Warwick Davis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Warwick Davis in 2006

Warwick Davis (born February 3, 1970, Epsom, Surrey, England) is an actor noted for having dwarfism — he is three feet six inches (about one meter) tall.

He is probably best known as the title character in Willow, Wicket W. Warrick in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Professor Flitwick in the Harry Potter movies, and a murderous leprechaun in the long-running series of horror films of the same name - see Leprechaun.

[edit] Biography

As his official website says, his foray into acting came about "purely by chance." When he was 11, his grandmother heard a radio ad in 1981 calling for people that were 4 ft. tall or shorter to be in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. To Warwick, who was a big fan of the Star Wars movies, it was a dream come true. He was originally just going to be an extra Ewok, but when Kenny Baker, who was originally going to be Wicket, fell ill, George Lucas picked Warwick to be the new Wicket after seeing how he carried himself as an Ewok. Warwick based his Ewok movements on his dog, who would tilt his head from side to side whenever he saw something strange. A little known fact is that during production on the film, he made a mockumentary movie of his own as Wicket, made with help from Return of the Jedi's first assistant director, David Tomblin. The unreleased film was a fictional look at his decision to become an actor and act in the movie and his transformation into Wicket the Ewok. Warwick was so talented as Wicket that he reprised his role in the ABC made-for-TV movies Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor. He later, in 1985, appeared in the film Labyrinth with David Bowie and others.

In 1987, Davis was called to Elstree Studios in London to meet with Ron Howard and George Lucas to discuss a new movie project called Willow, which was written with Warwick specifically in mind. Willow was Warwick's first opportunity to act with his face visible. He co-starred with Val Kilmer in the film, which received a Royal Premiere before the Prince and Princess of Wales.

He then went back to television to be in the BBC television adaptation of the classic The Chronicles of Narnia, specifically in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair.

It was then, in 1993, that he played the bad guy in Leprechaun, something that he really had been wanting to do.

He then returned to the Star Wars universe, 3 roles in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, playing the part of Weazel, a gambler sitting next to Watto at the Podrace; Wald, who was Anakin's Rodian buddy; and Yoda in scenes where Yoda was walking.

Lately, Davis has become famous for playing the role of Professor Filius Flitwick in the Harry Potter films. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which was released in November 2005, is the latest film for Warwick to play Professor Flitwick. Warwick played a white-moustached Flitwick in the first two movies, and then a brown-haired unnamed chorus conductor (presumably Flitwick but not credited as such) for the third installment of the series. In the fourth movie, Flitwick is younger looking, with short, brown hair and a trimmed moustache. Although this was a strange deviation from the original Flitwick for most fans, it is probably closer to what J.K. Rowling envisioned when writing the character, as she described him on her website as being mostly human but having a very distant Goblin ancestor that resulted in his short stature, as opposed to the Goblin-looking Flitwick seen in the first two Harry Potter films. Davis also played a goblin in Gringotts in the first film, specifically the goblin that Hagrid talks to about Harry's vault and hands him the key to the vault where the Sorcerer's Stone is kept.

Warwick recently starred in the film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, as the "body" of Marvin the Paranoid Android (i.e., the actor within the costume; the voice for the character was provided by Alan Rickman).

In addition to his acting career, Davis is the co-founder of a talent agency (Willow Management, founded in 1995) that specialises in representing actors under five feet tall. His agency also recently (2004) began representing actors over seven feet tall.

Unlike most dwarfs (70%) who have a condition called achondroplasia, Warwick's dwarfism is caused by an extremely rare genetic condition called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita. On being a little person, Warwick has said the only real drawback to being small was the associated health problems. Of his own dwarfism (SED), Warwick has said "As you get older, you can suffer from painful hips, and our joints wear a lot quicker than for people of average height."

Warwick is married with two children and lives in Yaxley near Peterborough. His wife, Samantha (b. 1971) has achondroplasia, as do his children Annabelle (b. 1998) and Harrison (b. 2003).