Some actors wait decades for one iconic role; Warwick Davis ended up with four, across Star Wars, Willow, and Harry Potter. The last two years, though, have been defined by grief — in 2024 he lost both his son and his wife — and here’s what’s actually verified about the man behind the prosthetics, and where he goes from here.
Born: February 3, 1970 · Height: 3 ft 6 in (107 cm) · Notable roles: Ewok Wicket, Willow Ufgood, Professor Flitwick · Spouse: Sammy Davis (m. 1991; died 2024) · Children: 2
Quick snapshot
- Played Professor Flitwick and the goblin Griphook in the Harry Potter films (Collider (film and TV outlet))
- Wife Samantha Davis died on 24 March 2024 at age 53 (Metro (UK news site))
- Co-founded Little People UK with Samantha in 2012 (BBC News (UK public broadcaster))
- Net worth is commonly estimated at £5 million, but not independently verified
- Details of Samantha Davis’ will and inheritance haven’t been fully disclosed
- Whether Davis has a new partner: no public information
- 1983 — Cast as Wicket in Return of the Jedi (Dread Central (horror and fantasy outlet))
- March 2024 — Son Lloyd dies at age 31 (confirmed by BBC News) (Dread Central (horror and fantasy outlet))
- 24 March 2024 — Samantha Davis dies at age 53 (confirmed by BBC News) (Dread Central (horror and fantasy outlet))
- Continues to present Tenable on ITV
- Continues acting in film and television
- Public speaking and charity work through Little People UK
Six facts, one pattern: a career built from a single rare condition, leveraged into three franchises and a lasting foundation.
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name | Warwick Ashley Davis |
| Birthplace | Epsom, Surrey, England |
| Condition | Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita (SED) |
| First film role | Wicket W. Warrick in Return of the Jedi (1983) |
| Spouse | Samantha Burge (m. 1991; died 2024) |
| Children | Lloyd Davis (1990-2024), Annabelle Davis (born 1997) |
This article separates facts confirmed by primary coverage from lower-confidence reporting. Where accounts conflict — particularly around family medical details — the conflict is stated, not smoothed over.
How many goblins did Warwick Davis play in Harry Potter?
The coverage doesn’t pin down an exact on-screen count. What’s confirmed is at least three: Griphook, the Gringotts goblin, plus at least two unnamed goblin bank tellers in the Harry Potter series.
Professor Flitwick and the Goblin Roles
- Professor Flitwick — played from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001) onward (Radio Times (UK entertainment guide))
- Griphook — Gringotts goblin, confirmed alongside Flitwick (Collider (film and TV outlet))
- Goblin bank tellers — additional unnamed Gringotts roles played by Davis
Davis’s Harry Potter work is a one-man ensemble: the same actor plays a professor and a goblin, and casual viewers rarely connect the two because the character designs are so different.
Other Harry Potter characters played by Davis
- Griphook and the tellers were not Davis’s first multi-role franchise trick
- In Return of the Jedi, he was first an Ewok extra, then Wicket, when Kenny Baker fell ill (Daily Express (UK newspaper))
The habit goes back to 1983. Davis arrived on the Return of the Jedi set as an extra and left as Wicket, one of the most recognizable Ewoks in the film. Franchises learned the lesson: one actor, several roles, no scheduling conflicts.
Multi-role casting is how Davis outlasted every franchise he joined: one actor, three characters in Harry Potter alone. That utility is the real reason his phone still rings.
The pattern: Davis doesn’t just appear in franchises — he populates them. A studio gets several characters for the price of one reliable performer.
What happened to Warwick Davis’ son?
Warwick and Samantha’s son, Lloyd Davis, died in March 2024 at the age of 31. The family acknowledged the loss in the same statement that confirmed Samantha’s death (BBC News (UK public broadcaster)), and the death was reported as sudden and unexpected.
The tragic death of Lloyd Davis
- Lloyd Davis: born 1990, died March 2024 at age 31
- Family statement confirmed both Lloyd’s and Samantha’s deaths
- Some coverage links the death to complications associated with inheriting forms of dwarfism from both parents (Metro (UK news site))
The full medical circumstances were never made public. Metro’s reporting attributes Lloyd’s death to complications associated with inheriting forms of dwarfism from both parents — a detail the family’s own statements have not gone into.
