--- 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: 2026-04-13T07:26:49.425Z 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Chewbacca Actor Comforts Grieving _Star Wars_ Fan  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":"2026-04-13T07:26:49.425Z","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 topic"],"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"}}]}] ```