Treat Williams

For other uses, see Williams.

"Well, Treat Williams decided he was going to come and hang out on the set, which he did, and he appeared in those ice planet scenes as one of the lieutenants or officers in the Rebel Forces. And I'm sure that there is no credit for him at all and he didn't have a character or anything, but he just said, 'Hey, this looks like a lotta fun and I'd kinda like to be a part of it, mind if I take a role of an extra?' Everybody said, 'Yeah!' So here you have this Hollywood star who just decided, for probably no salary, just to hang out for a few scenes and was quite happy with the role of an extra in Empire Strikes Back. And that was kinda the way it was."

―John Morton^[3]

Richard Treat Williams (December 1, 1951 – June 12, 2023)^[1] was an American screen actor. He was nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards, one Emmy Award, and three Golden Globe Awards.

Biography

Treat Williams visited the exclusive set at England's Elstree Studios during the 1979 filming of Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back,^[4] to visit actress Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia Organa), according to the now-defunct StarWars.com Hyperspace feature "Photoreceptor."^[5] According to actor John Morton (Dak Ralter), Williams, who was in London at the time, decided that it would be fun to appear in the film as an extra, and did so with the blessing of the film's production staff.^[3] Donning the tan fatigues of a Rebel soldier,^[4] Williams appears in the film at some point during the interior Echo Base scenes on Hoth, according to Morton.^[3] During his stay on the set, Williams befriended actor Harrison Ford (Han Solo)^[4] and posed for photographs with Fisher.^[6] Williams was uncredited for his role in the film.^[7]

Very few official Lucasfilm products have addressed the matter of Williams' presence on The Empire Strikes Back set, and none have definitively stated that the actor actually appeared in the film. To date, only the now-defunct StarWars.com Hyperspace feature "Photoreceptor" (2004) and the 2010 behind-the-scenes book The Making of The Empire Strikes Back, written by author Jonathan W. Rinzler, have officially released black-and-white photographs of Williams, dressed as a Rebel soldier, posing with Carrie Fisher on the Echo Base set, with accompanying captions confirming Williams' identity.^[5]^[6]