The towering gentle giant responsible for bringing the faithful 200 year-old Wookiee Chewbacca to life. George Lucas needed a tall actor who could fit the role for the beastly Chewbacca. This led Lucas on a search which turned up Mayhew, (at 7 feet 3 inches (2.21 m) tall), who says that all he had to do to be cast in the role of Chewbacca was stand up. Born in Barnes, England, Mayhew worked as an orderly at London's King's College Hospital and inadvertently found himself catapulted into films. He received his first acting job when the producers of the movie Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger discovered Mayhew from a photograph in a newspaper, literally standing above the crowd around him. One year later he was given the role of Chewacca. Mayhew has played the part of Chewbacca in four Star Wars films: the original Star Wars trilogy (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi) and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.