To Phil Brown, it seemed "a very unimportant role." But in Star Wars lore, it was anything but.

Brown, who died last week at age 89, was being remembered by Jedi faithful as Luke Skywalker's Uncle Owen from the original Star Wars movie.

In George Lucas' 1977 space saga, farmer Owen Lars and his dying-for-adventure nephew, played by Mark Hamill, come into possession of two junked droids: R2-D2 and C-3PO, setting in motion the ragtag Rebellion's overthrow of the evil Empire, not to mention a six-picture, mega-billion-dollar franchise.

The find also led to the eventual off-screen slaughter of Owen and wife Beru at the gloved hands of droid-seeking Imperial Stormtroopers, but nothing's perfect.

Shelagh Fraser, who played Aunt Beru to Brown's Uncle Owen, died in 2000.

Source: E! Online