Dracula (1958), and Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959).

Cushing continued playing the roles of Drs. Frankenstein and Van Helsing, as well as taking on other horror characters, in Hammer films over the next 20 years. He also appeared in films for the other major horror producer of the time, Amicus Productions, including Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965) and its later horror anthologies, a couple of Dr. Who films (1965, 1966), I, Monster (1971), and others. By the mid-1970s, these companies had stopped production, but Cushing, firmly established as a horror star, continued in the genre for some time thereafter.

Perhaps his best-known appearance outside of horror films was as Grand Moff Tarkin in George Lucas' phenomenally successful science fiction film Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). Biggles: Adventures in Time (1986) was Cushing's last film before his retirement, during which he made a few television appearances, wrote two autobiographies and pursued his hobbies of bird watching and painting. In 1989, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his contributions to the acting profession in Britain and worldwide. Peter Cushing died at age 81 of prostate cancer on August 11, 1994.

Though primarily a stage actor, Sebastian Shaw appeared in some forty film and television productions from 1930 to 1991. Born in Holt, Norfolk, England, he first appeared on stage as a child in 1913, graduating to lead roles by the late 1920s. It was in 1930 that he made his first film appearance in Caste (1930). His most notable film roles of this period were as an aspiring actor opposite Miriam Hopkins and Rex Harrison in the Alexander Korda-produced Men Are Not Gods (1936); as a crime suspect in another Korda production, Murder on Diamond Row (1937); and opposite Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson in Michael Powell's U-Boat 29 (1939). His later films included Roy Boulting's documentary-style Journey Together (1945), The Glass Mountain (1949) (in which he played an eccentric Scottish lyricist), and Scotch on the Rocks (1953).

In the 1960s, he appeared in Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo's imaginative It Happened Here (1964), made in semi-documentary style showing Britons coping during a Nazi persecution. Mostly stage and television work followed (including an appearance as a judge in Rumpole of the Bailey (1978)). In 1982, Shaw was approached by George Lucas to make an appearance in the final episode of his Star Wars films, Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983). The role was the small but crucial one at the film's climax of the unmasked Darth Vader (Anakin Skywalker) and in the final scene as Anakin's ghost. The role has since made him a cult figure all over the world. Much of Shaw's remaining career was spent playing distinguished elderly gent roles, such as cold war spy-cum-art critic Basil Sharpe in High Season (1987). Shaw continued to act on stage, film and television well into his eighties. Sebastian Shaw died at age 89 of natural causes on December 23, 1994.

Jeremy Sinden was born on 14 June 1950 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Chariots of Fire (1981) and The Far Pavilions (1984). He was married to Delia Lindsay. He died on 29 May 1996 in London, England, UK.

Don Henderson was born on 10 November 1931 in Leytonstone, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Brazil (1985) and No Escape (1994). He was married to Shirley Stelfox and Hilary. He died on 22 June 1997 in Warwick, Warwickshire, England, UK.

Jack Purvis was born on 13 July 1937 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Time Bandits (1981), Brazil (1985) and Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). He was married to Marjie Purvis. He died on 11 November 1997 in Bushey, Hertfordshire, England, UK.

Billy J. Mitchell was born in 1942. He was an actor, known for Top Secret! (1984), GoldenEye (1995) and Never Say Never Again (1983). He died in 1999 in England, UK.

Alec Guinness was an English actor of stage and screen, his career spanning over sixty years. His best known screen works are his starring roles in several of the Ealing comedies between 1949 and 1957 (most notably as eight members of the same family in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), his Oscar-nominated turn as bank clerk turned bullion robber in The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), an inventor who never gives up in The Man in the White Suit (1951), and as one of five oddball criminals planning a bank robbery in The Ladykillers (1955)); his six collaborations over 38 years with director David Lean: Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations (1946), Fagin in Oliver Twist (1948), Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor), Prince Faisal in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), General Yevgraf Zhivago in Doctor Zhivago (1965), and Professor Godbole in A Passage to India (1984); his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in George Lucas' original Star Wars trilogy (for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor); and his starring role as George Smiley in the television adaptations of John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) and Smiley's People (1982).

His gallery of notable characters (both fictional and historical) also includes Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in The Mudlark (1950), an enterprising rogue in The Promoter (1952), a sleuthing priest in The Detective (1954), an eccentric London artist in The Horse's Mouth (1958) (for which he was Oscar-nominated as a screenwriter), a wayward Scottish army officer in Tunes of Glory (1960), the ghost of Jacob Marley in Scrooge (1970), King Charles I in Cromwell (1970), the title role in Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973), a blind butler in Murder by Death (1976), a survivor of the Titanic disaster in Raise the Titanic (1980), and a return to Dickens' territory (and a final Oscar nomination) as William Dorrit in Little Dorrit (1987).

In 1959, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the arts. In 1980 he received the Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievement.

