Superstar makeup artist Stuart Freeborn of 'Star Wars' fame is dead at 98

British actor Richard Briers, best known for his role in the BBC sitcom 'The Good Life,' has died after a long battle with emphysema.









Richard Briers died peacefully at his London home on Sunday, his agent said. (Getty Images)
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British actor Richard Briers, best known for his role in the 1970s BBC sitcom "The Good Life," has died. He was 79.
Briers, who had battled emphysema for five years, died peacefully at his London home on Sunday, his agent, Christopher Farrar, said, according to The Guardian.
"I used to love smoking. It's totally my fault," Briers was quoted by the BBC as saying recently.
"So, I get very breathless, which is a pain in the backside. Trying to get upstairs... oh God, it's ridiculous. Of course, when you're bloody nearly 80 it's depressing, because you've had it anyway."
Briers appeared in sitcoms, films and stage productions.
His most famous role was in "The Good Life," which was about a married suburban couple trying to live a self-sufficient lifestyle.
Penelope Keith, who played Briers’ wife in the sitcom, paid tribute to her co-star.
"You will hear a lot of people saying a lot of marvellous things about Richard, and let me assure you, they are all true,” Keith told Sky News.
"He was a gentleman, he was a wonderful actor, very, very generous and one of the charming things about Richard was he was so self-deprecating.”

The world loses a masterful makeup artist.









Makeup artist Stuart Freeborn, creator of Yoda, Chewbacca, Jabba the Hutt and other "Star Wars" favorites died today at the age of 98.





Makeup artist Stuart Freeborn, the man behind Yoda, Chewbacca, Jabba the Hutt and other "Star Wars" favorites has passed away, Lucasfilm announced Wednesday, according to CNN.
Born in 1914 in east London, Freeborn died at 98. The artist had earned a special reputation for his creatures work, making the ape-ish figures in "Dawn of Man" and working on "2001: A Space Odyssey," said CNN
BBC said Freeborn had mostly educated himself, launching a six-decade career in which he did makeup for Peter Sellers, Alec Guinness, Marlene Dietrich and Vivien Leigh.
"Star Wars" creator George Lucas said Freeborn had "boundless creative energy."
"His artistry and craftsmanship will live on forever in the characters he created. His 'Star Wars' creatures may be reinterpreted in new forms by new generations, but at their heart, they continue to be what Stuart created for the original films," Lucas statement said, reported CNN
Nick Dudman, a collaborator with Freeborn on The Empire Strikes Back, described him to BBC as "a Renaissance man capable of doing absolutely anything," kind of "a Nutty Professor."
"He wanted to push boundaries and had the most inquiring mind I'd ever encountered," according to Dudman. 
Indeed, it seems Freeborn was aptly named, telling BBC he always sought independence: "I didn't want to spend my life in an office," he said. 
As his Yoda creature might say: "Miss you, we will." 

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