Colin Skeaping - Star Wars to star paws...

Colin was one of the first professional stunt men, in an era before CGI he was in very many of the blockbuster movies you will have watched. For the first three Star Wars movies he was Luke Skywalker’s stunt double. You’ll have watched him in James Bond movies. He was an extra in Superman on his day off from stunts.

He was in so many iconic movies and it took him around the world. Back home he was in so many famous TV scenes and when he worked he took his dogs with him as there was a lot of sitting around waiting.

They were so at home on set that when ‘acting’ dogs came in to do their jobs Colin would watch dogs spooked by the equipment and the difficulty of long distance commands in this alien world. Directors were often not animal savvy and it would hold up filming when they couldn’t get the dog shot.

More and more Colin was asked if his dogs could do the action, and they always could. Consequently Beardies starting cropping up in roles they would not normally have been cast in! Midsommer Murders always had a disproportionate amount of murders – but in this beautiful place Bearded Collies were the most popular breed of dog – everyone had them!