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Jake Matthew Lloyd (born March 5, 1989) is an American former actor who portrayed young Darth Vader in the film (1999) and Jamie Langston in Jingle All the Way (1996).
3,000 other candidates auditioned for the role and the process of finding an actor to play the role took up to two years. Lucas selected other children who had auditioned to attend a screen test at Skywalker Ranch in March 1997. Producer Rick McCallum said, "Jake has a very interesting personality. He's smart, mischievous and loves anything mechanical. He had all the right qualities that George was looking for."
Prior to his audition, Lloyd was already an enthusiast of Star Wars and wore a Darth Vader costume one Halloween. He auditioned twice and waited two years before being cast as Anakin. Lloyd's age was closer to the age of his character when filming began. Initially, Anakin was ten years old but after a change in the script his age was lowered to nine. Lloyd established several similarities between himself and his character saying, "I love doing mechanics; he is one mechanical kid. I like to build stuff." Like with some of the cast, he was impressed by the production including the props and costumes. Lloyd said, "It was just fantastic. I was blown away the first day."
Lloyd attended the first Star Wars Celebration in Denver, Colorado which celebrated the upcoming release of The Phantom Menace. The film was released to cinemas in May 1999. Initially reviews were mixed; however the film became the highest-grossing film of 1999 and the highest-grossing Star Wars film at the time of its release. One of his co-stars, Anthony Daniels said in his 2019 memoirs that Lloyd "was amazingly mature and self-confident" and "delighted the fans with his happy banter" during the Celebration. Lloyd received the Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film. Like with a lot of the cast and crew, Lloyd defended Ahmed Best praising him for his humour and saying, "He is one of the coolest guys that I've ever met." Both actors faced criticism over their performances. Lloyd appeared in the 2001 documentary, The Beginning: Making Star Wars Episode I, which was one of the bonus features of The Phantom Menace DVD release. The documentary chronicles the production of the film and includes footage of Lloyd's audition as well as the other potential Anakins with Natalie Portman prior to getting the part.
Due to being set 10 years after The Phantom Menace, Lloyd did not reprise his role. Hayden Christensen portrayed Anakin as an adult in the following films rounding up the prequel trilogy. Christensen admitted to Star Wars Insider in 2005, that he found it difficult bridging the gap between Jake Lloyd's Anakin as an innocent boy and the villain, Vader was introduced as in the original trilogy. Archival footage of Lloyd as Anakin can be seen in the recap at the beginning of the 2022 mini-series, Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Following a reappraisal of the prequel trilogy, in 2023, Christensen said that by going back to the character as a child destined to achieve great things in The Phantom Menace, "George Lucas subverted our expectations and understanding of this character" and made it a good starting point for Anakin's character development throughout the trilogy.
In 2000, Lloyd filmed the dramas Die with Me and Madison, then retired from acting, although Madison was not released in cinemas until 2005.
Lloyd left Hollywood for Chicago, and dropped out after a semester at Columbia College Chicago, where he studied film and psychology.
By college, Lloyd began suffering from visual and auditory hallucinations, causing him to miss classes and earn poor grades. He complained of people with black eyes following him and had imaginary conversations with Jon Stewart while watching The Daily Show. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2008, but was unaware of his own condition at the time. His father's family has a history of the illness. His sister Madison Broadbent, who was an extra in The Phantom Menace, died in her sleep from natural causes on July 16, 2018, adding to his personal struggles.
On June 17, 2015, Lloyd was arrested in Colleton County, South Carolina, under the name Jake Broadbent for reckless driving, driving without a license, and resisting arrest; he failed to stop for a red light while driving on a trip from Florida to Canada, which initiated a high-speed police chase across multiple counties. He was charged with failing to stop for officers, resisting arrest, reckless driving and driving without a license. At a hearing on June 22, his bail was set at $10,700. His mother stated that he refused to speak with her and that the police refused to give him his psychiatric medication. She also was unable to have him transferred to a psychiatric hospital for 10 months because no beds were available. On June 23, she publicly revealed his schizophrenia diagnosis to TMZ and said that "the family plans to try and get him help again ... once he's released from jail". In April 2016, Lloyd was transferred from Colleton County Detention Center to a mental health facility.
Lloyd's mother said his mental health deteriorated further after the death of his sister Madison in 2018. In January 2020, Lloyd and his mother confirmed that they had moved to California to be closer with family.
In May 2023, when Lloyd suffered a complete "Psychosis break", he was arrested again after turning off a car in the middle of a busy freeway. When police attempted to talk with him, his responses were incoherent. Lloyd was immediately hospitalized and sent to an inpatient care facility for 18 months. In a March 2024 interview, Lloyd's mother stated that his mental health was improving during his hospitalization.
Legal issues
In March 2015, police responded to an alleged assault by Lloyd on his mother. In a statement to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, she alleged Lloyd arrived at her house and began verbally berating her before physically assaulting her. She declined to press charges, stating that Lloyd had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and was not taking his medication at the time.
Filmography
Film
1996 Unhook the Stars J. J. Jingle All the Way Jamie Langston Apollo 11 Mark Armstrong Television film 1998 Virtual Obsession Jack Television film 1999 Darth Vader Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film: Young Actor Age Ten Years or Under
Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor 2001 Die with Me Mickey Cooper Madison Mike McCormick 2009 Peer Pressure Production Assistant Short film
Television
1996 ER Jimmy Sweet S02e11, S02e18 1996–1999 The Pretender Ronnie Collins
Young Angelo / Timmy4 episodes 2019 Star Wars Galaxy of Adventures Young Anakin Skywalker Episode: "Jedi vs. Sith - The Skywalker Saga"; uncredited voice (archive material) 2022 Obi-Wan Kenobi Episode: "Part I" (archive material)
Video games
1999 Anakin Skywalker 2000 2001 2002 Star Wars Racer Revenge
Citations
Print sources
(2026). 9781405392303, DK. ISBN 9781405392303
External links
Categories: 1989 Births, Living People, 21st-century American Male Actors, Actors From Fort Collins, Colorado, American Male Child Actors, American Male Film Actors, American Male Television Actors, American Male Video Game Actors, American Male Voice Actors, Carmel High School Alumni, Columbia College Chicago Alumni, Male Actors From Bakersfield, California, Male Actors From Colorado, Male Actors From Indiana, People With Schizophrenia, People From Fort Collins, Colorado
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