Drewe Henley

Gordon Drewe Henley (1940 – 14 February 2016) was an English actor born in Malvern, England, whose career spanned theatre, television, and film across several decades. He worked across multiple mediums before a diagnosis of bipolar disorder brought his performing career to a close.

Henley made his Broadway debut in 1966, appearing in Hail Scrawdyke! His stage work also included a three-week run of Henry V in 1968, in which he took the lead role. On British television, he appeared in episodes of Z-Cars, The Avengers, UFO, and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).

His most widely recognized screen credit is the role of X-Wing pilot Red Leader, Garven Dreis, in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977). Due to a production error, he was credited in the film as Drewe Hemley. For the role, Henley adopted an American accent and chose to portray the character as a seasoned combat veteran, delivering his lines with deliberate restraint rather than excitement. Director George Lucas disagreed with this interpretation, and the two reached a compromise in which Red Leader would begin the battle sequence in a formal manner before growing more animated as the fighting intensified. Because Henley's character was confined to a cockpit for most of his scenes, the physical limitations of the role presented a personal challenge. His performance was not dubbed in post-production, distinguishing him from a number of other actors in the film. The role proved to be his final film appearance, as he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, then termed manic depression, shortly after completing his work on the production.

When the Special Edition of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was released in 1997, it incorporated a previously unused scene featuring Henley alongside Mark Hamill and Garrick Hagon. Henley welcomed the addition of the scene, though his on-screen credit remained uncorrected. Following his death, archive footage of his performance as Garven Dreis was used to include the character in the 2016 film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, with previously unused audio incorporated into several of his scenes.

In his personal life, Henley was first married to actress Jacqueline Pearce from 1963 until their divorce after three and a half years. He married actress Felicity Kendal in 1968, and the couple had one son, Charley Henley. That marriage ended in divorce in 1979. Kendal discussed Henley and his illness in her autobiography White Cargo, and in a 2000 interview described him as a former manic depressive. Henley later married Lyn Henley, with whom he operated a bed and breakfast in Devon. They remained married until her death in 2015.

In 2013, Henley was diagnosed with vascular dementia, and his condition deteriorated significantly in the final year of his life. He died on 14 February 2016 at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital at the age of 75.