Stormtrooper photo - one of your webmasters in "Star Wars", filmed at Elstree Studios in 1976

I recently found this photo taken more than 30 years ago while I was working as an extra on the original Star Wars, Episode IV! The Stormtrooper photo is quite small and faded but I have tried to electronically enhance the colours to show as much detail as possible. The costume was mostly simple moulded fibreglass/plastic stuff which was held together with black cloth straps that can't be seen against the baggy black "silk" undergarment. The picture was taken at the end of one days filming as I was leaving to go back to the "hotel" when I heard that someone had a camera out and I literally pulled it back on at the last minute. If you look carefully at the original release of the film you will see me in some of the shots near the Millennium Falcon ramp and the Death Star docking bay. Look carefully and you may just see that one of the Stormtroopers appears to have only one leg! It fell off and nobody bothered with a retake - I won't reveal the legless Stormtroopers name except for money! Later releases have been re-framed so I understand this can only be seen in the earliest video tape copies of the film. As far as I am aware no DVD releases show this mistake. If you know better then please do get in touch, with a frame grab if possible. The first person to send a copy exceptionally WILL get an autograph with my thanks!

The belt and kneecaps are made of a flexible moulded white plastic/rubber sort of material. Around my neck is a corrugated "yolk" made of heavy rubber type stuff, this neatly covers up the gap between body and helmet! It was quite claustrophobic when first put on but I soon got used to it. The helmet has to be rotated 90 degrees before being put on or removed else it takes your nose with it! It is lined with some smelly yellow foam stuff which is uncomfortable and hot under the studio lights. When we walked we sort of "rattled" along in a most unthreatening manner! There were at least two different "grades" of costume for different shots. Some wore a design that was shiny, the rest a more matt finish, although the lighting made them look similar on screen. This production was certainly made as cheaply as possible, and many of the crew did not take it seriously, the opposite of we extras who did our best to look menacing - if only they had known then what we know now! As whatever I write here tends to end up on fan web sites - often with my words badly edited - and certainly without my permission, I won't answer any more questions about this photo or costume, sorry. There is plenty of information on the internet - see below. All I will add is that I went there, got extremely hot, came home, and eventually got paid!

 For some obscure safety reason I did not have my gun with me when these pictures were taken on an adjacent stage at the end of the days shooting, pity as it was based on a real U.S. gun. I suspect the reason is that all armaments, both Imperial and Rebel were locked away safely at night! I believe that one extra got into serious trouble for taking his "gun" out of the studio area when he went for "a rest break" or something to eat! I seem to remember that he got thrown off the set, whether permanently I can't say.

As you can see the costume was quite well worn and one of the upper legs had been repainted, but none of this shows in the world of movie magic. It has been suggested that this costume had already been used in filming in Tunisia. As I only worked on the movie for a very short time I cannot add any more. Later Star Wars episode Stormtrooper costumes are completely different to this very early original example although the chronology of the films shows these later costumes before this episode!

No, I didn't get the star's autographs nor do I have the costume for sale unfortunately, I'll bet it would be worth a small fortune now! I believe the older and damaged costumes were scrapped and the better parts made up into Stormtrooper armour used for publicity at the premieres around the world. A former colleague who worked for Rank Theatres publicity department tells me there is a picture taken at the premiere in Leicester Square, London, and another taken in Brighton that shows a Stormtrooper Parade where the costumes look identical to this one except they showed many more signs of repair with obvious metal rivets showing where the black straps had pulled loose. Due to copyright restrictions I am unable to reproduce either picture here but try Googling for "Stormtrooper Parade, Evening Argus, Brighton". 

I will now answer my most commonly asked question which is the same one that astronauts are often asked about space micturition - "with great difficulty but front and back don't meet in the middle, so with a bit of levering...!" Finally below is a link to an excellent site about these costumes, I'm in the photograph third from the end of the page, but which Stormtrooper am I? A close look at the detail (every costume was slightly different) appears to show that I am in the second row on the extreme right hand side of the frame. ;-)

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/bingo275/realstormprops.htm is a well researched site about these costumes with much information.

PLEASE NOTE: I am dreadfully sorry but because of the increasing number of requests I am at present not able to send autographs by mail.

Because of misuse this photograph may NOT be uploaded to other web sites without my express permission and reproduction in ANY print media is expressly forbidden. Text © RWP 2006. Updated April 2007.