Chewbacca actor Peter Mayhew has died at 74 (buzzfeednews.com).
The cause of Mayhew’s death was not immediately announced. The 7-foot 2-inch actor had in recent years had mobility issues and in 2018 underwent spinal surgery.
With his family reminding that the Star Wars family meant so much more to him than a role in a film:
“He fought his way back from being wheelchair-bound to stand tall and portray Chewbacca once more in Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” a family statement said. “He also consulted on The Last Jedi in an attempt to teach his successor.”
For decades, Mayhew traveled to conventions and developed deep relationships with fans and other Star Wars cast members, his family said.
And using his fame as the much-loved space opera walking carpet to create the Peter Mayhew Foundation to support a variety of causes and also writing two books, Growing Up Giant and My Favorite Giant, for a younger audience relating to bullying and growing up different.
Trivia: The actor did not actually have as many assume gigantism (acromegaly) like the Jaws Bond villain Richard Kiel (Sept. 2014), rather being born with Marfan syndrome (grunge.com) which can cause a person to have extremely long limbs and digits.
#RIPPeterMayhew (Instagram).
Updated 3rd May 2019
And with Mark Hamill (bbc.co.uk) and Harrison Ford (rollingstone.com) as well as members of other franchises who grew up loving Chewie paying their respects:
How Peter Mayhew became Chewbacca (bbc.co.uk).
He had exactly what Star Wars creator George Lucas needed when he was casting Chewbacca—height. Lucas had initially asked Dave Prowse, but he bagged Darth Vader instead.
Mayhew was perfect for the role of Chewie, the loveable, even cuddly sidekick to Harrison Ford’s intergalactic smuggler Han Solo.
And Auntie bringing the gigantism confusion up again indicating that the “London-born son of a policeman was diagnosed with gigantism” aged eight and also had Marfan Syndrome, likely indicative of prevailing diagnosis in the 1950s but with Mayhew clearly saying he did not when asked if his 7ft 2in height was not a product of gigantism: “I don’t have the big head”, Mayhew said when asked about the cause of his height (Wikipedia) indicative that tall and thin statue due to Marfan rather than the growth hormone excess of gigantism.
Once he was cast, Mayhew set about researching his character by studying bears, monkeys and gorillas in his local zoo—preparing to bring his character to life once he was encased in the yak hair costume.
In a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, the actor summed up Chewbacca’s role by saying: “My character is a teddy bear, basically.”
But indeed a “teddy bear” which could pull people’s arms out of their sockets when they lose, or when being protective.
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