Sad news arrives that Jay Benedict, Deak in the deleted Tosche Station scenes of A New Hope, has passed earlier away from COVID-19, better known as the coronavirus.
Born in Burbank, California on 11th April 1951, young Jay and his family left the States for Europe and saw him develop a career that included The Rocky Horror Show on stage and a slew of highly regarded roles in the West End and at the Edinburgh Festival whilst on film he took roles in Hanover Street with Harrison Ford, Victor Victoria with Julie Andrews and fplayed Newts father in Aliens. In the realms of the galaxy far, far away he is best known for playing Deakon ‘Deak’ Starkiller, Luke Skywalker’s friend in the deleted Tosche Station scenes of A New Hope.
We were fortunate enough to chat with Jay back in 2016, an interview you’ll be able to hear on this week’s episode of Making Tracks.
For the second time this week we lose a member of the Star Wars family, and send our sincere condolences to Jay’s wife Phoebe and their two sons Leopold and Freddie Benedict.
