Rishton man is Raider of the Lost Archive!

9:08am Thursday 22nd May 2008

Comments (3)   Have your say »

AN EAST Lancashire man who appeared in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade has relived his time starring alongside Harrison Ford and Sean Connery.

And Danny Cleary, 38, said he believed the 1980s adventure series should not have been revived ahead of the release of the latest instalment tomorrow.

Danny, of Harwood Road, Rishton, appeared in the 1989 production of Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade as an extra, straight after his A-levels.

He played a student of Dr Jones near the start of the film and a Nazi soldier in later scenes.

Danny, who was 18 at the time of filming, was completing work experience with his cousin Lee Cleary, who was first assistant director.

Danny, an archivist at the Lancashire Telegraph said: "I was making tea for actors when the chance to be involved in a big college scene came up."

In the college scene, filmed at Rickman-sworth Masonic School for Girls in Hertfordshire, Danny is seen stood next to Harrison in a crowd of annoyed students.

He said: "Steven Spielberg asked us to make out like Jones hadn't marked our exam papers and we were all disappointed with him.

"I was one of the shortest extras so they put me towards the front."

He said Harrison Ford was "quiet but polite" and he was star-struck when he first met Sean Connery.

He said: "I was walking down a corridor at the studio when a tall man in a dressing gown came out from a doorway.

"It was Sean Connery and I couldn't believe it."

Danny has appeared as an extra in films Chaplin, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves and The Secret Garden.

He has also played a prisoner and pub-goer in television drama Inspector Morse and a cinema goer in Minder.

Danny, originally from Islington in North London, describes being an actor as "a giggle" and something he did from the age of 18 to 30 just for extra money.

He said: "I never wanted to be a star. When anybody watches the film no one is interested in me: they're all looking at Harrison Ford."

Danny will be going to see the new film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, at the weekend with his partner Clare, but thinks that it was a mistake to make it.

He said: "I've heard mixed reviews and I think they should have left it alone."