Kenny Baker, Who Played R2-D2, Has Died

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Kenny Baker was the 3’8″ man inside R2-D2 in the first six “Star Wars” movies. On Saturday, he died at the age of 81.

Kenny was a British actor back in the 70’s when George Lucas basically begged him to do “Star Wars” but he said he didn’t want to be stuck in a robot and didn’t know if he even considered it acting. But George told him he needed him because he both fit inside and was strong enough to do it.  It was tough to move while inside the costume so a kid couldn’t have done it.

He said he finally agreed to do it after fellow Brit Alec Guinness signed on.  Baker said, “I thought if Alec is in it, he knows more than I do about filming, that’s for sure.  It must be a decent film otherwise he wouldn’t be in it.”

There’s no word on a cause of death, but his family says he’d been struggling with health issues for the past few years.  They didn’t say what he was suffering from..  He was just two weeks short of his 82nd birthday.

Read More –> BBC