Fans, actors, and the crew behind the Star Wars movies are in mourning today as it was revealed that Kenny Baker, the actor who played the iconic character R2-D2, has passed away at the age of 81.
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His original trilogy co-star Mark Hamill took to Twitter, where he called Baker “a lifelong loyal friend”, adding “he WAS the droid I was looking for!” In addition to the Star Wars films, Baker also appeared in Flash Gordon, The Elephant Man, Amadeus, Time Bandits and Labyrinth.
His niece, Abigail Shield paid tribute to him.
She went on to say that his life was long and fulfilled, and when he was a child, because he was a little person, he wasn’t even expected to live to reach puberty. “Feels like losing family.” he posted on Twitter.
Born in Birmingham in 1934, Baker was performing as part of a comedy double-act when he was spotted by George Lucas in 1976, who recruited him to play the plucky robot.
Mr. Baker’s agent, Johnny Mans, confirmed the death. Goodbye Mister Kenny Baker. In an interview on his website he described getting into the costume, saying: “I got into it and they put the lid on me like a boiled egg”. He had also starred in the three prequels that came out between 1999 and 2005, but didn’t appear in the latest Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, which came out in 2015.
According to Shield, Baker “had problems with his lungs and was often in a wheelchair”.
The cinematic community also made their heartfelt voices and statements heard in many tributes to Baker, mainly via social media. Though Baker did get to see George Lucas one last time when the creator of the “Star Wars” series visited Manchester, England, after the premiere. We’ll miss you, Kenny Baker. She noted to The Guardian newspaper that his nonspeaking role in the enormously successful Star Wars franchise “brought lots of happiness to people”. He was very poorly for a long time. He was very ill for the last few years so we had been expecting (his death).
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Shield added her uncle had been invited to the premiere of the latest film in Lucas’ franchise Star Wars: The Force Awakens in Los Angeles a year ago (15) but was too unwell to travel.
