Casting top television personalities of their time for
The Star Wars Holiday Special, one notable example was popular actress and comedy star Bea Arthur, best known for her roles in
Alice and
The Golden Girls. Here she played Ackmena, the kindly but strict owner of one of the top Cantina's on Tatooine, often prone to singing with her clientele of very familiar aliens created or adapted/modified from stock by Rick Baker and his team for
Star Wars just a year earlier. (Alongside several still intact creations from Stuart Freeborn's UK side of the shoot, too.)
Here's the great rogues gallery listing that originally appeared in
Star Wars Insider magazine a few years back. This great collective image also memorably graced the cover to the classic
Starlog magazine that covered the 'event' TV special back in the day.
http://starlogged.blogspot.com/2012/09/1978-star-wars-holiday-special-in.html
