Peter Mayhew

Peter William Mayhew was born 19 May 1944, a British hospital orderly whose height made him visible long before Hollywood called. George Lucas cast him in 1977 because the frame was right and the warmth came through the mask — Chewbacca in the original Star Wars, then every live-action film through 2015's The Force Awakens. He voiced the character in The Clone Wars, wore the bandolier on The Muppet Show, and spent four decades answering to a name that wasn't his but somehow was. He retired from the role before his death on 30 April 2019, having played a creature who never spoke English and sti…