Another member of the great Star Wars family has left us, who contributed to making this saga legendary. It’s about the actress Maria De Aragonwho joined the Force last April 30 at the age of 81 (the news has only now been released) and who took on the role of the Rodian Greedo in Star Wars: A New Hope. Below we retrace his experience, full of interesting curiosities.
Maria De Aragon plays Greedo
The character of Greedo certainly needs no introduction: it’s about one of the most well-known bounty hunters in the Star Wars universewhich appeared in countless other products after 1977. He is of course famous for the Mos Eisley Cantina sequence and his heated argument with Han Solo. The historic diatribe on Han Shot First, deriving from the changes to the original trilogy made by George Lucas starting from 1997, also increased its popularity.
The character was played by two actors: Paul Blake in scenes where he appears in the same frame with Han Solo, and Maria De Aragon during close-ups and solo sequences. These scenes were filmed later and a new special head was created for the character. Unfortunately, Greedo’s mouth mechanism broke shortly before filming these sequences. Aragon was then asked to put a clothespin between his teeth to move Greedo’s mouth; it was therefore she herself who “gave life” and linguistic expressiveness to the character, despite all the limitations of the case.
She also said that George Lucas it practically saved her life when he saw her make strange gestures to signal that he couldn’t breathe with the mask on. The actress took part in some other productions especially during the 70s, and she passed away in Canada, her native homeland.
As with everyone else who has left us, we Star Wars fans will cherish forever the memory of Maria De Aragon and his invaluable contribution to the franchise. And also for this reason we wanted to pay homage to her remembering the anecdotes about his interpretation. Thanks for everything Maria, may the force be with you wherever you are.
