Added guest – Peter Mayhew!
Peter Mayhew
grew up in England the son of a London Bobby. After treatment as a teenager for
giantism, he went to work at a teaching hospital. While working there a
reporter took a picture for a local paper of Mayhew carrying his mother to
demonstrate his giant frame. Peter was seven foot four at the time. While this
didn't make him the tallest man in England or win him a big foot contest, it
did get him a job offer to appear in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger as the
Minoton. The next year, it got him
an interview with George Lucas to play the quirky and lovable side kick of Han
solo, Chewbacca the wookiee. After the
filming of Star Wars, Mayhew returned to the job he loved as porter at Mayday
Hospital in London. He was called back twice to reprise his role for Empire
Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
Mayhew retired to private life for
14 years after Jedi working mostly with wood. He lived in Yorkshire north
England until he met and married his wife in 1999 and moved to Texas. He became
an American citizen in 2005. He reprised the role of Chewbacca again for the
prequels appearing in Revenge of the Sith to whisk Yoda to safety and provide
continuity for the six episode movies of Star Wars.
This year, Peter officially became
the voice of Chewbacca after making a trek to Skywalker Ranch to do voice-over
for The Clone Wars. Peter does other acting occasionally but
enjoys spending time in fandom at comic and science fiction events around the
world. He is considered fan friendly and a good will ambassador to the extended
family of fandom of geeks, nerds, gamers,
hobbyist collectors and costumers everywhere.
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