Jason Wingreen, who originally voiced Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back has passed away at the age of 85. While only having five lines of dialogue, Fett became a fan favorite. Wingreen was best known for playing Harry the bartender on All in the Family and Archie Bunker’s Place.
His role as Fett was uncredited and Wingreen did not receive residuals for his performance despite his voice being used in a variety of toys. In fact, his role in voicing the iconic bounty hunter was not revealed until 2000.
Wingreen was also the narrator of the Hurricane Hannah episode of the Walt Disney Anthology series.
Boba Fett was originally played by Jeremy Bulloch in Episodes V and VI, and was originally voiced by Jason Wingreen in Episode V (his only lines in Episode VI were “What the?” and a scream). In a controversial move, the 2004 DVD release of the original trilogy had Wingreen’s voice in Episode V replaced by Temuera Morrison‘s, who had played Jango Fett in Episode II. The idea behind the change was that Boba would have the same voice as his father, since he was a clone of Jango. For his re-recording of Boba Fett’s lines in the original trilogy, Morrison spoke the lines over the phone, fromAuckland, New Zealand to California