ANTHONY DANIELS Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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ANTHONY DANIELS

Name: Anthony Daniels                                                                     
Born: 21 February 1946 Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom                     
                                                                                         
Anthony Kingsley Daniels (born February 21, 1946 in Salisbury, England), and             
educated at Giggleswick School, is an English actor best 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.                                 
                                                                                         
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: Droids and Star Wars: Clone Wars. 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 Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones 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 Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of             
the Sith.                                                                                 
                                                                                         
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.                                                                               
                                                                                         
Anthony Daniels was never a science fiction fan. The only science fiction movie           
he ever saw in a theatre was 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). He was so                     
dissatisfied with the movie that he walked out after only ten minutes and                 
demanded his money back.                                                                 
                                                                                         
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 has the honour of saying 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 and controlled the puppet but           
did not actually appear in the movie. In 2002's Episode II: Attack of the Clones         
and 2005's Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, he returned to the screen (in               
costume) and dubbed the vocal tracks for some scenes that used CGI.