Jake-Lloyd-Anakin-Skywalker

Jake Lloyd, the retired actor who rose to fame in 1999’s ‘Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace’, has been hospitalized.  It has been reported that Lloyd has been diagnosed with schizophrenia.  The young actor is 27 now but was only 10 years-old when ‘The Phantom Menace’ came out and did not handle the backlash that the least popular ‘Star Wars’ film received.  He reportedly had such a hard time with the film’s reception that he quit acting entirely in 2005.  You may also recognize him from the Arnold Schwarzenegger comedy ‘Jingle All The Way’.

Jake-LloydLloyd’s mother, Lisa Riley reported that he had a mental disorder and was transferred to a hospital.  He currently has no release date scheduled but his family is committed to seeing him through this rough time.

In June, Lloyd (also known as Jake Broadbent) was arrested after a high-speed chase in South Carolina.  He was charged with “failing to stop for officers, resisting arrest, reckless driving and driving without a license.”

He has been incarcerated for ten months, since then, but was moved to an undisclosed psychiatric hospital after his diagnosis.

Last year, we reported that Ahmed Best, the motion caption performer that portrayed Jar Jar Binks in ‘The Phantom Menace’ admitted that he and Lloyd drew the most criticism for that movie.  Here is a snippet of what he had to say:

“It was me, and it was [original Anakin Skywalker] Jake Lloyd who took a lot of the heat for the movie. Fortunately, I was in my 20s. I wasn’t eight years-old like Jake, who I think took it worse. Jake had it far worse than me. I’m a 20-year-old from from the Bronx; I’ve seen and I’ve done things that were a lot harder than criticism in that newspaper. Although it hurt me emotionally and it was hard to take at the time, it wasn’t debilitating for me. I just put my shoes on and went back to work. But Jake had a difficult time…”

It’s hard n0t to feel bad about Lloyd’s troubles, considering that it stemmed from negative fan reaction.  Child actors often have trouble as they get older, but Lloyd really drew an intense amount of heat for the disappointing prequel.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Lloyd and his family, hoping for a speedy recover out of the public eye, since that appears to be how he and they like it.

Source: US Weekly