So, I just watched that episode myself
I have never seen C-3PO ("Watch it hardware" LOL!) nor R2-D2 looking so shiny before. It's obviosuly AD, but is it also KB?
Also, this is post Mark's accident, right? I can't really see any facial difference from EP4?
It's obvious from this Muppet episode that he early on was a very talented voice actor, but I also think Mark is a very good (comedian) actor to boot
He really should have had a much better acting career post SW. He is quite good, imho and no slouch compared to HF at this point (1980)
Imagine MH in a serious 1980 Kubrick movie? I think he could have carried it rather well
His accident was shortly after Star Wars. He was fully (outwardly) healed well before they started shooting Empire. The story that the wampa attack was written in to hide his scars is fabrication. And the Muppet Show episode was proximal to Empire's release, so even further after the accident. I've seen it said -- as above -- that his post-reconstruction nose is smaller, but I never saw it, myself (the difference, not his nose).
I know he did a lot of stage stuff. One of the things that's always bugged me about some of the actors I like is how much of their work I'll never see because it was theatrical and, for the most part, no one filmed it. But Mark was the Trickster for the original Flash series (a role he reprised in the new one), and it seems folks at DC thought he did such a good job with that that they gave him the Joker in the animated Batman series, which kept him busy for some years. I don't know that he ever wanted to be a STAR™ -- just a working actor, and that he has been. Love him in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Love him in Kingsman.
As for Harrison... I have always felt kinda bad for him. He's so shy and liked the way he could put the role between him and people. Made it hard to get work, early on. He was working as a cabinetmaker when he got the part in Star Wars (he was re-doing George's kitchen, and George asked him to read Han's part when testing actors for Luke). He sorta stumbled backwards into his stardom and, I feel, never really knew what to do with it. I ran into him once walking down the sidewalk in New York. Crowded, slow-moving. I saw him, in his little granny glasses, did a double-take and looked again. He saw me recognize him and I saw the panic in his face. We drew abreast and I just quietly said, "Not gonna make a scene. Love your work." He mumbled, "Uh... thanks!" and that was that. I think he would've been happier if he hadn't gotten such massive worldwide acclaim in the '80s.
What you're saying about typecasting, though... After Star Trek, Shatner
could not find work. Everyone thought he was rich from Star Trek and too recognizable as Kirk, so they just kept passing on him. The permanent tinnitus he had from the mortar explosion while filming "Arena" didn't help. His first marriage ended, and by the time Neil and Buzz landed on the moon, he was living in a truck-bed camper (without the truck) in a friend's driveway, watching the landing on a 6" black-and-white TV. He almost killed himself during that low point.
I feel like there should be some sort of outplacement service for actors who get identified so strongly with a particular role, so they can transition when the show or film series ends.
