--- title: Chewbacca Actor Comforts Grieving 'Star Wars' Fan description: Peter Mayhew wrote a letter to a little boy whose best friend died before they could see 'The Force Awakens' canonical: https://time.com/4108013/chewbacca-peter-mayhew-star-was-fan/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-11T14:00:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:12.115Z og:title: Chewbacca Actor Comforts Grieving 'Star Wars' Fan og:description: Peter Mayhew wrote to a boy whose friend died before they could see the new film og:url: https://time.com/4108013/chewbacca-peter-mayhew-star-was-fan/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt173951757aacb4cf/6988707da988ca3cbc6b53c4/peter-mayhew.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2288 og:image:height: 1287 og:image:alt: Star Wars: The Force Awakens Panel At San Diego Comic Con - Comic-Con International 2015 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Chewbacca Actor Comforts Grieving 'Star Wars' Fan twitter:description: Peter Mayhew wrote to a boy whose friend died before they could see the new film twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt173951757aacb4cf/6988707da988ca3cbc6b53c4/peter-mayhew.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Chewbacca Actor Comforts Grieving _Star Wars_ Fan > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Nov 11, 2015 2:00 PM UTC  Peter Mayhew at the Hall H Panel for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” during Comic-Con in San Diego, CA on July 10, 2015. Peter Mayhew at the Hall H Panel for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” during Comic-Con in San Diego, CA on July 10, 2015. Michael Buckner—Disney/Getty Images  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Nov 11, 2015 2:00 PM UTC The actor who plays Chewbecca gave a young _Star Wars_ fan some warm fuzzy feelings—and not because of his character’s wild hair. A woman whose 7-year-old brother Sam died in accident earlier this year[ told Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/3s6wtr/good%5Fguy%5Fpeter%5Fmayhew/) that his friend Liam had promised to see _Star Wars: The Force Awakens_ with him on Christmas this year. News of a grieving Liam made its way to Peter Mayhew, the British actor behind Chewbacca in the new film, [who wrote a letter to comfort him](http://imgur.com/cOjWRfm). “I know Sam would have loved to know that Chewy knows who he is,” Sam’s sister wrote after posting a picture of the note. Mayhew confirmed to _Radio Times_ that he wrote the note, saying that Liam’s grandmother was a friend of his sister-in-law. “I hope my words were of some comfort to him,” he said. Read Mayhew’s letter, below: --- > “” --- \[[_Mashable_](http://mashable.com/2015/11/11/peter-mayhew-chewbacca-star-wars-letter/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4108013/chewbacca-peter-mayhew-star-was-fan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4108013/chewbacca-peter-mayhew-star-was-fan/"},"headline":"Chewbacca Actor Comforts Grieving Star Wars Fan","datePublished":"2015-11-11T14:00:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:12.115Z","description":"Peter Mayhew wrote a letter to a little boy whose best friend died before they could see 'The Force Awakens'","url":"https://time.com/4108013/chewbacca-peter-mayhew-star-was-fan/","keywords":["Newsfeed","movies","Star Wars"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt173951757aacb4cf/6988707da988ca3cbc6b53c4/peter-mayhew.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt173951757aacb4cf/6988707da988ca3cbc6b53c4/peter-mayhew.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Star Wars: The Force Awakens Panel At San Diego Comic Con - Comic-Con International 2015","caption":"Star Wars: The Force Awakens Panel At San Diego Comic Con - Comic-Con International 2015","creditText":"Michael Buckner—Disney/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4108013/chewbacca-peter-mayhew-star-was-fan/","name":"Chewbacca Actor Comforts Grieving Star Wars Fan"}}]}] ```