Three actors from the Star Wars movies were in Tim Burton's first Batman movie.

For that reason, each of them had a pretty substantial presence throughout my childhood. You most likely know about at least one of them...



Billy Dee Williams of course played Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi, and many people know that he also went on to play district attorney Harvey Dent in the 1989 Batman movie. Although the character of Dent becomes Two-Face, Williams never got a chance to play the villain. The role was recast for Batman Forever, and I always thought it was a shame that Williams didn't get to play Two-Face. I think he would have done a great job.



It's much lesser known that actor Garrick Hagon, who played Luke Skywalker's friend and fellow rebel Biggs Darklighter in A New Hope, was also in Batman. He played the father of the family who gets mugged in the beginning of the movie. It's a little bit difficult to recognize him without his Biggs moustache. He's not the only X-Wing pilot who traded in his helmet for a fedora though...



William Hootkins is probably most well known for playing overweight pilot Jek Porkins in A New Hope. Fans of Star Wars seem to mostly think of him as a joke, but to be fair, Jek's creators obviously did too. I mean, they put the word "pork" in his name. Guy never stood a chance. Maybe I'm just reading too much into it, but I've also noticed that his character in Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Major Eaton has the word "eat" in his name. If you look through his credits on IMDb, you'll also see other rather unfortunate names. Unless there's some kind of word play I fail to recognize, I think Burton was a little more kind, for Hootkin's played corrupt police lieutenant Max Eckhardt in Batman.

Rewind

I still don't have a Blu-ray player, but I just dug out and hooked up my old VCR. I guess I'm a hipster now?