Peter Mayhew

Born: 1944-05-19 Barnes, London, England, UK

Died: 2019-04-30

Peter Mayhew (19 May 1944-30 April 2019) was a British-American actor, best known for playing Chewbacca in the Star Wars films. Mayhew was born on 19 May 1944 in Barnes, Surrey, where he was also raised. His height was a product not of gigantism — 'I don't have the big head' — but of an overactive pituitary gland secondary to a genetic disease called Marfan Syndrome. The overactive pituitary gland was treated successfully in his mid-teens. His peak height was 7 feet 3 inches (2.21 m)