Star Wars Didn't Pay Boba Fett's Voice Actor Much, But An Underwear Ad Did
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Ah, Boba Fett. The bounty hunter with a Mandalorian helmet first appeared in "The Star Wars Holiday Special" in an animated sequence that was slightly less bats**t bizarre than the rest of that monstrosity (which I do admit to having a soft spot for). He would subsequently return in "Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back," working for Darth Vader (David Prowse/James Earl Jones) and taking the body of Han Solo (Harrison Ford), frozen in carbonite, to Jabba the Hutt. His role was very small, but that character design was just too good for him to fade into the background. Fans went a little wild over him. Eventually, Boba even got a dad and a backstory in the prequel trilogy, in addition to his very own show on Disney+, "The Book of Boba Fett," starring Temuera Morrison.
Notably, our favorite bounty hunter has been played and voiced by multiple different people over the years. While Don Francks did Boba's voice in the "Holiday Special," he was voiced by Jason Wingreen and played physically by Jeremy Bullock in "The Empire Strikes Back" (although Morrison would later re-record Wingreen's lines for the original trilogy's 2004 DVD re-release). Wingreen, who died at the age of 95 in 2015, was a well-known character actor who played Harry Snowden on "All in the Family" and "Archie Bunker's Place," and appeared in "Matlock," The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," "Dr. Kildare," "The Fugitive," and "Seinfeld."
Wingreen didn't have a ton of lines, but one would assume a movie role would get you paid a goodly amount in royalties. That was not the case, however. In fact, Wingreen ended up making far more money working on a "Star Wars" underwear ad than he did for "The Empire Strikes Back."
'Underoos are for Earthlings'
During an interview with Star Wars Insider in 2000, Wingreen revealed that he'd originally auditioned to voice Yoda (a role that went to Frank Oz instead) prior to being cast as Boba. Problem was, "the film was produced under a British contract" (as the Insider put it), which meant Wingreen didn't get any royalties. However, things worked out much better for him when he later signed on to do the voiceover for a "Star Wars"-themed Underoos commercial. He explained:
"The advertising agency doing the campaign decided they wanted the actor who did the voice to do the promotion, and the residuals for the commercial were about 20 times what I made doing Fett on film."
Perhaps I should explain Underoos. You may know them from the adult versions that pop up here and there, or when Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) yells "Underoos" at Spider-Man (Tom Holland) in "Captain America: Civil War," but they started out as children's underwear. Back in the late '70s, they would be themed around things like superheroes (Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, and even Archie Comics characters), as well as Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters and, of course, "Star Wars" charaters. They were also promoted with really weird commercials where kids would dance around in Underoos in front of the characters they were based on. Before you watch one of them, I should warn you that they're very cringe and yet their theme song is extra catchy. If it gets stuck in your head all day, don't blame me. I had to live through these on live TV.
By the way, the Boba Fett ones they advertised still exist for adults.
All the "Star Wars" movies and shows (other than the "Holiday Special") are streaming on Disney+.