Coronavirus: Star Wars actor Andrew Jack dies as wife isolated in Queensland

Gabrielle Rogers said she could not be with Andrew Jack in his final moments because she was in quarantine in Queensland.

Andrew Jack and Gabrielle Rogers on their wedding day at Tamborine Mountain, Queensland, in January last year.

The wife of Star Wars actor Andrew Jack was prevented from flying to her husband before he died from coronavirus on Tuesday because of strict international border closures.

Gabrielle Rogers said she could not be with her husband in his final moments because she was in quarantine at her home in Queensland after flying back from New Zealand last week.

“Anybody who knew him would tell you that he did not look or feel his age and for him to be taken down so quickly was such a shock to all of us,” Ms Rogers said.

“In terms of a funeral we are not even there yet, we are still processing and starting to make initial inquiries. But there is every reason to suspect that I won’t be able to be there.”

We lost a man today. Andrew Jack was diagnosed with Coronavirus 2 days ago. He was in no pain, and he slipped away peacefully knowing that his family were all 'with' him.

Take care out there, lovers x@RealHughJackman @chrishemsworth @RobertDowneyJr pic.twitter.com/fm5LevA8n2

— Gabrielle Rogers (@GabrielleRoger1) March 31, 2020

Ms Rogers said the actor, who was 76 and most recently known for his work on Star Wars: The Last Jedi as General Ematt, rapidly deteriorated after their “date night” last Thursday.

“By the weekend it became quite apparent to me that he really wasn’t well and I became quite frantic and I insisted he call an ambulance,” she said.

“Because voice is our world I could hear that he was running out of breath at the end of every three to four words, and I just said that’s not him. There is something very wrong.”

Jack was working as dialect coach on the new Batman film in London when production was stopped in March to halt the spread of coronavirus.

Ms Rogers, who is also a dialect coach, said her husband was self-isolating on his houseboat on the River Thames from March 14 and only went out twice to buy groceries in that time.

She said how Jack contracted the virus is a “complete unknown”.

“Maybe he got it before work finished and it was stewing in his system for a couple of weeks,” she said.

“He was in an induced coma by the time they confirmed he had coronavirus and that was on Monday.”

Jack was admitted to St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey outside London on Sunday and was immediately tested for coronavirus.

“The doctor said to me, ‘We won’t get the results from the coronavirus test back for 12 hours but looking at his X-Ray we are confident that it is probably coronavirus’,” Ms Rogers said.

Ms Rogers said she was not “entitled” and holds no contempt towards border closures that meant she could not leave her apartment and be with Jack before he died.

“I have no criticism of the way any country is handling it (coronavirus) and Andrew played by the rules in the UK,” she said.

“I am certainly not frustrated or angry, it’s just the way that it is.”

Ms Rogers said the last time she spoke her husband was on Sunday.

“He used his phone to FaceTime me from accident and emergency at the hospital,” she said.

“He had an oxygen mask on and we talked and I told him how much I loved him.”

Jack and Ms Rogers were together for five years and married at Tamborine Mountain, Queensland, in January last year. Their relationship was defined by “artistic temperament”.

“It was passionate, intense. We met through work and we are very similar,” she said.

“We were very much in love and I miss him very much.”