Star Wars

While the original Star Wars trilogy required millions of dollars in special effects, countless cast and crew members, and years of filming, one man has managed to bring all three of these science-fiction classics to the stage. But Charles Ross isn't backed by a production company, a cast, a crew or a special-effects team. He uses nothing but black clothing, knee and elbow pads, a spotlight and his vivid imagination. From Luke Skywalker to Chewbacca and from Darth Vader to R2-D2, Ross, 33, has made a living impersonating every Star Wars character's mannerisms and voices and acting as both narrator and background orchestra in his One Man Star Wars Show, which will come to D.C.'s Woolly Mammoth Theatre on Tuesday.

Thirty years have passed since America was given a new hope, then watched an empire strike back and a Jedi return, but an exhibit at Geppi's Entertainment Museum in Baltimore serves as a reminder that the Force is still with us. Filled with just a sampling of a local collection, the museum's Special Edition Gallery features glass display cabinets are chock-full of Star Wars paraphernalia: a box of Queen Amidala bandages, giant PEZ dispensers with Darth...

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Everyone knows that George Lucas' Star Wars series takes place "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ... " But the key line repeated verbatim in the dialogue of all six Star Wars movies is, "I have a bad feeling about this." It would be dramatic to report that 30 years ago today, during the original Star Wars' premiere, Lucas' competitors were having "a bad feeling about this." Dramatic - but wrong, because Lucas' rivals had no feeling about Star Wars at all. Unlike Jaws, which had ruled the summer two years earlier, Star Wars wasn't based on a best-seller.

The Enoch Pratt Free Library's Southeast Anchor Library is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of Star Wars with a free party running from noon-4 p.m. tomorrow. Screenings will include the documentary The Making of `Star Wars' (1 p.m.) There also will be Star Wars characters, cake and free comic books. The library is at 3601 Eastern Ave. Information: prattlibrary.org. Film, free speech "Film and Free Expression," a series sponsored by the ACLU and showing at the Charles on Saturdays through June 2, offers Abraham Polonsky's 1948 Force of Evil, starring John Garfield and Thomas Gomez as brothers at odds over how the local mob should divvy up the numbers racket.

PASADENA, Calif. -- Jorge Candelas spent eight months perfecting the look of his Imperial biker scout uniform. He watched the Star Wars movies over and over, making sure the plastic armor on his uniform sat at just the right angle. He endured teasing from his father, who calls him his "8-year-old who never grew up." But on Thursday, the 30-year-old computer engineer from Durango, Mexico, was marching proud. He joined 200 fellow Star Wars fanatics at a Pasadena high school football field, attempting to march in unison on the commands of a U.S. Army Reserve colonel in preparation for the 118th Rose Parade.

Lucasfilm Ltd., the production company founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas and owner of the Star Wars trademark, is suing a Maryland business that sells Star Wars light sabers through the Internet. Lucasfilm filed a patent-infringement lawsuit yesterday against William L. Osburn and an Abingdon company that he owns, High-Tech Magic, in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California. High-Tech Magic is diluting the Star Wars trademark and making a profit by "confusing fans," Howard Roffman, president of Lucas Licensing, said in a statement.

Tim Hildebrandt, 67, half of the famed Hildebrandt Brothers illustration studio, whose images fired popular imagination in the late 20th century, died Sunday in New Brunswick, N.J., of complications from diabetes. He and his twin, Greg Hildebrandt, are probably best known for their illustrations and posters for The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. They also were famed among illustrators for their work on children's books, comics and fantasy illustrations, all of it characterized by unusual realism, depth and richness of color.

Come September, the Force returns to the original Star Wars' biggest fans. Between Sept. 12 and Dec. 31, those who fell in love with Han Solo and Princess Leia in theaters will be able to purchase the original versions of Episodes IV (1977, A New Hope), V (1980, The Empire Strikes Back) and VI (1983, Return of the Jedi), for the first time on DVD, packaged with the digitally enhanced and expanded versions released theatrically in 1997. Each title will go out as a two-disc set with a suggested retail price of $29.95.

New York-- --Andy and Larry Wachowski summoned Natalie Portman to San Francisco from Israel to get inside her head. Then they wanted to inspect her head. The Matrix creators were casting V for Vendetta, the futuristic thriller that they wrote. Portman, a Star Wars star, read a few scenes as Evey, the waif pulled into a masked anarchist's plot to blow up the British Parliament. Evey gets her head shaved in prison, and the Wachowskis asked Portman to pull her hair back so they could imagine her with locks shorn.