Mark Dodson, who voiced strange puppet creatures in “Star Wars,” including Salacious B. Crumb, the cackling monkey-lizard pet of Jabba the Hutt, and “Gremlins” films, died on Saturday. He was 64.
His death was confirmed in statements on social media by his agent, Peter DeLorme, and the Evansville Horror Con, the Indiana fan convention where he had been scheduled to appear over the weekend. No cause of death was given.
Mr. Dodson’s voice acting career began in 1983 on “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi,” when he voiced Salacious B. Crumb, the court jester of Jabba the Hutt that was known for its maniacal laugh, as well as some of the furry forest creatures known as Ewoks.
In a 2020 interview with “Screaming Soup!,” Mr. Dodson explained how he had gotten the Crumb role by accident.
He was auditioning for Adm. Ackbar, a leader during the Clone Wars, but was so nervous that he asked for a break to compose himself, he said. He was then overheard using a deranged voice that the casting director thought was perfect for Crumb.
That led Mr. Dodson to voice several of the Mogwai in “Gremlins,” the 1984 comedy-horror film about a young man who accidentally unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town on Christmas Eve.
“Let’s say I did get Ackbar — I never would’ve gotten the ‘Gremlins,’” he said. “The ‘Gremlins’ came because the ‘Gremlins’ were made by the same guys who made Salacious. That’s why it came up, ‘They look a lot the same. Wouldn’t it be great for the Gremlins to have that same voice! Who is that guy?’”
Mr. Dodson continued working in both franchises, voicing characters in the 1985 television movie “Ewoks: The Battle for Endor” and “Gremlins 2: The New Batch” in 1990.
He voiced a scavenger in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (2015) and appeared as an uncredited zombie in George Romero’s “Day of the Dead” (1985).
Mark Dodson was born on Feb. 1, 1960, in St. Louis, according to IMDb.
He got his start in the film business when he moved to the Los Angeles area after high school in 1978 and worked as a production assistant and a carpenter, he said in a 2010 interview. While working as a laborer during the construction of a sound studio for George Lucas’s Industrial Light & Magic, a sound designer was looking for a raccoon, which Mr. Dodson and his wife had as a pet at home.
The raccoon didn’t make the right noises, but Mr. Dodson recalled how he had enjoyed making up sounds since he was a kid, and recorded himself making some chirps.
That led to him auditioning for a mysterious creature that turned out to be E.T., the lost alien in the 1982 Steven Spielberg sci-fi classic.
“My wife Rita asked me what the creature I tried out for was,” he said. “I said I had to say some kid’s name ‘phone home’ and some weird sounds.”
He didn’t get the part, but the process led to his “Return of the Jedi” audition.
Over the decades, his voice appeared on radio, in commercials, on cartoons like “Darkwing Duck” and “Bonkers,” and as a narrator on TV shows.
He also voiced characters in several video games, including “Star Trek Online,” “Ghostrunner,” “Bendy and the Dark Revival,” and “Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga,” once again as Crumb.
