CT The 4th Yavin General, pic request

Something I noticed the other day that Wookieepedia and the Technical Commentaries website seem to have missed: the presence of a 4th Rebel General at Yavin. In addition to Vanden Willard, Bob Hudsol, and Jan Dodonna, Evram Lajaie is also a General, as he wears such an Insignia during the monitoring of the Battle. What I can't tell for certain is what exactly the colors are, though it seems to be the same as Willard's Rank Insignia- 4 Red dots with a Blue dot in the center. In other words, another General who (along with Willard) who would actually outrank Dodonna! What I'd like to ask is if anybody on here has any clearer shots of this character, particularly ones that show the Rank Insignia clearly. It's worth noting that, as with Dodonna, he can be seen in the earlier briefing scene, but seemingly without an Insignia on, or if it's there, is hidden by the clothing flap.

<a href="https://image.frl/32vjf" target="_blank"><img src="https://image.frl/i/my4dxf2f7qfrq5kg.jpg" alt="Free Image Hosting at Image.frl" border="0"></a>

 

I really wish I could help. For my big article on Yavin IV I tried to compile as many war room pictures as possible, but didn't find any with the actor playing the conjectural character of "Evram Lajaie" (I say conjectural because the third draft of ANH did identify a "sallow-eyed (Alliance) general named Aay Zavos").
If we were able to obtain the actor's name, we might find perhaps better pictures.

(the conjectural character of "Bob Hudsol" had already before been identified as "General Ristt" by the animated film in the Holiday Special, shown during the Battle of Yavin with a colonel's rank plaque, i.e. he was apparently promoted after ANH).

What I find rather interesting, now that you mentioned it, is that he is standing next to General Dodonna in the briefing room scene and later during the medal ceremony, yet only wears an overcoat with no military jacket - in contrast to Dodonna and Ristt - beneath it, yet has a military rank plaque attached to his overcoat exclusively in the war room!

It almost seems he was second in command next to General Willard, the commander of the Rebel Forces (who appears to have left after Leia's arrival), yet kept a rather low profile (for security reasons) outside of the war room.

 

I'm interested in the actor who played the mystery general, that kind of thing usually interests me. I know that Willard was played by Eddie Byrne, Dodonna by Alex McCrindle and Hudsol by John William Ault. I'd like to know that too, personally.

 

Special Thanksgiving Day update:

"Evram Lajaie" was portrayed by Robert Van Kaphengst, who can also be seen as one of the plain-uniformed Imperials walking by the turbolifts, as seen above. He ALSO portrayed the character that the EU revealed to be "Sergeant Derek Torent"- the senior Death Star Trooper who was the infamous "Death Squad Commander" action figure, which by sheer coincidence has a 40th Anniversary remake. Look and it becomes unmistakable- the same guy in all three capacities! I can't claim credit for this, as it was a dear friend and highly knowledgeable collector who pointed this out, but please look and tell me you see it, too

 

Great find, still would love to have a better quality shot of the above image. Still a shame that the security controllers on the Death Star overbridge in ANH were so far away, that we never got a better closeup.



I didn't know that he also played a "Star Destroyer Commander"

 

Oh good, you see it, too! I was sure of it, now even more so!

It's also interesting to realize that "Sgt. Torent" is the same character walking by the turbolifts, as when you look closely you can tell that the uniform color is gray in the "Death Squad/ Star Destroyer Commander" image. It means that at least one senior Death Star Trooper did not wear a black uniform, but instead a plain gray one. He's likely off-duty, given that he isn't wearing his communications working helmet. That would in turn suggest that most all of the other plain-gray uniformed Imperials seen walking around, especially the older ones (such as Sgt. Torent), are also off duty Death Star Troopers. In addition, that particular turbolift cluster must either be very near to or shortly connect to the Overbridge, as Torent, Yularen, and the Syd Wragg Officer are all known to work on duty around the Overbridge, and all of whom walk by that one area.

 

IMHO, that would be over-rationalizing the observed reuse of actors for both Imperial and Alliance roles, add to this we never saw the Death Star controllers in their towers close-up. Just as we saw a security guard exit the elevator to detention block AA 23 (lucky guy, probably on his way to lunch break) I'm certain they wear the same uniforms until their shifts are over.

