Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru

Uncle Owen played by Phil Brown I; Aunt Beru played by Shelagh Fraser

BERU&OWEN1VCAP.JPG (95309 bytes)

The guardians and foster parents of Luke Skywalker, they have tried to raise him as a normal youth, keeping from him the fact that his veins coursed with Jedi blood and that his "dead" hero father was not simply a freighter navigator as they have told Luke.

Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi turned to the Lars couple just after Luke was born, and asked that they raise the child on the desolate planet of Tatooine, far from Imperial intrigue. Young Luke calls them aunt and uncle.

Owen and Beru toil as moisture farmers and have a difficult existence, some years barely eking out a living, even with Luke's help. There is constant tension between Luke and Owen as the youth wants to leave for pilot training at the Academy like his friend Biggs Darklighter, but Owen always insists that he stay "one more season" to help with the chores. Despite that, Beru and Owen Lars have taught young Skywalker the value of hard work, loyalty, commitment - and compassion.

Located on salt flats at the edge of the desolate Dune Sea near the settlement of Anchorhead, the Lars family homestead is typical of the moisture farms of Tatooine. The main business of the family is using vaporators to squeeze water from the air to use for drinking, to irrigate subterranean produce, and for sale. The living quarters are below ground both for defensive reasons and to ward off the midday heat of the planet's twin suns.

Their fears are visible in the dialogue, where Aunt Beru says "You can't keep him here forever. He's too much like his father." and Owen replies, "That's what I'm afraid of."

Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru are killed by Imperial Stormtroopers, in their attempt to find the R2 unit (R2D2), which had escaped with the death star plans programmed into it.