Before They Were Stars: Cliff Clavin in “The Empire Strikes Back”

You might know that before he found fame as Cliff Clavin on Cheers, John Ratzenberger had a small role as Major Derlin, a Rebel Alliance officer on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back. It’s probably a good thing that George Lucas relinquished control of Star Wars when he did. Otherwise, he might have been tempted to do some more tinkering with Empire by expanding Major Derlin’s role and making him more like Cliff Clavin. Then we would have gotten a scene just like this…