Or simply put: If it's the same actor in the same uniform (e.g. Yularen) it's most likely the same character. If that's not the case we probably look at a different character.

 

I could really go either way on it being the same character, but you make a good point about it being a case of same actor/same uniform for Sgt. Torent. The only difference is the headgear- when he walks by the turbolift oblivious to the Rebels in his midst he just wears a normal Imperial cap in place of the comm-equipped helmet variant.

As you point out, we can't really tell exactly who is manning the Overbridge duty stations in any of the onscreen scenes, but we do know, courtesy of multiple cards and reference works, that Torent did have duty there at some point. Torent's only confirmed onscreen time isn't on the Overbridge, though, we only actually see him walking by the lifts.

Hopefully the various Wookieepedians that are always reading these types of threads will notice this...

 

It was a big operation, the Rebellion.

 

Finally further, clearer images, that also show three of the 5 Yavin Generals! And yes, it does confirm that "Evram Lajaie" is not only a General, but one that outranks Dodonna and Hudsol, and is equally Ranked with Vanden Willard. He has the same Blue center dot and 4 red dot insignia as Willard. While the out of Universe explanation is that he is simply wearing the same costume coat as Willard (why does Willard suddenly vanish from the film, anyway?), in Universe he has to be of the same Rank.

The images can also be seen here:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon...jA5NzE2OTg@._V1_SX1777_CR0,0,1777,756_AL_.jpg

 

I would have found it rather odd, had the Alliance not at least evacuated the commander of the Rebel Forces, General Willard (scheduled to make a comeback in ESB, but ultimately discarded in favor of General Rieekan).

Still, General Willard had been wearing the same jacket as the others, but the Lajaie character doesn't and is merely wearing an overcoat over the basic shirt (and outside the war room is neither wearing his rank badge during the pilots' briefing nor the medal ceremony).

Somehow I can't shake the impression that he is more civilian than military. Looks to me as if he took over for General Willard but decided to stay in the background. Would love to read some original production notes on the top brass Alliance personnel, assuming these do even exist.

 

Small thread bump, as I found a sideview image confirming that General Lajai does indeed have a Rank Insignia during the medal scene:

 

Wow!

Taking another good look I now realize that the sleeve doesn't belong to his overcoat but to his uniform jacket underneath:



So the rank insignia is just obscured by the overcoat, very nice to know.

 

Exactly! This in turn makes me wonder just how many of the other "long coats" seen around Yavin are also hiding an insignia. The "5th Yavin General" I noticed and posted in the other thread comes to mind. But unless lucky images show up all we can do is go frame by frame to try and spot one that was previously overlooked.

 

Does anybody have an official confirmation on Robert Van Kaphengst besides Fan sites like Imdb and Aveleyman?

 

Official confirmation? Well, even Lucasfilm and Disney no longer have certain documents, but some key people did keep such things. John Mollo's personal papers, which had a lot of this info, were sold off a few years ago.

Beyond official documents, a lot of the extras were reached and contacted by some particularly knowledgeable and dedicated fans while they were still alive, and information about other extras has been related by some of their fellow background actors that remembered who else was present on such and such filming days. You have to be willing to accept the word of those who do know better.

There's also the time-intensive but ultimately most rewarding method of figuring out who was where and when: look for them in other appearances! Just start watching all of the fims and TV episodes filmed in that part of the UK between the 50's and the 80's, and you will start recognizing a lot of the same people in the background. Start at avelyman, movie-dude, and britmovie to get a good list of the known extras, and then go watch those appearances. Quite a few times I've noticed a few familiar faces. Start with ones that are easily obtainable, such as the 1984 comedy Top Secret!, and see if you don't recognize, say, Robert Clarke (Yularen) or Charlie Gray (Trech Molock) in several scenes.

 

ducketsting basically. Ok, well I have since found confirmation on him, he was listed in Ann Skinner's notes according to the Star Wars Aficioando website. I've already consulted many of those websites, including Britmovie, which I can't seem to access. Thanks for your help anyway, and yes Top Secret does have many Star Wars actor's in there.

 

I love this stuff.