Harrison Ford acted then basically went into early retirement for a while as a carpenter. This brought him back to the biz'.

The article failed to mention that Lucas was very inspired by the Kurosawa film "The Hidden Fortress". Moreover, he originally wanted the lead from said film, a one Toshirô Mifune, to play Obi-Wan.

Watch them back to back some time. It's not fair to say he stole the whole film, but there are two bungling idiots, a tomboyish princess, and a reckless, fearless leader all trying to escape from the kingdom of their enemy and evade capture.