Kenny Baker at the United Kingdom premiere of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” in December, 2015; Fred Duval/FilmMagic (NEW YORK) – Actor Kenny Baker, best known for playing R2-D2 in six Star Wars movies, beginning with the 1977 original, has died at age 81 after a long illness, ABC News has confirmed.
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The 3-foot 8-inch (1.1 meter) performer – a word he preferred to actor – inside the waste-bin-shaped costume has died at 81.
Originally from Birmingham, Baker was told as a child he probably wouldn’t live past puberty – but his niece Abigail Shield told The Guardian he had a very long and fulfilled life.
“It was expected, but it’s sad nonetheless”, she said. He was very poorly for a long time. She noted to The Guardian newspaper that his nonspeaking role in the enormously successful Star Wars franchise “brought lots of happiness to people”. “We’re all very proud of what he achieved in his lifetime”. “He did extremely well in his life”. He was very ill for the last few years so we had been expecting it.
Baker’s nephew, Drew Myserscough, said he found him dead Saturday at his home in Preston in northwest England.
Kenny Baker, who was best known as the man inside R2-D2, succumbed to a lengthy illness at the age of 83.
As well as Star Wars, he starred in cult movies from the 1980s such as Time Bandits and Flash Gordon.
“It’s all in hindsight, but I should have done it for nothing.”
Hamill also modified a famous Star Wars line in tribute, tweeting: “He WAS the droid I was looking for!” He played R2-D2 beginning with 1977’s Star Wars: A New Hope, through 2005’s Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. In response to Baker’s death, Davis said that he “paved the way for short actors of a generation”.
[Image via Warwick Davis/Twitter] Twentieth Century Fox, Mark Hamill, Ewan McGregor, and more all expressed their sadness and sympathies over Baker’s death.
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Baker later worked as a DJ and circus clown, and as half a comedy-musical duo called the Mini-Tones.