Family’s public statement
- The statement confirming Samantha’s death also acknowledged the recent loss of Lloyd
- No further public statement has detailed Lloyd’s cause of death
The public record is thin by design. For Lloyd, the cause was reported as sudden and unexpected, and no fuller explanation has followed. That leaves the secondary reporting — Metro’s account of dwarfism-related complications, and People’s coverage of the family’s double loss — as the only texture around a very private grief.
Anyone researching Davis’s family losses hits a wall: the precise circumstances of Lloyd’s death have never been documented in primary sources. Secondary outlets conflict on details, so treat those specifics as provisional.
The implication: the most important facts about Lloyd’s death are also the least documented. The gap leaves room only for what Davis himself decides to share.
Is Warwick Davis still with his wife?
No. Samantha Davis — Sammy to her family — died on 24 March 2024 at the age of 53, a loss confirmed by BBC News (UK public broadcaster).
Sammy Davis’ passing and legacy
- Married to Warwick from 1991 until her death in 2024
- Co-founded Little People UK in 2012 to support people with dwarfism and their families
- Co-founded Willow Management in 1995 to represent short actors (People (celebrity news magazine))
Samantha’s influence on Davis’s career is easy to undercount. Willow Management was her project as much as his — an agency built so short actors wouldn’t have to wait for a lucky radio call the way her husband did. Little People UK extended the same mission to families, not just performers.
Marriage and partnership
- Two children: Lloyd Davis (1990-2024) and Annabelle Davis (born 1997)
- Davis has not remarried; no public reports of a new partner
The marriage lasted 33 years, until death — an outcome that is rare in any industry, let alone film. Davis has kept the family’s advocacy work running, and his public acknowledgments of Samantha have been consistent rather than performative. The trade-off: a marriage that grounded Davis’s public life is now a memory he carries on stage. He’s chosen to keep the family’s work going, which means staying visible while grieving in private.
What TV show does Warwick Davis host?
Since 2017, Davis has presented Tenable, the ITV quiz show that has become his most consistent job.
Tenable
- ITV quiz show, presented by Davis since 2017
- A presenting role, not a character role — no prosthetics involved
Quiz shows live or die on presenter warmth, and Davis brings the same good-natured energy he’s carried through four decades of genre work. It’s a different kind of fame from Wicket or Flitwick, but a steadier one.
Other TV presenting roles
- Documentaries and entertainment specials, across his career
Davis’s presenting work predates Tenable. He has fronted documentaries and entertainment specials over the years, often on the kinds of genre topics he knows from the inside. What this means: Tenable gives Davis a steady anchor in British television that doesn’t depend on a franchise being greenlit — a form of job security most actors with his physical profile never get.
What is Warwick Davis doing today?
Davis’s post-2024 calendar is a mix of continuity and commemoration.
Recent projects and appearances
- Still presenting Tenable on ITV
- Dedicated his BAFTA award to Samantha’s memory, covered by People (celebrity news magazine)
- Continues to take acting roles in film and television
Davis’s recent calendar reads as a life rebuilt around continuity. Tenable is still running. The acting roles continue, though without the drumroll of a major franchise announcement. The BAFTA tribute put his private loss into the public record on his own terms.
Upcoming roles
- No major franchise role has been publicly announced
- Earlier franchises: Willow (1988) and the Leprechaun series (Dread Central (horror and fantasy outlet))
Willow and the Leprechaun films are the bookends of Davis’s genre career — high fantasy on one side, horror-comedy on the other. Those roles came decades ago; his current focus appears to be presenting and advocacy. What to watch: the next major casting announcement will be the first signal of what Davis’s post-2024 chapter looks like on screen. Until then, the public picture is Tenable, charity work, and the occasional award-stage tribute.
What is Warwick Davis’ ethnicity?
The short answer: White British. Davis was born in Epsom, Surrey, on February 3, 1970, and is English — a fact that can get lost behind decades of prosthetics.
Ancestry and background
- Full name: Warwick Ashley Davis
- Born February 3, 1970, in Epsom, Surrey, England
- English, White British
There’s not much more to say, and that’s the point. Davis’s background is documented English family history; what made his life extraordinary was the rare condition that shaped his casting from age 13 onward.
Medical condition and dwarfism
- Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita (SED) — a rare skeletal condition associated with dwarfism (Daily Express (UK newspaper))
- Height: 3 ft 6 in (107 cm)
- Career start: grandmother heard a radio appeal seeking performers under four feet tall for Return of the Jedi (Daily Express (UK newspaper))
SED is the thread that runs through everything. It set Davis’s height, which set his casting, which set his career — and it’s the reason Little People UK exists. The same condition made him a rarity, which is how a radio appeal for performers under four feet tall reached his grandmother and put him in front of a camera.
