Kenny Baker

I plan, you know, firecrackers and like making them all scorched up.

And his name was Skippy, the clone that would always, you know, get into, uh, Kenny from South park sort of situations.

Yeah.

Oh my God.

Some of the other droids didn't need one.

But R2 needs one.

They have some weird, like Kenny Baker put his legs in these little gray tubes down here.

Anyway, not what we're talking about.

Wicket.

Originally, Wicket was going to be played by R2-D2 actor Kenny Baker.

Mm.

But he was sick on the day that shooting was to begin, so 11-

Davis.

Kenny Baker was famously R2-D2, and he also portrayed one of the Ewoks.

There were several other actors as well, but not just Star Wars.

I mean, he continued that with Willow, where Warwick Davis stars in the title role.

It's-

You didn't know this, but Kenny Baker was bilingual

... [speaks German] [metal clangs]

Oh, that explains it.

Yeah

... and footholds for Kenny Baker.

Yeah.

Oh.

Again, no similarities here to current events.

Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker has C-3PO and R2-D2, two droids who always fall into adventure.

C-3PO was built by Anakin Skywalker.

You didn't see that coming, did you?

May 25, 1977's one and only Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope.

Counts of Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, the late Carrie Fisher, who along with Ford and Hamill hyper-jumped to stardom after its release, the late Peter Cushing, the late Alec Guinness, Anthony Daniels, the late Peter Mayhew, the late James Earl Jones, and the late Kenny Baker.

It's so iconic, I really don't need to give it a plot recap.

It won 775 million lightsaber battles, 461 of them from the States, and $314 million dollars.

Let's run through the cast.

We have Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia Organa, Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, David Prowse as Darth Vader, James Earl Jones as the voice of Darth Vader, Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca, Kenny Baker as R2-D2, Frank Oz as Yoda, both puppeteering and voice, and Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The Empire Strikes Back has a screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, story by George Lucas, and was directed by Irvin Kershner.

Star Wars, you might have heard of it.

When independent producer David O. Selznick found himself running short of funds to complete Gone with the Wind, he appealed directly to Bank of America founder A.P. Giannini for a loan, which he received.

The fact that Lucas turned to them for financing was not out of the ordinary.

When it came to casting, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker all reprised their roles from Star Wars.

Hamill spent four months bodybuilding and learning karate, fencing, and kendo to prepare for the role and the extensive stunts he would perform mostly himself.

And so... by this point we had become friends with jim and jesse and the osborne brothers boat and i think it was jim jesse said got bill back there he said listen this boy played these tunes and um so i mean it was it was so startling at the time the hearing those tunes you know it just blew people away and um seasoned people, people who had been around.

And so Bill Monroe and Kenny Baker were in the back of the

room

just listening and observing and then later on Kenny came back and said to Keith, he said, well if you want a job with Bill Monroe you can have it.

Well, we were broken down.

I rejoined them in the spring for another try, and we were broken down somewhere near Roanoke, and we spent that night in a garage with the Bluegrass Express.

And And Kenny Baker was with them.

And they were just, they liked to sit up and talk all night.