With the Internet going nuts
over the first teaser trailer for “Star Wars: Episode VII,” here’s a
question to ponder: How have the actors from the original trilogy fared
since the space opera debuted?
Nearly all of the original cast continued acting, so one way to
measure their success is by box office gross from their post-”Star Wars”
filmography.
The most successful one has to be Harrison Ford, the man who made Han Solo come to life, right?
Han Solo, played by Harrison Ford, manning a turret in the Millennium Falcon. (Image via Tom Simpson/
flickr)
Wrong.
It’s
Warwick Davis.
Warwick Davis played the main Ewok, Wicket, in “Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi.” (Image via Star Wars/
flickr)
As Yoda would say, “Judge me by my size, do you?”
According to an
analysis by the stats blog FiveThirtyEight,
Ford’s 39 post-”Star Wars” films earned more than
$8.3 billion (in 2013 dollars) at the box office, putting him head and shoulders above most of the rest of the cast (
Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, made
14 movies after “Star Wars” that grossed merely
half a billion dollars together).
But Davis, who played the main Ewok, Wicket, in “Return of the Jedi,”
used his diminutive size to his advantage, nabbing dwarf roles in the
“Leprechaun” franchise, the “Chronicles of Narnia” and, most
significantly, the “Harry Potter” movies.
Davis’ total box office score: $11.5 billion (in 2013 dollars) from
18 films.
On the other end of the spectrum was David Prowse, the man inside Darth Vader’s suit.
While James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader, went on to have a
very successful career (43 films grossing $5 billion), Prowse apparently
never acted again, bringing in a post-”Star Wars” box office gross of
$0.
See FiveThirtyEight’s complete rankings and analysis
here.
Wondering which Star Wars character you are?
Take the quiz here.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/12/03/the-most-successful-star-wars-actor-probably-isnt-who-you-think-it-is/
