Maria De Aragon, the Canadian actress who portrayed Rodian bounty hunter Greedo in Star Wars, has died. Management and PR company Coolwater Productions shared that De Aragon, with whom they had worked, passed away of natural causes in late April. She was 81.
Born in Montreal, De Aragon made her first credited appearance in 1968 Italian film Come l'amore. An IMDb profile for the actress points to uncredited roles in titles from the decade including Nightmare in the Sun and For Those Who Think Young.
De Aragon's biggest role, also uncredited, saw her play Greedo in 1977's Star Wars, portraying the character in close-up shots.
"Maria shot her role as Greedo in Los Angeles, California, after the principal photography in London, UK, was finished and George Lucas was not happy with the way the original footage turned out. The character needed to seem more animated," Coolwaters Productions writes. "In the close-ups of Greedo speaking, Maria donned the creature mask, creating the memorable face-to-face confrontation with Han Solo. Maria has expressed during many Q&A/panels when asked, 'What do you think of Harrison Ford,' she would respond, 'He kills me.' (with a laugh)."
De Aragon also claimed that filmmaker George Lucas saved her life on set upon seeing her hand gestures to signal that she couldn't breathe in the Greedo mask. As the mechanism to move the mask's mouth had broken before shooting the cantina scene, De Aragon was asked to hold a clothespin between her teeth to move the character's mouth.
Coolwaters Productions writes that De Aragon is survived by "her family in Canada," adding, "Our hearts are saddened, and we wish her family the very best and we thank all her Star Wars fans for years of support."