Star Wars: Mark Hamill Honors the Late Marketing Mastermind Charles Lippincott

Star Wars legend Mark Hamill took a second to honor late series marketing mastermind Charles Lippincott. The man behind a lot of that early merchandise passed away at the age of 80. His wife delivered the news on Facebook and the series star offered some nice words on Twitter. Many credit Lippincott as the man who birthed a lot of the merchandise trends that we see all throughout fan culture today. He had the foresight to print up posters, t-shirts, secure action figure licenses, and more for the series before it hit theaters. Without all that devoted following, who knows if this would have evolved into the phenomena that we see today. Hamill knows that first hand, and he said as much on Twitter today.

“When it came to marketing a movie no one was interested in, his out-of-the-box ideas showed everyone how it could be done,” Hamill wrote. “We had so much fun on the 1st world tour… Imagine trying to explain that movie to someone who had never seen it! #RIPCharleyLippincott”

Lippincott’s wife shared her memories of his final days on social media and they are recorded down below:

She wrote, “Charley has been in the ICU on a ventilator since Thurs night. After 48hrs, they tried removing the ventilator to see if Charley could breathe on his own. He could not. That was when I hoped for an Act of God, for the Force to flow through him, healing him and making him one with the Universe.”

“Charley had some kind of Covid-19 premonition that if he went to the hospital, he would probably die. At first, it frightened him, but then he became reconciled because he felt he had lived a full and rich life,” the message explained. Charley thought he had been blessed. He lived a good life, a full life, and was luckier than most. Oh, he wanted to continue living — there were things he still wanted to do — but he realized many of his peers were dying, and if the end came, it would be alright because he had had a full, rich life.”

“I want to think his spirit has joined the 90,000 plus who have left this planet, who have entered the cosmos like Asimov’s stream of light. I think Charley would have liked that. The company of many, leaving behind their earthly bodies. He wanted to go beyond, and has done that. There are many Covid-19 deaths, and each death was a Charley to the people who loved them,” she concluded

Did you ever own any of that original Star Wars art? Let us know down in the comments!