'Harry Potter' star Warwick Davis opens up about the tragic death of two of his children
'Star Wars' actor Warwick Davis opened about his anguish over the death of two of his children when they were babies, Daily Mail reported. The actor, who has also been a part of the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise, lost his first two children Lloyd and George with his wife Samantha. During his appearance on Tuesday’s episode of 'Bear Grylls: Mission Survive,' he said “Prior to Annabelle and Harrison we had a baby boy, Lloyd, who inherited both our conditions… and that is something that proves fatal. It’s something that a baby won’t survive."
"But Lloyd, he lived for nine days, but yeah he was beautiful… but it was a tough time. And yeah, we had a stillborn too.” He admitted that both him and his wife endured a great deal of pain during both losses, but it also made them a stronger couple.
Warwick was born with an extremely rare condition called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita (SED), where the bone endings fail to form, which meant he could not grow taller than 3ft 6in. His wife, on the other hand, was born with a different kind of dwarfism called achondroplasia.
Lloyd and George inherited both forms of dwarfism from their parents, which proved to be fatal.
In 2014, while speaking to Daily Mail, Sam said: “We found out later that he was the first in the world to survive at all. The doctors actually learned a lot from Lloyd, hopefully that will help other people. But it hit us like a train.”
In the weeks after Lloyd was born, doctors realized that his lungs were too small to support normal function and that there was really no hope of survival. “It was heartbreaking,” said Sam. “When they wanted to turn the machine off I said, ‘No, no, no’, but they said, ‘Look, we'll just give him to you and he will just go to sleep in your arms.’ And he did. I'm so glad he didn't die on the machine now. We gave him everything we could. At Lloyd's funeral I was proud. I was his mum and how lucky was I? I had the best nine days ever. You have to turn it round like that.”
It took the couple extremely long time to reach a point in their lives where they were willing to try for another baby. When they did try again, they suffered yet another tragedy and their second child, George, was stillborn at 19 weeks; then Sam had a miscarriage.
Speaking about her next pregnancy, when they were expecting Annabelle, Sam admitted that it was “terrifying.” She said, “When she arrived she was in special care for two months. But she was fine. She had SED, so we knew there'd be challenges ahead, but she was beautiful, perfect.” After Annabelle's birth, Sam suffered yet another miscarriage
Sam, particulalry, had a difficult time convincing Warwick into trying for another child. But the two fought their fears because they wanted to expand their family and that resulted in a beautiful baby boy they named Harrison.
The couple tied the knot back in 1991 now have two beautiful, healthy children: a daughter, 21, named Annabelle and a son, 15, named Harrison. Warwick’s children have inherited his condition. Both of them are also following in his footsteps and wish to pursue a career in acting. They appeared in Harry Potter as well.
According to imdb, Warwick was born in Epsom, Surrey, England. When he was just 11, his grandmother heard a radio ad that called for people under four feet tall to appear in 'Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi' (1983).
Warwick was a huge 'Star Wars' fan and so he auditioned for the part and was cast as an extra, playing an Ewok. The role of Ewok Wicket was initially secured by another actor Kenny Baker, but unfortunately, he fell ill. Warwick then rose to the occasion and was awarded the role of Ewok Wicket.
From there things only went up hill. He has since played the role of Professor Filius Flitwick in the 'Harry Potter' series. Most recently, he featured in 'Solo: A Star Wars Story.'
His also received a lot of love from his fans for his appearance on Tuesday’s episode of 'Bear Grylls: Mission Survive.' One of them said: “Warwick Davis is an inspiration, and hilarious with it. There should be a whole series where he basically just follows Bear Grylls everywhere - I'd watch them going round Sainsburys, catching the nightbus, just about anything. So funny.”
Warwick later thanked all of his fans for their admiration with a sweet message on Twitter, which read: “Thank you Twitter friends for all your lovely comments about my mission with the one and only @BearGrylls on @ITV tonight. I am so privileged to have the opportunity to do all the amazing things I do in my life, and this experience is up there with the very best. Cheers Bear!”