Obit of the Day

Glenn Frey, founding member of The Eagles, has died at age 67.

Obit of the Day: Boba Fett (well, his voice)

Boba Fett has four lines of dialogue in The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and all four of those lines were originally spoken by character actor Jason Wingreen. Mr. Wingreen was never credited for the performance, and received no residuals, but for generations of fans it is his growling voice asking Darth Vader “What if he dies?” before Han Solo is entombed in carbonite.

Mr. Wingreen had a Hollywood career that spanned parts of five decades beginning in 1955. Often doing guest spots he did have longer runs on shows including The Untouchables, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and the series All in the Family and Archie Bunker’s Place where he played the role of Harry Snowden over 117 episodes. His most famous big screen appearance was as Dr. Brody, of the Mayo Clinic, in the 1980 comedy Airplane!

Unfortunately after 2004, Mr. Wingreen can no longer be heard in Episode V, as his voice was dubbed over by Temeura Morrison, who played Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones. But fans of the original still reached out to Mr. Wingreen asking for autographs which he felt was still important to him: “It gives me something to do with my life.  Otherwise I wouldn’t do very much, except existing.”

Jason Wingreen died on December 25, 2015 at the age of 95.

Sources: NY Times, Screenrant.com, classictvhistory.com (interview with Mr. Wingreen), and imdb.com

(Video of Bob Wingreen voicing Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back is copyright of Disney and Lucasfilm and courtesy of Justin White on YouTube.com.)

Other Star Wars posts:

Bob Anderson - Fencing master who was actually the man who cut off Luke Skywalker’s hand.

Stuart Freeborn - Designed Yoda

Irvin Kershner - Director of The Empire Strikes Back

Grant McCune - Visual effects designer who created Boba Fett’s helmet, the TIE fighter, and the Millenium Falcon

Maurice Murphy - The trumpet that dominates the opening theme for the Star Wars sextology

Richard Parmentier - Portrayed General Motti in A New Hope

At the funeral of New Zealand rugby legend Jonah Lomu, who died on November 18, 2015 at age 40, former teammates performed one last haka, the traditional Maori dance that became a trademark of the “All Blacks.”

Mr. Lomu’s funeral was held on December 1.

Video courtesy of NZTV on YouTube via RugbyRampage.com