Warwick Davis

Warwick Davis
Davis in 2007
Born	Warwick Ashley Davis (1970-02-03) 3 February 1970 Epsom, Surrey, England
Occupation	Actor, television presenter
Years active	1983-Present
Height	1.07 m (3 ft 6 in)
Spouse(s)	Samantha Davis (m. 1991)
Children	4
Relatives	Peter Burroughs (father-in-law) Hayley Burroughs (sister-in-law)
Website
Official website

Warwick Ashley Davis (born 3 February 1970)^[1] is an English actor and television presenter.^[2] He played the title characters in Willow and the Leprechaun film series, the Ewok Wicket in Return of the Jedi and Professor Filius Flitwick and Griphook in the Harry Potter films. Davis has also starred as a fictionalized version of himself in the sitcom Life's Too Short, written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.

Early life

Davis was born in Epsom, Surrey, to an insurance broker and his wife.^[3] Davis also has a younger sister. He was educated at Chinthurst School and later the City of London Freemen's School. Davis was born with Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita, an extremely rare form of dwarfism. When Davis was 11, his grandmother heard a radio advert calling for people who were 4 feet (1.2 m) tall or shorter to be in Return of the Jedi.^[4] To Davis, who was a fan of the Star Wars films, it was a dream come true. On the set of Return of the Jedi, Mark Hamill bought Davis every single Star Wars figure he did not have.^[2]

Career

Davis was originally cast as an extra Ewok, but when Kenny Baker, who was originally going to be Wicket, fell ill, George Lucas picked Davis to be the new Wicket after seeing how he carried himself as an Ewok.^[3] Davis based his Ewok movements on his dog, who would tilt his head from side to side whenever he saw something strange. During production on the film, Davis was the subject of a short mockumentary film about his experience as Wicket, titled Return of the Ewok, made by 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 film and his transformation into Wicket the Ewok. Davis reprised his role as Wicket in the ABC made-for-TV films Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor.

In 1987, Davis was called to Elstree Studios in London to meet with Ron Howard and George Lucas to discuss a new film project called Willow, which was written with Davis specifically in mind. Willow was his 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 moved to television to be in the BBC Television adaptation of the classic The Chronicles of Narnia, specifically in Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (as Reepicheep), and The Silver Chair (as Glimfeather) and an episode of Zorro filmed in Madrid. In 1993, he played the villainous Irish goblin in Leprechaun, alongside Jennifer Aniston. He then returned to the Star Wars universe, playing three roles in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace: Weazel, a gambler sitting next to Watto at the Podrace; Wald, who was Anakin's Rodian buddy; and Yoda in some scenes where Yoda was seen walking.^[5]

Davis played the role of Professor Filius Flitwick in the Harry Potter films.^[6] Davis played a white-moustached Flitwick in the first two films, and then a black-haired unnamed chorus conductor for the third instalment of the series. In the fourth film, Flitwick is younger looking, with short, brown hair and a trimmed moustache. In addition to playing Flitwick, Davis played the role of the goblin Griphook in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, despite the role being played previously by fellow dwarf actor Verne Troyer.

In 2004, Davis played the character "Plates" in the indie film Skinned Deep, directed by special effects artist Gabriel Bartalos.^[7] In 2006, Davis appeared, alongside fellow Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, in an episode of BBC's comedy series Extras as a satirical version of himself. Davis starred in the film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, as the "body" of Marvin the Paranoid Android (the voice was provided by Alan Rickman). In December 2006, Davis starred in the pantomime Snow White and the Seven Dwarves at the Opera House, Manchester, and again in 2007–08 at the New Wimbledon Theatre.

Davis appeared in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, in which he played Nikabrik the Dwarf, adding to his previous involvement in TV adaptations of the Chronicles of Narnia series. He also appeared as a contestant on the 2007 series of Children in Need reality show Celebrity Scissorhands. Davis starred as a fictional version of himself in Life's Too Short, written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, who also starred.^[8] In December 2012, Davis returned to New Wimbledon Theatre to reprise his role in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.^[9]

In March 2013, Davis presented an episode of the ITV series Perspectives: Warwick Davis – The Seven Dwarfs of Auschwitz, in which he explored the story of the Ovitz family, a touring musical troupe which included seven dwarfs who survived the Nazi Auschwitz concentration camp and the experiments of Josef Mengele.

In late 2013, Davis appeared for one month as Patsy in musical comedy Spamalot, based on the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail in London,^[10] At the same time, Davis hosted a press conference to announce the Monty Python reunion.^[11]

In 2014, Davis hosted a factual series for ITV called Weekend Escapes with Warwick Davis. The show saw Davis and his family travelling around Britain, enjoying short weekend holiday breaks.^[12] The show returned for a second series in spring 2015.

Since 2014, Davis has hosted the revived version of game show Celebrity Squares on ITV. The first series was shown in 2014 and a second aired in 2015.^[13]

Davis announced in October 2014 that he would appear in the upcoming film Star Wars: The Force Awakens.^[14]

Other

In addition to his acting career, in 1995, Davis co-founded, with fellow dwarf actor and father-in-law Peter Burroughs, the talent agency Willow Management, that specialises in representing actors under five feet tall. Many of Davis's co-stars and fellow dwarf actors from Star Wars, Willow, Labyrinth and the Harry Potter series are represented by the agency. In 2004, the agency also began representing actors over seven feet tall who had also suffered from being confined to "niche" roles. Over 40 members of Willow Management were cast as goblins in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. In April 2010, Davis published his autobiography, Size Matters Not: The Extraordinary Life and Career of Warwick Davis, with a foreword by George Lucas.^[15] In January 2013, he appeared in a Comic Relief episode of The Great British Bake Off, winning that episode's title of "Comic Relief Star Baker".

