Actors Who Have Been In Indiana Jones And The Star Wars Trilogies

It's hard to think of characters more iconic than Han Solo and Indiana Jones, and even more remarkable that both were played to perfection across nine films by Harrison Ford, who made out so well from these roles that he once said, "It sure beats being a carpenter!" (via The Evening Post).

It's hard to imagine anyone else fit for the role of charming rogue Han Solo, which reunited Ford with his "American Graffiti" director George Lucas. Ford himself said that Han "is rather like me in some ways — we have the same energy and intensity — but now I'm trying hard to brainwash myself against the 'Star Wars' image which is so powerful and so strong."

When Lucas teamed up with Steven Spielberg to set loose an archeologist with a sharp wit (and whip), Tim Matheson and Peter Coyote auditioned for Indiana Jones, although Tom Selleck was ultimately offered the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" lead role. His commitment to "Magnum P.I." prevented his involvement, and they turned to Ford to save the day. The actor told the Los Angeles Times in 1981, "For myself, my only worry was making sure the characters of Han Solo and Indiana Jones were entirely different. But since both had been written by the same man, Lawrence Kasdan, there were bound to be similarities."

Ford often asked for Solo's death, and finally got his wish in "The Force Awakens." But he seems fine with Jones having a few more crusades in him, with "Indiana Jones 5" due in theaters in June 2023.

Dallas native William Hootkins became a person of interest in the assassination of John F. Kennedy as a teen, and as an adult wasn't very interested in being a part of "Star Wars." Initially considered for the human form of Jabba the Hutt, he took one look at the script, said "It was a pile of (a four-letter word)," and took another job instead (via Albuquerque Journal).

When "Star Wars" was still in need of X-wing pilots, however, Hootkins took flight in the film as Red Six, although he had reservations about the name of his character Jek Porkins, pondering "is somebody going to come over and stick ears and a snout on my face?" While his experience on the set that he said looked like it had a "budget of $420," Hootkins and company "all fell under its [the film's] spell. We knew then that we had been touched by genius but had just been too dumb to know it" (via The Best of Star Wars Insider).

Four years later, he appeared in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" as Army Intelligence agent Major Eaton, who along with Col Musgrave (Don Fellows) set the film's plot in motion by enlisting Dr. Jones' help to beat the Nazis to the Ark of the Covenant. When Indiana comes through in the end, Eaton assures him that they have "top men" researching the Ark, as it's packed away in a storage crate for eternity.

Hootkins sadly died from pancreatic cancer in 2005 at the age of 57.

Terry Richards was tasked with playing a walking Wampa in "The Empire Strikes Back," terrorizing the hallways of the Hoth base. Darth Vader actor David Prowse wrote in his autobiography about the arduous conditions Richards endured within the ten-foot-high suit. He was tasked with breaking through a plastered wall, something that he tried again and again on set to no avail. By the end of the day, Prowse said that Richards "was on the verge of collapse and suffering stomach cramps." And after all that, the scene was cut entirely from the film.

A year later, Richards was out to torment Harrison Ford again, but this time in the streets of Cairo, showing off his scimitar-wielding skills in "Raiders of the Lost Ark." It was originally storyboarded and choreographed to be "the ultimate duel between sword and whip," but as Ford recalled it, he was suffering badly from dysentery and came up with the idea to "just shoot the son of a b*tch." While his part was diminished, it's still one of the most memorable parts of the film — producer Frank Marshall later told the Hollywood Reporter, "when you're given that challenge, solving it gets you to a better place and gets you to a better idea."

Richards battled with four different James Bonds, and provided stunts for "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," "Willow," and even an episode of "Young Indiana Jones." He died in 2014, aged 81.

Making the leap from being a junior champion gymnast to a soaring stuntman wasn't much of a stretch for Malcolm Weaver, who was a major "fall guy" in a string of popular '70s and '80s movies. He told the Sunday Telegraph, "I specialize in being thrown around by bigger blokes. With my build I'm not going to get parts doubling Bond or Superman. If you're watching a film and someone goes flying through the air it's probably me."

In "Star Wars," Weaver played a Death Star control room gantry officer keeping an eye on the captured Millenium Falcon in the docking bay. He and his commanding officer were surprised by a shackled Chewbacca and fake stormtroopers, one of which was Han Solo, who shot Weaver.

When Weaver faced off against Indiana Jones in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" as a (not so politically correct) "Ratty Nepalese" at Marion's bar, he put up more of a fight, but was again shot down by Harrison Ford. He would also provide stunts for the two "Star Wars" sequels, and the "Indiana Jones" ones as well. It was in "The Last Crusade" where he got "a bit caught up," as he told the Sunday Telegraph, in a mock explosion during a boat chase, and would have severely burned himself had he not applied protective cream in advance.

When Peter Diamond described his contributions to five decades of film history, he professed to Star Wars Magazine, "I'm creating something that an audience sees that I know never happened. That has been the whole story of my career; making someone else look good on the screen."

Diamond "died so many times in 'Star Wars.' Because I like to lead from the front with stuntmen." He was the stormtrooper Luke shoots off the ledge before he and Leia swing on a rope in the Death Star. He also played the Tusken Raider who gives Luke trouble on Tatooine, the Mos Eisley cantina patron who rats out our heroes, a snowtrooper on Hoth, the first person to fall into the Sarlaac pit, and the speeder biker Luke tosses aside in Endor. Perhaps Diamond's biggest contribution to the galaxy was developing the unique swordplay the Jedi would use, as there was to be "no jumping around stairs, no dangling from chandeliers. It was simply two people with blades."

