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Portrait: Garrick Hagon

Garrick Hagon

b. 1939 · British-Canadian actor

Biography

Garrick Hagon (born 27 September 1939) is a British-Canadian actor best known for playing Biggs Darklighter in the original Star Wars. His career spans stage, film, television, voice work and audiobook narration.

Born in London, Hagon was raised in Toronto, where he studied at Trinity College and began acting. After several seasons at the Stratford Festival, where he appeared alongside Alec Guinness in Richard III and won the Tyrone Guthrie Award in 1963, he moved back to England. There he worked in the West End, at the Royal National Theatre and in a range of repertory companies. On screen he built a career in supporting roles in British and American productions, including Richard Attenborough's A Bridge Too Far and The Message, and later Spy Game for Tony Scott. His character in the 1977 film is killed in the assault on the Death Star, a moment that tied him to the franchise's fan community and to science fiction conventions. As a voice actor he has worked on dubbing and video games, and he has recorded more than 150 audiobooks for major UK publishers.

Key films

  • Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977): plays Biggs Darklighter, a rebel pilot and childhood friend of Luke Skywalker.
  • Batman (1989): plays Dad in Tim Burton's film.
  • The Message (1976): plays Ammar in the film directed by Moustapha Akkad.
  • Spy Game (2001): plays a CIA director in Tony Scott's thriller.
  • A Bridge Too Far (1977): plays Lieutenant Rafferty in Richard Attenborough's war film.

Trivia

A restored scene

The 2011 Blu-ray release of the Star Wars films shows Biggs's introductory scene at Anchorhead on Tatooine in full.

A role in Doctor Who

He played Ky, a rebel leader, in the Doctor Who serial The Mutants.

On Cinematopedia

Original Cinematopedia text based on Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.