The secret John Wayne Star Wars cameo you didn't know existed

The Star Wars films contain dozens of notable cameos. Some are subtle (Sofia Coppola in The Phantom Menace, Daniel Craig in The Force Awakens), while others are far more obvious (Jack Black and Lizzo in The Mandalorian). But one secret cameo may rule them all: legendary western star John Wayne was in Star Wars: A New Hope, released in 1977.

You'd be forgiven for never noticing his brief appearance in the film, especially considering most fans didn't know for years that the cameo even existed. The whole thing might've been forever forgotten if not for legendary sound designer Ben Burtt, whose credits include the original Star Wars trilogy, E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Blade Runner. Speaking with Star Wars Blog years ago, Burtt revealed that the character Garindan, played by Sadie Eddon in A New Hope, is actually voiced by none other than The Duke himself, John Wayne.

For those who may not remember, Garindan (also known as Long Snoot by fans) was the mysterious hooded figure with the big nose stalking Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi around the Mos Eisley spaceport on Tatooine. Garindan's unique, high-pitched voice, which sounds a bit like a cross between a mosquito buzzing and a vinyl record scratching, was provided by John Wayne.

Unfortunately, this doesn't mean that Wayne actually sauntered into a sound booth and recorded some odd squeaky sounds as a favor to George Lucas. Burtt only discovered years later, after digging through his old notes and tapes, that Garindan's voice was "an electronic buzzing which had come off of my synthesizer that was triggered by a human voice." Burtt then realized that this voice belonged to none other than John Wayne. The recording was an old loop line that had been throw out by the studio. Burtt added that Garindan's voice "was triggered by some dialogue like ‘All right, what are you doin’ in this town,’ or something like that."

Although his actual voice may have been highly distorted, it is nonetheless true that John Wayne made an appearance in A New Hope thanks to some long-discarded recordings. It's a fitting, albeit unintended, cameo considering Star Wars has long been considered a space western. And who personified movie westerns better than John Wayne?

It's also true that, technically speaking, A New Hope was Wayne's final film appearance. In 1976, one year before the release of A New Hope, he played the character J.B. Books in Don Siegel's The Shootist. In that film, Books was dying of cancer, which unfortunately would happen to Wayne in real life only a few years later. Although he likely never knew it, Wayne's last contribution to cinematic history was voicing a mosquito-esque stalker on Tatooine.

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h/t ScreenRant