[Movies] Star Wars Makeup and Effects Wizard Stuart Freeborn Passes Away
Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 02.06.2013
He created the costumes for Chewbecca and many more...
Star Wars.com has released a statement on the passing of creature effects and makeup artist Stuart Freeborn. Freeborn designed many of Star Wars most famous characters. He passed away at the age of 98.
Freeborn created Chewbacca for Star Wars: Episove IV, and he and his team designed and built many of the famous inhabitants of the Mos Eisley cantina including Greedo, Walrus Man, and Snaggletooth. In Empire Strikes Back, Freeborn based Yoda's countenance on his own face and also worked on the Wampa creature and Tauntauns. Freeborn and his team in the UK also built Jabba the Hutt and many of the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi.
George Lucas said in the official statement on Freeborn: "Stuart was already a makeup legend when he started on Star Wars. He brought with him not only decades of experience, but boundless creative energy. His artistry and craftsmanship will live on forever in the characters he created. His Star Wars creatures may be reinterpreted in new forms by new generations, but at their heart, they continue to be what Stuart created for the original films."
Freeborn also worked on such movies as 2001: A Space Odyssey's "Dawn of Man" sequence, Peter Sellers' characters in Doctor Strangelove, the original Superman movie quadrilogy, The Omen, and many more.
