Star Wars fans mourn: Actress Maria de Aragon, who played iconic character in saga, dies at 81

A star in the Star Wars galaxy, however fleeting, is gone. According to the company, actress Maria de Aragon died at the age of 81 Coolwaters Productions LLCIn a post on Instagram.

“He leaves behind his family in Canada. He passed away in a nursing home at the age of 81 at the end of April 2024 of natural causes. Our hearts are broken, we wish his family the best and we thank all Star Wars fans for their years of support.

If this actor’s name speaks only to those initiated into the George Lucas saga and not at all to the general public, on the other hand, his character has largely entered pop culture. He actually played the bounty hunter Gredo in A New Hope, who was shot down in a cantina by Han Solo at the beginning of the film. Maria de Aragon slipped under the costume for the film’s close-ups. In the remaining scenes, the character was played by Paul Blake.

During production, the mechanism that was supposed to move Greedo’s mouth broke before filming. Maria de Aragon was then asked to put a piece of cloth between her teeth to mimic the movements of Greedo’s mouth. The actor also said that he was saved by George Lucas, who noticed his actions and told him that he could no longer breathe under the mask.

Born on December 26, 1942 in Montreal, Quebec, Maria de Aragon had a very short film career, as apart from her participation in the first opus of the saga, we know of only three films made between 1972 and 1974 under the direction of Robert Vincent O’Neill, Harry Essex and Gerald Seth Sindel.