<P> In Return of the Jedi, Jabba is portrayed by a one - ton puppet that took three months and half a million dollars to construct . While filming the movie, the puppet had its own makeup artist . The puppet required three puppeteers to operate, making it one of the largest ever used in a motion picture . Stuart Freeborn designed the puppet, while John Coppinger sculpted its latex, clay, and foam pieces . Puppeteers included David Alan Barclay, Toby Philpott, and Mike Edmonds, who were members of Jim Henson's Muppet group . Barclay operated the right arm and mouth and read the character's English dialogue, while Philpott controlled the left arm, head, and tongue . Edmonds, the shortest of the three men (he also played the Ewok Logray in later scenes) was responsible for the movement of Jabba's tail . Tony Cox, who also played an Ewok, would assist as well . The eyes and facial expressions were operated by radio control . </P> <P> Lucas voiced displeasure in the puppet's appearance and immobility, complaining that the puppet had to be moved around the set to film different scenes . In the DVD commentary to the Special Edition of Return of the Jedi, Lucas notes that if the technology had been available in 1983, Jabba the Hutt would have been a CGI character similar to the one that appears in the Special Edition scene of A New Hope . </P> <P> Jabba the Hutt only speaks Huttese on film, but his lines are subtitled in English . His voice and Huttese - language dialogue were performed by voice actor Larry Ward, whose work is not listed in the end credits . A heavy, booming quality was given to Ward's voice by pitching it an octave lower than normal and processing it through a subharmonic generator . A soundtrack of wet, slimy sound effects was recorded to accompany the movement of the puppet's limbs and mouth . </P> <P> Jabba the Hutt's musical theme throughout the film, composed by John Williams, is played on a tuba . One reviewer of Return of the Jedi's soundtrack comments, "Among the new thematic ideas (of the score is) Jabba the Hutt's cute tuba piece (playing along the politically incorrect lines of tubas representing fatness)..." The theme is very similar to one Williams wrote for a heavyset character in Fitzwilly (1967), though the theme does not appear on that film's soundtrack album . Williams later turned the theme into a symphonic piece performed by the Boston Pops Orchestra featuring a tuba solo by Chester Schmitz . The role of the piece in film and popular culture has become a focus of study by musicologists such as Gerald Sloan, who says Williams' piece "blends the monstrous and the lyrical ." </P>

Who played the voice of jabba the hutt