The Star Wars franchise has had a massive affect. Holding the Guinness World Records title for “Most Successful Film Franchise,”. But perhaps no individual was so strongly influenced by Star Wars as Jake Lloyd. Lloyd played young Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, the fourth installment of the space opera. The Star Wars movies follow Anakin’s growth from a young boy to a the figurehead of a galactic empire, ending with his downfall. This is sadly similar to the child star’s own career.
Following his brush with fame, Lloyd quit acting altogether claiming that the role had made his childhood a ‘living hell. “Other children were mean to me,” he said in a 2012 interview. “They would make the sound of the light saber every time they saw me. It was totally mad.” Lloyd said at one point he was doing around 60 interviews a day, “My entire school life was really a living hell — and I had to do up to 60 interviews a day.”
In the summer of 2015, Jake Lloyd, using the assumed alias of Jake Broadbent, was arrested. The charges were reckless driving, driving without a license, and resisting arrest. Lloyd was arrested after leading police on a brief high-speed chase outside of Charleston, South Carolina, which eventually ended in Lloyd crashing his car into the woods.