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LOS ANGELES: Jeremy Bulloch, the English actor who first donned a helmet, cape and jetpack to play Boba Fett in the original Star Wars trilogy, died Thursday (December 18).
Bulloch died in a London hospital from health complications after years of living with Parkinson’s disease, his agents at Brown, Simcocks & Andrews said in a statement. He was 75 years old.
As the Mandalorian bounty hunter Boba Fett, Bulloch ran away with a carbonite-frozen Han Solo in the 1980s The Empire Strikes Back, then traveled the Tatooine desert in a jet pack in 1983 in Return of the Jedi.
“Today we lost the best bounty hunter in the galaxy,” Billy Dee Williams, whose Lando Calrissian appeared in key scenes with Bulloch in the movies, said on Twitter.
Mark Hamill tweeted that Bulloch was “the quintessential English gentleman.”
“A good actor, a lovely company and very kind to everyone who was lucky enough to know or work with him,” said actor Luke Skywalker. “I will miss him deeply and am so grateful to have met him. #RIP_DearJeremy”
Boba Fett had only a few minutes of screen time, albeit significant, between the two films, speaking only four lines of dialogue that were performed by another actor. But Boba Fett quickly became a cult favorite and would eventually emerge as one of the most beloved figures in the Star Wars galaxy, inspiring characters and plots in other Star Wars properties, most notably The Mandalorian on Disney +, where Boba Fett it has recently resurfaced.
The phenomenon made Bulloch a huge draw on the convention circuit, where he was a regular in later years.
Born in Leicester, England, Bulloch began acting in commercials as a teenager and would have over 100 credits in a career devoted primarily to British television, with small roles on such shows as Dr. Who, Crown Court, and Sloggers.
He also appeared in a couple of James Bond films, 1981’s For Your Eyes Only and 1983’s Octopussy.
Bulloch also played a couple of small Star Wars roles without the mask, Lieutenant Sheckil in The Empire Strikes Back and Captain Jeremoch Colton in Revenge of the Sith.
Bulloch was the first of the four actors to take on the role in some form. Jason Wingreen voiced the voice in the original trilogy. Temuera Morrison, who played Boba Fett’s father Jango Fett in 2002’s Attack of the Clones, plays an aged and devastated Boba Fett in the second season of The Mandalorian. And Daniel Logan played Boba Fett as a kid in Attack of the Clones.
“THE CONVENTIONS WILL NOT BE THE SAME WITHOUT YOU THE FORCE BEING WITH YOU ALWAYS,” Logan said on Instagram along with a photo of him and Bulloch.
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When the prequels were still in development in 1999, Bulloch told The Associated Press that he would like to return for the role.
“But if he had to show his face, he would be much younger, and he would probably need a good plastic surgeon!” Bulloch said.
Instead, he would settle for the small role of Captain Colton, the Alderaan pilot, and one more flight through the Star Wars galaxy.
Bulloch is survived by his wife Maureen and their three children.
