Anthony Daniels

Infobox actor
name = Anthony Daniels

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caption = Anthony Daniels with C-3PO's head, 2005
birthname =
birthdate = birth date and age|1946|2|21
birthplace = Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom
othername =
occupation = Actor
yearsactive = 1976 - present
spouse =
website = http://www.anthonydaniels.com/

Anthony Kingsley Daniels (born February 21, 1946) is an English actor, known for his role as the droid C-3PO in the "Star Wars" series of films made between 1977 and 2005. Daniels and Kenny Baker, who played R2-D2, are the only actors credited as playing the same role in all six of the Star Wars films (except that Baker did not actually film in the third episode).

Biography

Daniels was born in Salisbury, England, the son of a plastics company executive. [ [http://www.filmreference.com/film/20/Anthony-Daniels.html Anthony Daniels Biography (1946-) ] ] He was educated at Giggleswick School.

Film and TV career

Aside from playing the fussy droid in all six movies, Daniels has reprised the role frequently over the past three decades. He's donned the shiny suit for various promotional work, including hosting "The Making of Star Wars"; for appearances on "The Muppet Show" and "Sesame Street"; for "The Star Wars Holiday Special"; for commercials including Kenner toys, a no-smoking PSA, and even a breakfast cereal based on the character; and for prequel tie-ins such as "Star Wars Connections" and "The Science of Star Wars". He also voiced C-3PO in a radio serial based on the original trilogy; for the Christmas-themed "Christmas in the Stars" album; for the Disneyland theme park attraction "Star Tours"; and also for two animated series: ' and '. He also provided the narration and all character voices for the "Dark Force Rising" and "The Last Command" audio books. Daniels also has a cameo in the Outlander nightclub scene early in ' as a different character, Lieutenant Dannl Faytonni, the man in blue uniform who can be seen in a cutaway reaction shot after Obi-Wan disarms the bounty hunter Zam Wesell. Faytonni can also be seen at the Galaxies Opera House in '.

Daniels was the voice of Legolas in Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated adaptation of "The Lord of the Rings". He crops up intermittently on British TV in various dramas, notably in a recurring role in "Prime Suspect" starring Helen Mirren. He also played the priest in the 1990 British spoof horror film "I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle". Aside from his more commercial works Daniels has been appearing and producing many art house and experimental films. His first self produced short film was in 1984 titled My Eye followed by Rupert is a Robot. His last film I'm Marrying C3P0 was shown at the Bognor Regis Film Festival in 2006.

Behind the Scenes

Anthony Daniels was never a science fiction fan. The only science fiction movie he ever saw in a theatre was "" (1968). He was so dissatisfied with the movie that he walked out after only ten minutes and demanded his money back.fact|date=August 2008

He was the only cast member of the "Star Wars" trilogy to voice his character in all three episodes of National Public Radio's dramatizations of the Star Wars trilogy (while Mark Hamill voiced Luke Skywalker for both "A New Hope" and "The Empire Strikes Back", and Billy Dee Williams voiced Lando Calrissian for "The Empire Strikes Back", when the "Return of the Jedi" adaptation was recorded many years later, Hamill and Williams were replaced by Joshua Fardon and Arye Gross, respectively).

Daniels also contributed the foreword to the collected scripts of the "Return of the Jedi" radio drama, as their author Brian Daley died just as the episodes were being recorded. Daniels' other Star Wars-related writings include the Wonder Column for "Star Wars Insider" magazine and a comic book adventure for C-3PO and R2-D2 entitled "The Protocol Offensive", published by Dark Horse Comics.

As C-3PO, he says the first line in "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope", first released in 1977 and part of what is known as the Original Trilogy, and the last line in "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith", released in 2005 and part of the Prequel Trilogy.

In "The Phantom Menace", Daniels did the voice work for C-3PO but did not physically appear in the movie, as the character was a puppet instead of a costume - a prototype C-3PO controlled by someone else. He actually controlled the puppet for 2002's "Episode II: Attack of the Clones", but all prototype scenes were cut, with the droid's first appearance in the movie being Daniels in costume. In this movie and 2005's "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith", he also dubbed the vocal tracks for some scenes that used CGI.

Other careers

He also read the first half of Ann Jungman's Vlad the Drac books for audiobook, before being replaced by Brian Cant for the second half.

References

External links

* [http://www.anthonydaniels.com/ Official website]
*
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ghosts/interviews/daniels/ Multimedia Q&A with Daniels] from the BBC website for the "Ghosts of Albion"