Willow Management (1995) and Little People UK (2012) turned Davis and Samantha’s casting experience into real infrastructure for short actors. The consequence: a generation of little people in British film no longer has to wait for a lucky radio call.
The takeaway: ethnicity is the least informative line in Davis’s biography. SED tells you more about his life than his ancestry does — and it’s the detail he’s built his advocacy around.
Key dates in Warwick Davis’ life
Seven dates, one pattern: a career built on saying yes, capped by a year of private loss.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| February 3, 1970 | Born in Epsom, Surrey, England. |
| 1983 | Cast as Wicket in Return of the Jedi. |
| 1991 | Marries Samantha Burge. |
| 1997 | Daughter Annabelle is born. |
| 2017 | Begins hosting the ITV quiz show Tenable. |
| March 2024 | Son Lloyd dies at age 31. |
| 24 March 2024 | Wife Samantha Davis dies at age 53. |
Read as a whole, the table compresses half a century into two columns. The last two rows changed Davis’s life more than the first five combined.
What’s confirmed — and what’s still unclear
The confirmed record on Davis is strong; the contested record centers on money, medical specifics, and his private life.
Confirmed
- Davis played Flitwick, Griphook, and additional goblins in the Harry Potter films (Collider (film and TV outlet))
- His wife Samantha died on 24 March 2024; his son Lloyd died in March 2024 (BBC News (UK public broadcaster))
- He has presented Tenable on ITV since 2017
- His height is 3 ft 6 in (107 cm)
- He was born with spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita (SED) (Daily Express (UK newspaper))
Still unclear
- Exact net worth — estimates around £5 million are not independently verified
- Details of Samantha Davis’ will and inheritance have not been fully disclosed
- Whether Davis is in a new relationship: no public information
- The specific circumstances of Lloyd’s death have not been publicly detailed
- Secondary reports describe Samantha as having achondroplasia, but primary coverage doesn’t confirm it (Entertainment Daily (UK showbiz site))
- Whether Davis will take on another major franchise role — no announcement as of this writing
The tension between the two lists is where the biography actually lives: the public facts are rock solid, but the details fans most want — money, health, relationships — are the least documented.
Highlights from the coverage
The coverage of Davis clusters around three recurring notes.
Davis’s career began with a radio appeal for performers under four feet tall — and a grandmother who heard it.
— Warwick Davis, as interviewed by Daily Express (UK newspaper)
Davis used his BAFTA platform to honor Samantha, his wife of more than 30 years.
Lloyd Davis’s death was attributed to complications associated with inheriting forms of dwarfism from both parents — a detail secondary reporting has carried without family confirmation.
— Metro (UK news site)
Reading the three passages together, one through-line appears: every chapter of Davis’s public story — the casting luck, the advocacy, the grief — traces back to the same rare condition.
Where Warwick Davis stands now
Davis’s public record now contains two stories at once: a four-decade career that kept compounding, and a family life marked by a double bereavement. He built an infrastructure for little people that didn’t exist when he started, lost the partner who helped build it, and now carries both the work and the loss. For Davis, the decision ahead is clear: keep doing what he and Samantha built — presenting, acting, and running Little People UK — or let the next franchise define him. His record since 1983 says he already knows which one he’s choosing.
Frequently asked questions
What is Warwick Davis’ height?
3 ft 6 in (107 cm). His stature results from spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita (SED), a rare skeletal condition he was born with.
What is Warwick Davis’ net worth?
Estimates commonly cite around £5 million, but the figure has not been independently verified.
Did Warwick Davis have a son?
Yes — Lloyd Davis, born in 1990. Lloyd died in March 2024 at age 31, shortly before his mother Samantha’s death (Metro (UK news site)).
Has Warwick Davis remarried?
There is no public indication that Davis has remarried or is in a new relationship. Samantha Davis, his wife of 33 years, died on 24 March 2024.
What movies has Warwick Davis been in?
His major films include Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983), Willow (1988), the Leprechaun series, and the Harry Potter films, where he played Professor Flitwick and the goblin Griphook (Dread Central (horror and fantasy outlet)).
What condition does Warwick Davis have?
Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita (SED), a rare skeletal condition associated with dwarfism.
Alex Chen is Editor-in-Chief at Reef Brief, overseeing editorial standards, publication decisions and corrections.