He also played a Nazi soldier in the first and third Indiana Jones films, falling off an Indy-driven truck in "Raiders of the Lost Ark," as well as teaching Harrison Ford "how to do an on-screen punch." Despite the grandeur of these exotic filming locations, Diamond admitted they were not without their difficulties, adding "I can't tell you the stomach problems we had on 'Star Wars' and 'Raiders'. Ninety-eight percent of the crew had sickness and diarrhea."

Dutch stuntman Dirk "Dickey" Yohan Beer donned Boba Fett's armor in "Return of the Jedi," hitting the side of Jabba's barge and falling into the Sarlaac pit. Beer revealed to The Entertainment Junkie that when he disappeared into the pit, there was an airbag that deflated, and while the dark room was the "only cool place around," you still "had to watch out for scorpions and rattlesnakes, and run for your life."

That wasn't Beer's only role in the film, though, as he also suited up to play skiffmaster Barada, a Gamorrean Guard, and even Mark Hamill's double in the Tatooine sequence. He appeared later on Endor as rebel Sergeant Junkin and an Empire Biker Scout, who an Ewok kicks from his bike into a tree.

A year later, Beer squared off against Harrison Ford as various Thugee guards in "Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom," and then later in "The Last Crusade," where he told Star Wars Interviews, "you will see me all over the place, fighting Indiana, falling off the bridge and getting blown up in a German truck."

Beer continues to be an in-demand stuntman, having worked with Spielberg in "Empire of the Sun," as well as two of the "Jurassic World" films. He is also a second unit director, and enjoys working the convention circuit, where "the little kids know more about the 'Star Wars' movies ... than we who were actually in it" (via Life Box Media Channel).

Ted Grossman has been giving it his all as a stunt artist and actor since the 1960s. He acknowledges that it's a profession where "so many things can go wrong on a set," but despite the risks, adds "I wasn't really cut out to do anything else." (via "Jaws 2: The Making of the Hollywood Sequel"). He's thrown himself around for directors like Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, and quite often for Steven Spielberg. His working relationship with Spielberg began in his theatrical debut, 1974's "The Sugarland Express," to which the director walked away highly impressed, saying, "I'm also very proud of one stuntman, Ted Grossman, who did the highest jump of anybody" (via "Steven Spielberg Interviews").

From there, he was an estuary victim eaten alive by "Jaws," and a Peruvian porter, guiding Indiana Jones through the jungle in "Raiders of the Lost Ark," before running away terrified at the sight of a creepy idol. He played a stormtrooper on Endor in "Return of the Jedi," performed stunts in "Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom," and played one of the Deputy Sheriffs who broke young Indiana Jones's heart in the opening scene of "The Last Crusade."

While he mostly retired by the end of the 20th century (with one of his other better-known roles being the dead frozen guy in "The Goonies"), his final credited work was in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," performing stunts and once again playing a Peruvian porter.

Felix Silla has played many familiar characters over the course of his long career. His best-known ones are the shaggy Cousin Itt on the original "Addams Family" series, and playing Twiki, the indispensable robot pal on "Buck Rogers."

Silla also contributed his talents to shows like "H.R. Pufnstuf," "Battlestar Galactica," and "Bewitched," as well as "Planet of the Apes" and "The Kentucky Fried Movie." His work as a stuntman is featured in two classic Steven Spielberg entries from 1982: "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" and "Poltergeist."

It was around that time that he was cast by Lucasfilm to play one of the Ewoks in what eventually was titled "Return of the Jedi." Because of his work in stunts, Silla had more to do, including being the famed hang gliding Ewok, but he told Sam Tweedle in a 2015 interview, "We filmed so many scenes that they used maybe about five percent of what they did. They barely showed anything of what we did."

Two years later, he was hired to be Ke Huy Quan's double as Short Round in "Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom." He also had to do most of Ke Huy Quan's stunts, including the infamous raft sliding down a mountain sequence, where he almost died by drowning (via St. Louis Dispatch).

Silla went on to work on Lucas' "Howard the Duck," and the "Star Wars" spoof "Spaceballs." He died of cancer in 2021, at age 84.

Jerry Harte and Billy J. Mitchell were two American-born actors who made their living across the pond in the United Kingdom. Both had brief parts in "Star Wars" films and had their names roll together in the end credits of "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" ... although they are nowhere to be seen in the actual film itself.

Harte played a Head Controller at the Hoth Rebel base in "The Empire Strikes Back," and when he replied to a fan letter, saying the film's legacy "still seems to be going strong (I barely appeared in it, as often happens in the editing process.)" Mitchell played an X-wing pilot in "Return of the Jedi," who meets a fiery demise within the inner shafts of the Death Star.

Harte and Mitchell were slated to play Professor Stanton and Dr. Mulbray in "The Last Crusade," referenced in the film's novelization as two colleagues of Dr. Jones, who have a relic they want him to authenticate. It's been rumored their scenes were deleted from the finished picture, but the truth can now be found in this unearthed letter Harte replied to another fan, saying, "I was hired by Steven Spielberg to play one of several college professors, but the day before I was to go to the studio for the scenes, my agent was told that I could just stay home (and be paid) because the scenes had been cut. So I appear in the credits but not in the film." It's safe to assume Mitchell's character suffered the same fate.

Mitchell died of cancer in 1999 at the age of 58, while Harte passed away nearly 20 years later in 2018, at age 86.