Phil Brown, best remembered for his brief presence in 1977 box-office hit “Star Wars” as the uncle of Luke Skywalker, succumbed to pneumonia yesterday aged 89 at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital. After spending over 30 years on stage and in films, his small role in Star Wars made him a celebrity-of-sorts. Surviving him are his wife Ginny, son Kevin and his progeny.
Born to a doctor, Brown was raised in Massachusetts and graduated from Stanford University before being accepted into New York's Group Theatre in 1938. Playing a dancer in the stage act "Everywhere I Roam", he gained acclaim and the early understanding of drama. Despite its successes by 1941 the fortunes of the Group Theatre changed for the worse.
Brown was left with no alternative but to head to Los Angeles for film-related work. He soon formed his own acting troupe, the Actor's Laboratory that produced some very good acts in Hollywood. Dabbling in directing, Brown favored plays by Nikolai Gogol, Arthur Miller and Arthur Laurent.
In 1948, he sought work in London and appeared in "The Glass Menagerie". By 1949 he was back in Hollywood and took two years to make his first feature-length film "The Harlem Globetrotters". By then Brown quite well known for his social concern and his progressive outlook, unwittingly drew government focus on members of his troupe during the Red scare.
Following his blacklisting during the McCarthy regime, Brown and his wife shifted base to London in the '50s. After innumerable stage acts he appeared in '70s films like the "Tropic of Cancer" (1970) and "Twilight's Last Gleaming" (1977). It was in this period that George Lucas shooting in London for "Star Wars" and was looking for an actor with an American accent to play the role of Luke's uncle. Bagging the role, Brown traveled to Tunisia to film the few scenes he was in.
As Uncle Owen, Brown portrayed the watchful guardian who wanted the teenage Luke to have a childhood like any other his age and hide his Jedi identity for his own good. But as luck has it the imperial storm troopers do not spare the lives of Uncle Owen or his wife Beru. In later years, Brown is understood to have recounted that the role was "a very small part” as compared to many others.
He noted, “To be quite frank, I never gave it a thought again". Yet back in America he was a celebrity and graced numerous science fiction conventions. He also featured in the 1999 short film, "Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming" as a council elder.
