40-year-old Harrison Ford on the set of Return of the Jedi in 1983. Harrison Ford is pictured taking a break in the desert during production of Return of the Jedi, the final installment of the original Star Wars trilogy. Ford had turned 40 in July 1982, while much of the film was being shot ahead of its May 1983 theatrical release. The desert scenes featuring Jabba the Hutt’s sail barge and the Sarlacc were filmed at the Imperial Sand Dunes near Yuma, along the Arizona–California border. The massive dunes stood in for Tatooine, where Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Chewbacca are sentenced to the Sarlacc pit. Filming in the desert was a huge undertaking, requiring a full-scale exterior of Jabba’s sail barge to be constructed among the dunes. Hundreds of cast and crew members worked through the intense heat and harsh conditions. By then, Ford had already become one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, playing both Han Solo and Indiana Jones within just a few years. To keep the production secret, Return of the Jedi was filmed under the misleading working title “Blue Harvest,” with fake signs even describing the project as a horror movie.(Historic Vids)