Admiral_Ackbar_erik bauersfeld_Split - H 2016
Courtesy of Photofest; Screengrab/Peter HartlaubErik Bauersfeld, who memorably voiced the Rebellion’s Admiral Ackbar in Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, has died. He was 93.
The voice actor and radio drama producer died on Sunday morning at his home in Berkeley, Calif., his manager, Derek Maki, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.
In the 1983 space opera, Bauersfeld voiced Ackbar, delivering the iconic line, “It’s a trap!” when the fate of the alliance looks grim during the Death Star fleet attack.
He also voiced Jabba the Hutt’s staffer Bib Fortuna in the same film. He returned to voice Ackbar in last year’s J.J. Abrams-directed blockbuster Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Bauersfeld’s other roles include voice work in last year’s Guillermo Del Toro film Crimson Peak and Steven Spielberg’s 2001 film A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
“The voice work I did in movies was accidental,” wrote Bauersfeld on the website for his nonprofit, Bay Area Radio Drama. “I was working with Randy Thom on radio dramas at his technical quarters at Lucasfilm. One day Ben Burtt, sound designer for Star Wars, came by and asked if I would audition for a voice in the movie.”
He is also credited with voiceover work for the Ackbar character in Star Wars: X-Wing, a 1993 flight simulator video game.
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