Alfie Curtis, who played Dr. Evazan in Star Wars: A New Hope, has died at the age of 87 and it is exactly a year after Carrie Fisher passed away. He was also the milkman in the 1980 film The Elephant Man.
Alfie Curtis was a British actor who was born on the 28 July 1930 and passed away on Boxing Day, Tuesday 26, 2017, in the evening. He was born in Stepney in London and he also appeared in 1980’s The Wildcats of St. Trinian’s and 1982’s Take It or Leave It.
Dr. Evazan threatened Luke Skywalker at Mos Eisley Cantina in the first of the original trilogy in 1977. The character is best known for his lines saying: “You just watch yourself. We’re wanted, men. I have the death sentence on 12 systems.”
Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars film series, sent out a message on Twitter the next day saying he was ‘funny, kind & real gentleman’.
ALFIE CURTIS made the #StarWars Mos Eisley Cantina scene (one of the most memorable I've ever been a part of) even MORE memorable. As horrific as he was on-camera, off-camera he was funny, kind & a real gentleman. Thanks Alf- you'll be missed. #RIP ❤️- mh pic.twitter.com/laxKvbGmrd
— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) December 27, 2017
Dr. Evazan was a promising plastic surgeon whose unorthodox methods ended up harming his patients more than helping them and he spent many hours drinking away. After this lifestyle failed, he started smuggling and piracy. The scene that caused Aflie Curtis to play the threatening drunk man in the famous bar scene during the original 1977 movie, in which he threatens Luke Skywalker, prompted Obi-Wan Kenobi to intervene and this resulted in the franchise’s first use of a lightsaber in combat.
Dr. Evazan and his partner were seen in Rogue One, though he was a younger version of himself who was played by Michael Smiley. The characters were lurching around Jedha.
Curtis’ last credited acting role was on an episode of Colin Firth’s 1986 miniseries Lost Empires. The cause of death is yet to be announced.