Guinness died on 5 August 2000, from liver cancer, at Midhurst in West Sussex.

Shelagh Fraser was born on 25 November 1920 in Purley, Surrey, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), The History of Mr. Polly (1949) and Raising a Riot (1955). She was married to Anthony Squire. She died on 29 August 2000 in London, England, UK.

Ted Burnett was born on 8 November 1926 in Poplar, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Britannia Hospital (1982), Let's Get Laid (1978) and Out (1978). He died on 1 October 2001 in Millwall, London, England, UK.

Bruce Boa was born on 10 July 1930 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He was an actor, known for Full Metal Jacket (1987), Octopussy (1983) and Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). He was married to Cherry. He died on 17 April 2004 in Surrey, England, UK.

Alf Joint was born on 22 September 1927 in Hertfordshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Goldfinger (1964), Lifeforce (1985) and Superman (1978). He was married to Daphne M M Chai-tsai. He died on 25 July 2005 in Hertfordshire, England, UK.

Michael Sheard was born on 18 June 1938 in Aberdeen, Grampian, Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), The Outsider (1983) and Five Red Herrings (1975). He was married to Rosalind Allaway. He died on 31 August 2005 in Newport, Isle of Wight, England, UK.

John Hollis was born on 12 November 1927 in Fulham, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Flash Gordon (1980), Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Superman II (1980). He was married to Sheila Forrester and Gabrielle Hamilton. He died on 18 October 2005 in Richmond upon Thames, London, England, UK.

William Michael Hootkins was born on July 5, 1948, in Dallas, Texas. He moved to London, England in the early '70s and lived there up until 2002. Hootkins was an actor at Theatre Intime while attending Princeton University where he learned how to speak fluent Mandarin Chinese. He also trained as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, and attended St. Marks, where he was in the same theater group as Tommy Lee Jones. The imposingly bulky and heavyset Hootkins first began acting in films and TV shows alike in the mid '70s. His more noteworthy parts include the first of the Rebel fighter pilots to get killed while attacking the Death Star in "Star Wars", scientist Topol's bumbling oaf assistant in "Flash Gordon", Major Eaton, sent by the US government in "Raiders of the Lost Ark", one of Rod Steiger's demented sons in "American Gothic", a corrupt police lieutenant in "Batman", a disgusting sleazy voyeur in "Hardware", a coarse South African police chief in "Dust Devil", the mysterious and duplicitous Mr. X in "Hear My Song", a haughty corporate executive in "Death Machine", Santa Claus in "Like Father, Like Santa", and an opera-singing vampire in "The Breed". Moreover, Hootkins had small parts in two "Pink Panther" pictures: he's a taxi driver in both "The Trail of the Pink Panther" and "Curse of the Pink Panther".

Among the TV shows he did guest spots on are "Yanks Go Home", "Agony", "Play for Today", "Tales of the Unexpected", "The Life and Times of David Lloyd George", "Brett Maverick", "Cagney and Lacey", "Taxi", "Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense", "Poirot", "Chancer", "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles", "The Tomorrow People", "The West Wing", and "Absolute Power". Hootkins received many accolades for his outstanding performance as Sir Alfred Hitchcock in Terry Johnson's hit play "Hitchcock Blonde". In addition to his substantial film and TV credits, Hootkins was also a popular and prolific voice artist who recorded dozens of plays for BBC Radio Drama; he supplied the voices for such iconic individuals as Orson Welles, J. Edgar Hoover, and Winston Churchill. William Hootkins died of pancreatic cancer on October 23, 2005.

John Pedrick was born on 27 November 1947 in Hackney, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), The Sign of Four (1983) and Meet Ricky Gervais (2000). He died on 12 December 2005 in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, UK.

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Phil Brown was the son of a doctor whose work took the family all around the country. After majoring in dramatics at Stanford University, Brown played some of his earliest stage roles as part of New York's Group Theatre. When it folded, he and other Group Theatre vets headed to Hollywood, where Brown worked in motion pictures and helped found the fabled Actors' Laboratory. His association with the Lab came back to haunt him later in the decade, when its members fell under the scrutiny of the House Un-American Activities Committee, and Brown was eventually compelled to relocate with his family to England, UK. Overseas he was able to resume acting on stage, TV and films; he also directed for the stage and TV. He returned to the U.S. in the 1990s and made the rounds of autograph shows.

John Ghavan was born in June 1947 in Iran. He was an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), Flash Gordon (1980) and The Phantom of the Opera (1989). He died on 4 April 2006 in Northhampton, England, UK.

Michael Gilden was born on 22 September 1962 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), Pulp Fiction (1994) and Southland Tales (2006). He was married to Meredith Eaton and Elena Fondacaro. He died on 5 December 2006 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Ronnie Phillips was born in 1911. He was an actor and composer, known for Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) and Knockouts (1992). He died on 28 April 2007 in London, England, UK.