Good evening everyone and
welcome to The Magical Mystery Blog.
This is the year that will
probably go down in history as ‘the year when everyone amazing passed on’.
We’ve lost Alan Rickman, David Bowie, and now Kenny Baker aka R2D2 from “Star
Wars”. Kenny Baker died in his sleep on August 13th, 2016.
Baker was born in
Birmingham, England on August 24, 1934. Due to his size of 3 ft 8 inches, Kenny
Baker wasn’t expected to live past his puberty. His stature as a little person
gave way to respiratory problems which accrued during his life and caused him
to be in a wheelchair. Despite his height and illness, Baker became
immortalized as R2D2 when he took on the iconic role in 1977. But before Baker
stepped inside R2D2’s suit, he worked as a circus performer, a pantomime, and a
nightclub actor at the age of sixteen. He was a part of a musical duo called
the “Mini-Tones” with his friend, Jack Purvis, before he died in a car accident
and Baker started his film debut.
Despite his height and
health problems, Baker didn’t want to be treated differently and would inform
others of this. His wife, Eileen, saw him on the “Michael Parkinson TV Chat
Show” and wrote in, wanting to meet him because she too was a little person.
After their meeting, they married shortly after only for Eileen to die from
epilepsy in 1993. Not for one day did she treat him differently, not even when
they made a family together.
Baker has cemented a place
for himself in the hearts of many from fans to George Lucas and even his niece,
Abigail Shield. Baker likes to be known for other roles he has played such as
the Plumed Dwarf in “The Elephant Man”, Fidgit from “Time Bandits”, a part of
the Goblin Corps from “Labryinth”, and many other memorable roles. He even
starred as a jester in the music video for “Safety Dance” by the band, Men
Without Hats. Baker was living proof that big things (such as talent, kindness,
and professionalism) come in small packages.
Rest in peace, Kenny Baker
– you were the droid we were looking for.
Thank you for reading
tonight’s entry. If you enjoyed it, feel free to subscribe, share, comment, and
critique.
So tell me, what Kenny
Baker role did you most enjoy?
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