C-3PO (left) and R2D2 from the Star Wars films: Farewell

London, Sept. 12 (Reuters): Bidding goodbye to the gold robot after almost 30 years, Anthony Daniels shed a nostalgic tear for the mechanical manservant who changed his life.

?Oh yes, it was with moisture. This was very much a fond farewell,? Daniels said of his last scene as C-3PO, the android who became an icon in the Star Wars movies.

His last scene in the sixth and final film was hardly the heady stuff of magic for Daniels. Digital effects saw to that. ?I finished filming on the last film last week. For the final shot I walked along a blue corridor with a blue background behind me talking to someone who wasn?t there.? he said.

Revenge of the Sith is due out next May and completes a trilogy of pre-quels, which tell the back story of the original movie about a battle between good and evil in a distant galaxy.

Daniels makes no secret about his favourite of the six.

?The first film spoke to everyone on the planet. It still works as a funny, bright movie. It still has legs,? he said of the films by US director George Lucas. When Lucas returned to the pre-quels, Daniels was not so sure.

?George?s devotion to digital effects over-balanced the films. Too many digital funky characters become a little bit wearing. The storytelling always gets subsumed.?

For the 58-year-old Daniels, playing a fastidious robot who sounds like a prissy English butler transformed his career.

?He (C-3PO) gave me that lead into a strange kind of immortality. People are very fond of him. His image has haunted me around the planet,? he said.

Critics may have admired his on-screen chemistry with fellow robot R2-D2 but Daniels said: ?I was talking to myself all the time. It was a very lonely experience. I was locked inside a box and had a friend who didn?t speak to me.?