'Star Wars' and 'Skyfall' Actor Khan Bonfils Dies
Tragedy struck this week for an English actor who appeared in some of the biggest action films of the past twenty years. Khan Bonfils, who played horned Jedi master Saesee Tiin in Star Wars— Episode I: The Phantom Menace and an evil henchman in Skyfall, died suddenly while rehearsing the play Dante’s Inferno in London. “Khan collapsed during a rehearsal and the director Rocky Rodriguez Jr. performed CPR on location. An ambulance was called out but unfortunately he couldn’t be resuscitated,” Chris Hislop, the spokesman for Craft Theatre, told The Telegraph. The play was scheduled to open tomorrow. “The entire company are in shock,” Hislop said. “There is absolutely severe sadness. It is a real tragedy.”
Bonfils started out in musical theater and worked as a model before landing his big Hollywood break in the first Star Wars prequel. Tiin, a member of the Jedi High Council, died during a fight with Darth Sidious, also known as the future Emperor Palpatine. Though he was nearly unrecognizable in the character’s heavy make-up, which took four hours to apply, Bonfils went on to play small roles in notable films like Batman Begins, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, and the 2012 James Bond film Skyfall. Bonfils is being mourned by Star Wars fans and the London theater community, including Daniel York, an actor who worked with him on the play Romeo and Juliet. “Khan Bonfils was one of the fittest and healthiest actors I have ever worked with. I cannot believe how this has happened,” York wrote on Twitter.
Bonfils; in character as Saesee Tiin from The Phantom Menace
Image credit: @Twitter
