:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2)/actor-paul-grant-dead-at-56-032123-2-042318b1e7874dd8bee2d947c162198b.jpg "Harry Potter and Star Wars Ewok Actor Paul Grant Dead at 56: ‘Everyone Loved Him,’ Says Daughter")
“My dad was a legend,” the actor’s daughter Sophie Grant tells PEOPLE, confirming her father’s death
Published on March 21, 2023 01:01 PM
Photo: Facebook
Paul Grant, an actor and stuntman known for his work in popular fantasy film franchises like Star Wars and Harry Potter, has died. He was 56.
Grant’s daughter Sophie confirmed the news to PEOPLE on Tuesday, sharing that her father died at 3:49 p.m. local time on Sunday and adding in a statement, “It’s sad my dad is gone.”
“My dad was a legend,” she continues. “Everyone loved him so much: his daughter, son, girlfriend, stepchildren, grandchildren and step-grandchildren, too.”
According to Sophie, police discovered the actor Thursday at 2:06 p.m. local time outside of King’s Cross station in London, where he had collapsed.
Doctors declared Grant brain-dead on Thursday and removed him from life support Sunday, his daughter confirms to PEOPLE.
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PHOTO: Moviestore/Shutterstock
PHOTO: Lucasfilm/Fox/Kobal/Shutterstock
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Grant was perhaps best known for playing an Ewok in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983) and a Gringotts goblin in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001).
He also appeared in 1986’s Labyrinth as part of the Goblin Corps and as a stunt double for the character Hoggle, and performed stunts in Willow (1988) and Legend (1985).
The 4-foot, 4-inch actor lived with Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita, “a rare genetic disorder” that can cause “short stature and orthopaedic conditions in the joints,” according to Johns Hopkins.
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Grant is survived by daughter Sophie plus son Robbie and girlfriend Maria Dwyer, as well as several stepchildren, grandchildren and step-grandchildren. He was predeceased by daughter Nicole, who died in childhood.
“Paul was the love of my life. The funniest man I know,” Dwyer said in a statement obtained by The Guardian. “He made my life complete. Life is never going to be the same without him.”
A GoFundMe has been set up by Grant’s stepdaughter Stacey to assist with funeral expenses.
