Mayhew, Peter

Peter Mayhew was born on May 19, 1944, in the Barns district of the London borough of Richmond-upon-Thames into a policeman's family.

Prior to the beginning of a stellar career, he worked as an employee in a hospital ^[9] .

Film career

He played his debut role in the film “ Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger ” in 1977. He got this role quite by accident when the film’s producers saw his photo in one of the newspapers in an article about people with big legs. So Peter Mayhew got the role of the Minotaur .

Directed by George Lucas in his first movie, Star Wars , he needed an actor who would be able to play the role of Chewbacca, the ape-like creature. Initially, bodybuilder David Prose claimed this role, but he was later approved for the role of Darth Vader . As Lucas said, “all that Mayhew had to do to get the role of Chewbacca was just to stand upright,” which was 2 meters 21 cm ^[9] . The voice of Chewbacca was not Peter Mayhew himself, but the sound engineer Ben Burtt , who worked on all Star Wars series.

Later, Mayhew could play the role of Alien in the film of the same name , but the role went to Boladzhi Badejo .

Personal life

In 1999, at the age of 55, Peter Mayhew married Angie Luker.

October 17, 2005 Peter Mayhew became a US citizen . He lived in Granbury ( Texas ), owned his own business.

In 2013, he had surgery on his knees, after which he was forced to walk with a cane. In 2015, he was hospitalized due to pneumonia.

Mayhew died on April 30, 2019 in his home in Texas ^[10] .

Cinema

Television

• Peter Mayhew (Eng.) On the Internet Movie Database
• Peter Mayhew on Wookieepedia: A Star Wars Wiki
• Interview with Peter Mayhew on Slice of SciFi
• Interview with Peter Mayhew on Monster Island News