Stuart Freeborn

Stuart Freeborn (September 5, 1914 – February 5, 2013) was the makeup supervisor for the Star Wars original trilogy. He was hired by director George Lucas after Lucas became impressed with his makeup effects work in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. He worked on all three films and the Holiday Special. Freeborn was responsible for transforming Peter Mayhew into Chewbacca. He was instructed to make a creature that was a mix of a dog and a cat. He was influenced by the monkey-man creatures that he worked on in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Some of his most notable contributions include creatures at the Mos Eisley Cantina,Yoda, Chewbacca, and Jabba the Hutt. He initally based Yoda's face on his own face, but he felt that those designs lacked the deep widsom that Yoda deserved. He then combined his face that with Albert Einstein's face. His wife Kay Freeborn and son Graham Freeborn were also makeup artists. Orn Free Taa may have been named after him.