Warwick Davis Biography
The following biography
is from
Wikipedia.org
The
Free Encyclopedia.
Warwick Davis (born February 3, 1970,
Epsom, Surrey, England, UK) is an actor noted for being short he is
three feet six inches (about one metre) tall.
He is probably best known as the title
character in Willow, 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 (movie).
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 Warwick 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, worked alongside David Bowie in the film
Labyrinth.
In 1987, Warwick 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 was
privilged enough to a Royal premiere with The Prince and Princess of
Wales.
He then went back to television to be in
the BBC television classic The Chronicles of Narnia, specifically in The
Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair.
It was then, in 1993, that he finally got
his chance to play the bad guy in Leprechaun, something that he really
had been wanting to do.
He then returned to that galaxy far, far
away by playing 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, Warwick has become famous for
playing the role of Professor Filius Flitwick in the Harry Potter films.
He also played the Goblin bank teller in the first Harry Potter film.
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 for the third installment of the
series. In the fourth movie, Flitwick is younger looking, with short,
brown hair and a trimmed moustache.
Warwick recently also starred in the film
version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as Marvin the Paranoid
Android.
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 and has two children.
His wife, Samantha (b. 1971) has achondroplasia, as do his children
Annabelle (b. 1998) and Harrison (b. 2003).
Filmography
Small Town Folk (2006)
Agent One-Half (2005)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
(2004)
Ray (2004)
Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood (2003)
Skinned Deep (2002)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
(2002)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
(2001)
Leprechaun in the Hood (2000) (V)
The 10th Kingdom (2000) TV miniseries
The White Pony (1999)
The New Adventures of Pinocchio (1999)
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
(1999)
A Very Unlucky Leprechaun (1998)
Prince Valiant (1997)
Leprechaun 4: In Space (1996)
Leprechaun 3 (1995)
Leprechaun 2 (1994)
Leprechaun (1993)
Willow (1988)
The Princess and the Dwarf (1986)
Labyrinth (1986)
Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985)
Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure
(1984)
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
(1983)
Return of the Ewok (1982) (unreleased film)
****
The
above biography has been copied in part or in whole
from an article on
Wikipedia.org
"The Free Encyclopedia." It has been modified under
the NGU Free Document License Section 5 in the
following manner: (1) All links within the article
have been removed, including text links such as
"[#]"; (2) The "[Edit]" text and link have been
removed [if you would like to update the article,
you may do so from the original page]; (3) the table
of Contents links and text have been removed; and
(4) all of the sections of the original article have
not been copied. All of the above text is available
under the terms of the
GNU Free Document License.
URL of Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warwick_Davis
Date Article Copied:
January 17, 2006
We
will try to replace this article with an original
biography in the near future, but we hope this will
be of help to our visitors in the mean time.
For
additions & corrections,
Click Here |