One of the most lucrative
Hollywood deals ever made by an actor was the one Sir Alec Guiness penned on a
contract with his agent Dennis Van Thal which stated that in waving a fee for
the role as the wise old Jedi Knight Obi Wan Kenobi he would take a 2% cut of
the gross royalties. These royalties would also be in place on the sequels, The
Empire Strikes Back, released in 1980, and Return of the Jedi, in 1983 as well
as royalties from video sales.
However, Sir Alec could have
earned himself even more money had George Lucas kept the verbal agreement he
had mentioned to the late actor in a phone call the night before Star Wars was
released back in 1977, so confident was Lucas that the film would be a success
due to the positive test audience screenings, and so appreciative as Lucas was
from the script changes and suggestions from a seasoned actor like Guiness that
Lucas called the actor to offer him a raise which would mean his royalty rate would instead be %2.5.
But as everyone knows, unless you have it in writing a deal isn’t a deal until
it’s in black and white, unfortunately that extra percentage never materialized.
Star Wars of course went on to be a
monster hit at the box office globally and by 2009, nine years after the actors
passing it was reported that the films had earned Sir Alec in the region of £56million, with royalty cheques continuing to roll in.
When the Star Wars movies
were re-released in 1997 the late actor said “I still have a contract which
says that I earn a percentage cut from the film and, of course, I’m very
pleased about it.”
It’s no secret that George
Lucas was on a small budget when he made Star Wars but was equally looking for
actors who could carry scenes and add gravitas to their given roles, Peter
Cushing was an experienced actor of stage and screen and commanded a daily fee
of £2,000, which at the time was more than Mark Hamills daily fee of £1,000 and
Harrison Ford who was earning around £750 per day. James Earl Jones who voiced
Darth Vader had been advised by his agent at the time that Star Wars probably
wouldn’t amount to much and to “just take the money and run”. It’s also been
hinted that technicians who worked on the film turned down opportunities for
gross royalties too.
The royalties for just the
original Star Wars movies will have made Sir Alec Guiness more than his
combined earnings from 40 other film roles over a career of sixty years. This
included The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won an Oscar, not to
mention other notable films such as David leans Lawrence of Arabia as well as A
Passage to India, The Man in The White Suit and Oliver Twist.
Eighteen years on and his presence in the original trilogy is as as strong now as it ever was.
Eighteen years on and his presence in the original trilogy is as as strong now as it ever was.
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