Harrison Ford Forgot This ‘Star Wars’ Script in an Apartment He Rented During Filming
A fourth draft of “Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope” sold at auction for over $13,000
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In 1976, actor Harrison Ford rented part of a house in London while filming Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope. When he moved out, he accidentally left behind a draft of the movie’s script, written by George Lucas.
On Saturday, nearly 50 years later, that same script sold for £10,795 (over $13,000). An unnamed collector in Austria purchased the document during a livestreamed sale organized by Excalibur Auctions, reports Deadline’s Bruce Haring.
“It’s got his DNA on it,” said Excalibur Auctions co-owner Sarah Torode during the sale. “It might even have his sweat on it.”
The action-packed sci-fi film was made at Elstree Studios on the outskirts of London. Ford, in search of a place to stay, saw an advertisement in the Sunday Times for a flat in the Notting Hill district of London and decided to see it.
The flat was part of a large house on a street called Elgin Crescent: Ford lived on the top two floors while the unnamed landlords—a married couple—lived on the bottom four floors.
The couple “didn’t know anything about film stars or celebrities and didn’t know who Harrison Ford was,” per the lot listing. Ford’s Star Wars co-stars Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill visited him at the apartment several times, but the landlords didn’t know who they were either. Ford’s brother-in-law also stayed with him in the flat.
One day, a cleaner arrived to tidy up the flat, spotted Ford and fainted—purportedly “because she had never met a film star before,” per the auction listing. When Ford heard this story from one of his landlords, he “found it amusing.”
While living in the house, Ford and his landlords became friendly, often sharing drinks outside in the home’s garden. He went to their son’s first birthday party and gave them money to buy plants for the garden, reports BBC News’ Thomas Mackintosh.
The film company paid Ford’s rent for him.
“He was an excellent tenant, and very tidy,” writes the auction house.
The family recently decided to part ways with the script Ford left behind when he moved out. It was a fourth draft of A New Hope, which was originally called The Adventures Of Luke Starkiller. Ford’s character, Han Solo, makes his first appearance on page 56.
The script, dated March 15, 1976, was still a work in progress, with scenes and characters that were ultimately cut from the fifth and final draft. It is unbound and has pages in varying colors to indicate revisions.
The family has auctioned off several other items that once belonged to Ford, including a letter from his agent, Patricia McQueeney, and a film shooting schedule with a handwritten note about a meeting between Ford and producer Robert Watts.
“The sale saw competitive bidding from around the globe for these never-before-seen pieces of Star Wars history,” says Jonathan Torode, co-owner of Excalibur Auctions, in a statement shared with BBC News. “The personal provenance makes them totally unique. We hope they will be as treasured by their new owners as much as they were by the previous ones.”
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