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Jake Lloyd Arrested: Star Wars’ Anakin Skywalker Tried To Dodge Cops In High Speed Chase

By Cheryl Phillips
Published on: 05:47 PST, Jun 21, 2015

Jake Lloyd, who played a young Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, was arrested on June 21 after being pursued by Charleston, South Carolina, police in a high speed chase.

According to TMZ, deputies from the Charleston police department spotted the 26-year-old former actor speeding and driving recklessly early Sunday morning. He was chased for miles before he lost control of his car, crashing it through a fence and plowing through some trees in a wooded area off the highway.

Lloyd was arrested on the scene and charged with resisting arrest, reckless driving, failure to stop, and driving without a license. Just Jared reports that as of 11 a.m. ET on Sunday morning, Jake was still being held by police. There is no word if the child actor suffered from any injuries in the crash.

In addition to appearing in Phantom Menace in 1999, Jake also played the roles of Jamie Langston in the 1996 flick Jingle All the Way, J.J. Warren in Unhook the Stars (1996), and Mark Armstrong in Apollo 11. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Lloyd also had recurring roles on two NBC TV series — The Pretender and ER.

In a 2012 interview with the Daily Mail, Jake explained why he stopped acting after his appearance in the Phantom Menace. Lloyd, who was 10 when he appeared in the movie, stated that his role in the popular Star Wars movie made his childhood “a living hell.”

“Other children were really mean to me. They would make the sound of the light saber every time they saw me. It was totally mad. My entire school life was really a living hell — and I had to do up to 60 interviews a day. I’ve learned to hate it when the cameras are pointed at me.”

In the interview, Jake told the Mail that he stopped acting because he no longer felt he could fit in at school. Although he recreated his role as a young Anakin for five video games, he was reportedly so angry that he destroyed all of the memorabilia from the Star Wars film, and refuses to watch the movie because it “would be kind of creepy.”

[Image: IMDb]

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