Uncle Owen joins Aunt Beru...

Hey folks, Harry here with some sad news for us lovers of STAR WARS. Phil Brown, who played the wonderful character of Uncle Owen, has passed away. He joins Aunt Beru (Shelagh Fraser) who passed away 6 years ago in the here after. His Uncle Owen was an absolute integral part in our understanding of Luke Skywalker. A Tough, yet reasoned man that was afraid of what the boy he raised and loved as a son might find if he ever left "the farm". A universal feeling between so many fathers and sons... but here with a definite reason in place. He was raising Luke with a terrible secret, one that he never had a chance to tell Luke. I love the characters of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru... if for no other reason than for exactly how REAL they were. They were not SPACE characters or SCIENCE FICTION characters. As Phil and Shelagh played them... they were an old married couple trying their hardest to hold onto the only child they'd ever raised. That whole opening establishing of Luke's home life textured everything that came after. Made the whole story feel real, no matter how outrageous it got, because ultimately Luke had a home once and good salt of the earth style family. It's what makes everything that's revealed later so hard, so emotional. Cuz if Uncle Owen was so good, how could Anakin be so bad?

But there was more to Phil than just Star Wars, it began in the 40s. The earliest of his films I ever saw was CALLING DR GILLESPIE in 1942. In 1944 he was featured in a Rondo Hatton "the creeper" film called WEIRD WOMAN (got this one sheet). He was also in the excellent Noir by Siodmak, THE KILLERS with Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner. Great film. He was in THE BEDFORD INCIDENT. He was a senator in SUPERMAN, a father in that great miniseries based on THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, a projectionist in Attenborough's CHAPLIN and his last part was as a council elder in BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: THE SECOND COMING.

In all he did more than 65 films and Television shows, but for me and for all of you, he'll always be UNCLE OWEN, who died a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, today the actor died far closer to home. Rest In Peace Phil Brown.