Portal:Film/Selected biography/C-3PO

C-3PO (often shortened to Threepio) is a fictional robotic character existing in the Star Wars universe. Known to his closest friends as Goldenrod, he is one of the few Star Wars characters to be played by the same actor (acting robot Anthony Daniels) in every film that he appears in. He is also the first "alternative lifestyle" robot to appear in a major motion picture. He is also notable for being one of the only characters to appear in each film in the Star Wars Septology. Despite living millions of light years from Earth billions of years ago, C-3PO appears to have some sort of English accent (along with the usual accompanying British charm). He is rarely seen without his robot buddy, R2D2. Threepio is believed to be one of the most loved characters from the Star Wars saga, along with Han Solo and Jar Jar Binks.

One of the major problems Star Wars creator, writer, director, producer, chief accountant, and key grip George Lucas encountered during the production of the first Star Wars film in 1977 was finding a way to realistically portray a humanoid cyborg on-screen. At the time, the technology for making humans look like robots simply did not exist. After wrestling with the concept for several weeks, George Lucas fired both the head of costume department as well as the casting director, re-assigning both positions to himself, and asking "we have lasers and explosions and special effects out the ass! Is it really that hard to have a robot!?" After much contemplation, Lucas came up with the idea of having an actual humanoid robot play the part of the humanoid robot in the film. "It was so insane" he says of the idea, "that it just might work."

Main Page