Colin Higgins obit

RIP Colin Higgins, the "Fake" Wedge

 

He was not on the list.

Colin Higgins was a British actor who appeared briefly as Col Takbright in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.

Colin Higgins took part of the filming of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, and while his character was never called by name during the Battle of Yavin briefing scene, the script and novelization identified him as Wedge Antilles, who was played by Denis Lawson in all other scenes. Because this inconsistency went unexplained for so long, the character who says, "That's impossible, even for a computer," is sometimes nicknamed by fans as "Fake Wedge."

The fact that Denis Lawson did not play Wedge in the briefing scene sparked some discussion between fans who wanted to know who did. The speculation eventually revolved around two actors: Jack Klaff (who played John D. Branon) and Colin Higgins. It was thought by the majority of those concerned that Klaff was "Fake Wedge." However, Pablo Hidalgo confirmed in 2004 that Colin Higgins was the actor in question when he released the information through the Homing Beacon email newsletter. He elaborated on his research in 2005 on his personal blog, and again in 2013 on the official blog.

Colin Higgins made his first Star Wars-related appearance at Celebration IV, where he confirmed that he was, in fact, hired for the role of Wedge Antilles. According to his story, he had never worked on an American film before, resulting in several misunderstandings and mishaps. One of the biggest was his flubbing of his lines in the briefing scene. According to Higgins, his infamous line was actually supposed to be much longer, but he couldn't remember how it went. After wasting a lot of time trying to say it right, he ended up going with the shortened version quoted above. This and other things led to his being fired shortly after filming the scene. At this point, Denis Lawson was chosen to take his place, which is why Wedge Antilles is played by Lawson in all remaining scenes, as well as the following films.

Higgins passed away in December 2012. Five years after his death, his brief appearance as Wedge was retconned by Jason Fry into Col Takbright, a separate character, in his From a Certain Point of View story "Duty Roster."

We sometimes forget, with the saga remaining so fresh and vivid in our minds, remastered and updated in the latest formats and constantly playing around the world that while the characters of Star Wars may remain eternally young, the actors who portrayed them on-screen, like the rest of us mere mortals, age, get older, and pass away.

This year alone we have seen Stuart Freeborn and Richard LeParmentier pass on, and only last year we all mourned the loss of the great Ralph McQuarrie. A recent fascinating piece on the Official Blog by Pablo Hidalgo, "Star Wars Mysteries: Hunting for the Fake Wedge," asked the question, "where in the world is actor Colin Higgins," the man who played the "fake" Wedge Antilles in the briefing room scenes of A New Hope. It's a fascinating story, a relatively minor character who grew into a fan favorite but who took three actors -- Denis Lawson, David Ankrum, and Colin Higgins -- to bring to life in that first film.

After the sudden shocking loss of LeParmentier I talked with a number of his Star Wars colleagues, and while chatting with Gerald Home, the actor who played both Tessek and a Mon Calamari officer in Return of the Jedi, I learned that Colin Higgins had passed away in December 2012. As Gerald explained, "In the obituary column (of the Equity Journal), I read that Colin Higgins had died. I told this to (some) Star Wars fans, and they told me they'd confirmed with Colin's former agent that Colin died last December. No details given."

Home recounted the story of meeting with Higgins back in 2007 in Los Angeles, the year of the 30th anniversary of A New Hope. "I liked Colin. I met him at Celebration IV and we had a long chat. I felt sorry for him as so many fans considered him a fake, and he was embarrassed by that, but he really, truly WAS the original Wedge. He was also a good actor -- I've seen him in several things on TV."

Indeed, Higgins' film and TV career was littered with notable appearances including a 21-year-association with long-running UK TV police drama The Bill, appearances in Johnny Depp's Sweeney Todd, and roles in Eastenders, Midsomer Murders, Murder Most Horrid, Grange Hill (the show which had also famously featured Admiral Ozzel actor Michael Sheard as the tyrannical wig-wearing Mr. Bronson), Birds of a Feather, Lovejoy, and Jeeves and Wooster. Higgins also featured in an episode of Boon in 1988 written by the late Richard LeParmentier, who by then was developing a flourishing writing career on British television.

I checked back to Pablo's recent blog entry, which in itself has roots that lead back almost a decade to the much-missed Homing Beacon back in 2004, and in the comments section Pablo expanded on his article with this piece from Star Wars Insider #98.

“I’ll tell you my story. I was originally cast as Wedge. I screwed it up, and I got fired -- that is the true story. Every actor sometimes gets fired if they screw it up and mine just happened to be on Star Wars!”

Gerald broached that subject in our recent conversation.

"Colin told me the trouble he had filming was that he couldn't remember his line, so the line he ending up saying was much shorter than the original. I know exactly what he meant -- I'm sure you know that sci-fi lines (dialogue) are notoriously difficult to learn because they often don't make sense. For an actor to be convincing, he needs to understand the words he's saying, and in film, where there is often no rehearsal, an actor has to say lines he didn't rehearse and which haven't been explained to him. So I can understand and sympathize with Colin. He said it was because of this trouble remembering his line that he was sacked."

More light shed on the reason for Higgins' removal from the role. Never was Harrison Ford's infamous quote more relevant. "You can type this &%^* but you can't say it." So, as soon as the Official Blog solves a long-standing mystery we find the actor is gone. As someone who helped create a character as important as Wedge Antilles, he deserves all the credit due to him. Colin Higgins, RIP.

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