Actor Phil Brown, who spent more than 60 of his 89 years of life working in both British and American cinema, died of pneumonia this past Thursday. During the 1950s, the progressive Brown was among numerous actors who were blacklisted during the infamous red scare. While Brown has a long and involved career, and he is best remembered by many fans as Luke Skywalker's gruff but loving Uncle Owen from Star Wars, who was responsible for uniting R2D2 and C3PO with Luke before meeting an untimely end at the hands of Imperial Stormtroopers. Phil Brown landed the role because Lucas was filming on a London sound stage at the time, and needed a man with a strong American accent - and as an American actor living in the UK, Brown was a perfect fit. He subsequently flew to Tunisia for a month or so to film his small part in the immortal trilogy. In the course of his career, Brown had many roles in both television and film media in addition to being a stage actor. He also co-directed the 1950's television series Colonel March of Scotland Yard.