Nelson Hall

Nelson Hall is a former ILM employee who served as one of three "official" operators for R2-D2. Nelhal Industries was named for him. Aside from his work on Star Wars, Hall also worked on the miniatures and special effects for Lucasfilm's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Hall makes multiple cameos in the Special Edition of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. On the Death Star, he and Don Bies appear as multiple digitally-replicated stormtroopers and Imperial officers in the shot where Han Solo encounters numerous Imperials in a hangar bay. Hall later appears as a Rebel technician that walks in front of Luke Skywalker, Biggs Darklighter, and Garven Dreis on Yavin 4. This addition was intended to cover up a cut portion of the scene in which Dreis mentions having known Luke's father. Hall described his part in this sequence as being a "human wipe."

Text and facts from the “Nelson Hall” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.