Empire Strikes Back
Dave
was hired by legendary make up artist Stuart Freeborn, after seeing
some of Dave's prosthetic, mechanical mask and puppet work. Stuart gave
Dave the job of sculpting 6 different top lip appliances for Yoda, as
the original foam latex face skin needed a longer top lip. Dave also
expanded the foam latex head skins to bring the foam back to the
original sculpt size.
When a duplicate Yoda was required, Dave helped out the team - Nick Maley, Graham Freeborn (Stuart's son) and Bob Keen.
Dave
was drafted in as puppeteer for Yoda's eyes when Wendy Midener-Froud
became allergic to some thing on set, and a puppeteer replacement was
needed for her. Dave stayed on as puppeteer for Yoda for the rest of
Yoda's filming, and worked with Frank Oz, the chief puppeteer, Kathy
Mullen (Yoda's right hand) and Wendy.
For the last week of Yoda
filming, as filming had gone over schedule, Frank Oz had to go to work
on another project, so Frank gave Dave the responsibility of being his
replacement chief Puppeteer for those remaining days of filming. Dave
performed Yoda for many wide and vista vision shots, and parts of the
training sequence including where Luke is doing a handstand, with Yoda
standing on his feet. For the wide shots, Dave puppeteered the radio
controlled Yoda, and he puppeteered the hero hand puppet for the close up - "concentraaaate..!"
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Return of the Jedi
Dave
was chief puppeteer for Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi and puppet maker and puppeteer for Yoda.
Dave was originally offered the build supervision for Jabba by Stuart Freeborn, but he was contracted and working for Jim Henson, on the post production of The Dark Crystal, so he had to decline the offer.
Later Dave was offered the chief puppeteer's role for Jabba, which he was able to take, and he chose Toby Philpott, as his "co-pilot" - Dave was right arm and jaw - Toby was left arm and tongue. Between them, they controlled his head and body, with Bob Keen and John Coppinger operating the facial radio controls, Richard Padbury, as Jabba's "smoke", Mike Osborn controlling the chest and stomach bladders, and Mike Edmonds and Tim Rose controlling Jabba's tail.
For the death scene on the barge, Dave and Toby were joined inside by Mike Quinn who operated Jabba's eye bulge.
You can find out more about Toby here : http://jabbahutt.googlepages.com/home
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Appearances
For all Star Wars personal appearances
and autograph requests, Dave is represented by Derek Maki at Coolwaters
Productions, so for any signed photos or upcoming news please contact
Derek's site at:
www,coolwatersprods.com
You can also find many other Star Wars celebrities and find out their appearance schedules.
Dave
made his first Star Wars appearance at the SCI - FI EXPO convention in
Texas, during October 20 & 21, 2001, to talk about his work on Yoda
from The Empire Strikes Back, and Jabba the Hutt from Return of the
Jedi. His first feature film, Empire Strikes Back set David on the road
of animatronic puppetry.
Dave has recently appeared at Celebration III and the Celebration Europe, reuniting with the whole Jabba crew after 25 years! Bo Shuda!!!
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| John Coppinger, Mike Edmonds, Dave Barclay, Toby Philpott |
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