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Name: Warwick Davis
Character: Decoy
Place of Birth: Epsom, Surrey, England
Info:
Warwick's career
as an actor came about purely by chance. Back in 1981 his
Grandmother heard a radio announcement
calling for people under 4ft tall to appear in the new
Star Wars film Return of the Jedi. Originally cast as a
background artist, Warwick's gestures were so characteristic
of George Lucas's vision of an Ewok, that he was recast
as Wicket, who became one of the film's lead creature characters. "I
based Wicket's inquisitive nature and movements on my pet
dog". Toy figures of Wicket were released after the
films opening and were labeled, Wicket W. Warrick
In 1984, after the success of Return of the Jedi, Lucas
went on to make two Ewok Movies for ABC television, Caravan
of Courage, and in 1985, Battle for Endor, Warwick reprised
his performance as Wicket in both. Also in 1985, Warwick
appeared alongside David Bowie in the fantasy film, Labyrinth.
In
1987 Warwick was called to Elstree Studios in London
for a meeting with Ron Howard and George Lucas. They discussed
a new project Willow, written specifically with Warwick
in mind. To date, Warwick's acting career had consisted
only of roles involving creature costumes, where his
face
was hidden. Willow was the first opportunity Warwick
had to show that his acting talent extended beyond the portrayal
of strange creatures, to the depiction of real human
emotion.
In this epic fantasy Warwick costarred with Val Kilmer.
The film was privilege to a Royal premiere in the presence
of The Prince and Princess of Wales.
After the success of
Willow, Warwick was immediately back in front of the
camera, this time for the small screen.
He was cast in two series of the BBC television classic,
The Chronicles of Narnia. In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Warwick portrayed the swashbuckling mouse Reepicheep,
and in The Silver Chair he played Glimfeather the owl.
Up until
this point in his career, Warwick had always been cast
as a 'goodie '. On reading the script for Leprechaun,
he was thrilled to learn that this Leprechaun was in fact
a 'baddie'. "It is every actors dream to play an evil
character, a part to really get your thespian teeth into".
The film has achieved cult status with movie fans in America,
which prompted no less than 4 sequels to be made!
In 1995,
Warwick appeared as Grildrig in Gulliver's Travels. The
series set new American television audience records
by attracting a staggering 56 million viewers.
In 1997, George Lucas invited Warwick to return to that
famous galaxy far, far away for Star Wars - Episode 1 "The
Phantom Menace". Warwick played no less than 3 roles
in the film, with character names Wald and Weazel. He was
also honoured to play the famous Jedi Master, Yoda for
scenes where the character was required to walk.
Later in
1997, a script arrived entitled A Very Unlucky Leprechaun.
No, not another horror movie, this time the
Leprechaun, known as Lucky, was friendly, if a little
eccentric. The success of this children's film meant a sequel,
The
White Pony was made the following year.
One of Warwick's
lesser-known roles was in the Floella Benjamin's Children's
ITV series, Jamboree. He was one
of the Bopkins.
Warwick continues to be extremely busy.
During this last year he was seen in The 10th Kingdom,
in which he played
Acorn, and the BBC's new sitcom, The Fitz. He spent six
weeks in Canada filming a new version of the Snow White
story for US television, and is currently shooting Al's
Lads and Harry Potter in which he plays Professor Flitwick
and the Goblin Bank Teller.
As well as the many roles on
the big and small screen, Warwick has trodden the boards
of theatres throughout the
United Kingdom. In addition to numerous appearances in
productions of Snow White, he has appeared as Smee in
Kevin Wood's production of Peter Pan, and last year, in Stevenage,
as the Genie of the Ring in Aladdin.
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