Happy Birthday, Kenny Baker!

Don't recognize the name Kenny Baker? He's R2D2! Baker was inside the robot for all six Star Wars movies. In honor of his 78th birthday, mental_floss has ten facts you might not know about Baker, whose career has been much more than just the little droid. Link


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That was a fun read. Happy Birthday, Kenny Baker!

Kenny's interview at Metro is enlightening:

How did you get the part?
Me and my cabaret partner Jack Purvis were asked to audition and went to 20th Century Fox in Soho Square and walked into the room where George Lucas was sitting. He saw me come in and said 'He'll do' because I was the smallest guy they'd seen up until then. I'd also been in the business for 30 years before the film so I knew what happened on a film set. I turned it down three times because we were doing Opportunity Knocks at the time and I was hoping to get TV work and then take the act round the clubs. Once I'd done it though, and the film was released, it snowballed - when you're part of one of the most famous films of all time, you decide to stick with it. Jack was a bit jealous at first but I persuaded him to make the most of it - our act rode the crest of the Star Wars wave for a while.
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One time at Dragon Con I was pushing my way through a revolving door when Kenny Baker appeared on the other side of the glass, also pushing. I had been off in my own little world lost in thought (no doubt in a galaxy far, far away) so it was a little startling. It probably only lasted a few seconds, but for a few seconds we both had our hands up against the glass, like Kirk and Spock reenacting Spock's death scene in WRATH OF KHAN.
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