Deep Roy

Gurdeep Roy (born Mohinder Purba; 1 December 1957), known professionally as Deep Roy, is a Kenyan-British actor, puppeteer, and stuntman. At tall, he has often been cast as diminutive characters, such as Teeny Weeny in The NeverEnding Story and the Oompa-Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Keenser in Star Trek, and subsequent films ("Kelvin Timeline"), and in television series such as The X-Files, Doctor Who, and Eastbound & Down. Life and career Roy was born on 1 December 1957 in Nairobi to Indian parents in a Sikh family. He studied accounting in London before dropping out at 18. He later enrolled in The Slim Wood School of Comedy and got his start in the entertainment arena in England in 1970 as a stand-up comic in local cabaret clubs. In April 1970, Roy opened on the UK stage in Ray Cooney's Miracle Worker at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff-on-Sea. He made his professional screen acting debut in a 1976 episode of The New Avengers, titled "Target!" as a character named Klokoe. He made his film debut later that same year, in The Pink Panther Strikes Again, as the Italian Assassin. Another early role was as Mr. Sin, the "pig-brained Peking Homunculus", a villain with a distinct appetite for homicide, in the Doctor Who serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang. In 1979, Roy played a genetically engineered life form "Decima" in the first season Blake's 7 episode "The Web", the diminutive chess genius, "The Klute", in the second season Blake's 7 episode "Gambit" and he voiced the character "Moloch", in the third season Blake's 7 episode "Moloch". He portrayed the Jedi Master Yoda in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. He is uncredited on the film but can be seen in many behind-the-scenes photos dressed as Yoda for perspective shots filmed towards the end of production. He has played apes in two movies: Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes and again in the Tim Burton remake of Planet of the Apes (2001) in two roles, one as a young gorilla boy and as Thade's niece. He has worked for Burton in three other films, Big Fish (2003), Corpse Bride (2005), where he supplied General Bonesapart's voice, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (also 2005). He played all the Oompa-Loompas (165 of them) in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In referencing his workload during production, director Tim Burton called Roy the "hardest-working man in show biz".