Andrew Jack, a dialect coach and occasional actor on huge movies such as Star Wars: The Force Awakens, has died. He was 76.
Born in London in 1944, Jack was best known for his dialect work, including as a supervising voice coach for the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, creating the accents and teaching them, plus Elvish and Mordor's Black Speech to the cast.
His career spanned more than 80 movies and TV series, working on Chaplin, Troy and Guardians Of The Galaxy. In front of the camera, he played Major Ematt in The Force Awakens, with the character promoted to general for The Last Jedi. On Solo: A Star Wars Story, he voiced the character of Moloch as well as teaching Alden Ehrenreich to speak the Wookiee language Shyriiwook.
Clearly a popular figure with performers and filmmakers, Jack's death was mourned by the likes of Greg Grunberg and Chris Miller.
And Jack's agent, Jill McCullough released a statement about him: "Andrew lived on one the oldest working houseboats on the Thames, he was fiercely independent but madly in love with his wife; also a dialect coach: Gabrielle Rogers. Tragically she is stuck in quarantine in Australia having just flown in from NZ last week. She was unable to see or talk to him at the end of his life and there is a chance a funeral may not be held.
"Andrew was full of life – he was tall and striking with flowing white hair. You wouldn’t miss him if he walked into a room. He was still working full-pelt, currently coaching on the new Batman. I’m receiving so many messages saying how much he will be missed. Our community has lost one of its brightest and clearest voices."