{"id":39103,"date":"2016-08-13T21:14:33","date_gmt":"2016-08-14T01:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=39103"},"modified":"2016-08-13T21:16:10","modified_gmt":"2016-08-14T01:16:10","slug":"kenny-baker-81","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2016\/08\/13\/kenny-baker-81\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenny Baker, 81"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kenny-Baker\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kenny Baker, the British actor who gave soul to the heroic ‘droid R2-D2 in the Star Wars<\/strong> films, was found dead this morning in his home in England. He had been reportedly battling a lung ailment for the last several years and died in his sleep. He was 81.<\/p>\n

Baker almost did not accept his most famous role, reportedly telling George Lucas that he didn’t want to be stuck inside the metallic shell of R2-D2. Eventually, the three-foot, eight-inch tall actor relented, but even then he was not sure that Star Wars<\/strong> (1977) would be hit. He certainly didn’t anticipate that he would be playing the character in a total of five more films in the science-fiction franchise.<\/p>\n

Born in Birmingham, England on August 24, 1934, Baker was started his career performing with Burton Lester’s Midgets at the age of 16. He also performed a nightclub double act with another British little person actor Jack Purvis.<\/p>\n

Although he was launched to fame with the Star Wars<\/strong> films, it was difficult for Baker to parlay that success into other substantive roles. Instead, he found himself in small roles in films like Flash Gordon<\/strong>, The Elephant Man<\/strong> (both 1980) and Labyrinth<\/strong> (1986). One film that did showcase the actor, along with several other little person actors, was Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits<\/strong>, in which Baker co-starred as one of the band of temporal-traveling thieves.<\/p>\n

\"kenny-baker-time-bandits\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The British actor brought a soul to the heroic ‘droid R2-D2 in the STAR WARS films.<\/div>\n

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