Davis is a founder of the Reduced Height Theatre Company, which stages theatrical productions cast exclusively with short actors and using reduced height sets. Their first production was See How They Run, touring the UK in 2014.^[16] In February 2015 the production was the subject of the BBC's "Warwick Davis' Big Night" as part of the Modern Times documentary series.^[17]

Personal life

Unlike most dwarfs (70%) who have a condition called achondroplasia, Davis' dwarfism is caused by an extremely rare genetic condition called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita (SED). He has said the only real drawback to being small was the associated health problems. Of his own dwarfism, Davis 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".

Davis is married to Samantha (b.1971) and they have two children, their daughter Annabelle and son Harrison.^[18] His daughter, Annabelle, stars in CBBC show, The Dumping Ground. They live in Yaxley near Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.

Davis' wife, Samantha has achondroplasia and their two children also have SED.^[19] As a result of having different causes of dwarfism, the couple's two older sons, Lloyd and George, died shortly after birth, due to being born with a fatal combination of the conditions.^[20] Samantha is the daughter of his business partner Peter Burroughs, and the sister of actress Hayley Burroughs. Davis met the Burroughs family while filming Willow, where they had minor roles as Nelwyn villagers.^[21]

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1982	Return of the Ewok		Unreleased
1983	Return of the Jedi	Wicket W. Warrick
1984	Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure	Wicket W. Warrick
1985	Ewoks: The Battle for Endor	Wicket W. Warrick
1986	Labyrinth	Goblin Corps
1986	The Princess and the Dwarf
1987	Conor Finan's Adventures in Naas
1988	Willow	Willow Ufgood
1988	Prince Caspian	Reepicheep
1990	The Silver Chair	Glimfeather
1991	Zorro	Don Alfonso	Episode: "The Jewelled Sword"
1993	Leprechaun	Leprechaun
1994	Leprechaun 2	Leprechaun
1995	Leprechaun 3	Leprechaun
1996	Gulliver's Travels	Grildrig
1996	Leprechaun 4: In Space	Leprechaun
1997	Prince Valiant	Pechet
1998	A Very Unlucky Leprechaun	Lucky
1999	Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace	Yoda (walk-in shots) Weazel Wald Greedo the Elder Extra
1999	The New Adventures of Pinocchio	Dwarf Pepe the Cricket
1999	The White Pony	Edgar Rod
2000	The 10th Kingdom	Acorn the Dwarf
2000	Leprechaun: In the Hood	Leprechaun
2001	Snow White: The Fairest of Them All	Saturday
2001	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone	Professor Flitwick the voice of Griphook (played by Verne Troyer)
2002	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets	Professor Flitwick
2003	Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood	Leprechaun
2004	Ray	Oberon
2004	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	Professor Flitwick
2004	Skinned Deep	Plates
2005	The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy	Marvin the Paranoid Android	Voiced by Alan Rickman
2005	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	Professor Flitwick
2005	Small Town Folk	Knackerman
2005	Extras	Himself
2007	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix	Professor Flitwick Ministry of Magic Employee
2008	Agent One-Half	Agent One-Half
2008	The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian	Nikabrik
2009	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince	Professor Flitwick
2009	Tell Him Next Year	Santa's Elf	Short film
2010	Merlin	Grettir[22]	Episode: "The Eye of the Phoenix"
2010	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1	Griphook[23]
2011	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2	Griphook Professor Flitwick[23]
2011	Life's Too Short	Himself	Creator
2012	An Idiot Abroad	Himself[24]	Series 3
2012	Chingari[25]	gangster boss	as featured on An Idiot Abroad 3
2013	Doctor Who	Porridge	Episode: "Nightmare in Silver"[26]
2013	Jack the Giant Slayer	Old Hamm
2013	Top Gear	Himself	Episode: Series 20, Episode 1
2013	Ashens and the Quest for the Gamechild	Himself/ The Silver Skull Unmasked	Independent film
2013	Dwarves Assemble	Oberon the Ufgood	Episode: All
2014—	Weekend Escapes with Warwick Davis	Presenter	2 series
	Celebrity Squares	Presenter	2 series
2014	Get Santa	Sally
2015	Planet's Got Talent	Presenter[27]
	Star Wars: The Force Awakens		Filming

Guest appearances

• Catchphrase: Celebrity Christmas Special (2014) - Contestant
• Big Fat Anniversary Quiz (2015) - Contestant, paired with Jonathan Ross

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Warwick Davis.

• Official website
• Warwick Davis at the Internet Movie Database
• Willow Management
• Interview with Warwick Davis on Futuremovies.co.uk

Authority control WorldCat VIAF: 74061232 LCCN: no2002008747 ISNI: 0000 0001 1475 1268 GND: 141530065 SUDOC: 117164623 BNF: cb14169620k (data)