“Anakin Skywalker, otherwise known
as Darth Vader, is arguably
the central character in
George Lucas’s ‘Star Wars’….“
— Amazon.com review
Ken Annakin, classic action
filmmaker, dies at 94 —
“Annakin’s last name
was the source
of the name for
Anakin Skywalker.”
“Contrary to previous reports that George Lucas named the ‘Star Wars’ character Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader) after Annakin, Lucas said via his publicist Thursday that he did not.”
Mike O’Sullivan, Voice of America LA bureau chief, in 2007:
“Annakin inadvertently gave his own name to a film character, although the spelling is slightly different, when the actor Alec Guinness suggested the name to director George Lucas for a character in the Star Wars films.
At a screening of the film, Annakin asked Lucas about it.
‘He was running his picture with Anakin Skywalker in it, and I went over to him and said, “you know, you never got permission for this.” He said, “but I dropped an ‘n’ and therefore I got away with it,”‘ Annakin said.”
This morning’s NY Times
obituaries include…
The British-born Annakin
(best known for war epics),
British cinematographer Jack Cardiff,
and Santha Rama Rau (author
of a 1960 play based on the
novel A Passage to India) —
Passage O soul to India!
Eclaircise the myths Asiatic,
the primitive fables.
Not you alone proud truths of the world,
Nor you alone ye facts of modern science,
But myths and fables of eld,
Asia’s, Africa’s fables,
The far-darting beams of the spirit,
the unloos’d dreams,
The deep diving bibles and legends….
For Cardiff, cinematographer
of “A Matter of Life and Death“
and of “Black Narcissus” —
Happy Birthday
to a Dark Lady