The Guardian is reporting that actor Kenny Baker has merged with The Infinite.
From a very young age, I was aware that there was a guy sitting in R2-D2 and driving him around, and like most everyone else, I suddenly got why the trashcan had so much personality. There was an actual person putting actual thought into what was going on with that bucket of bolts.
Baker appeared in a lot of genre film, and seemed to be game for re-appearing as R2 in both film and in TV specials.
By the time The Phantom Menace rolled around, the technology was there to let Baker drive R2 around via remote control, and that continuity between the movies and R2's was a highlight of the prequels for me. I mean, who doesn't like R2-D2?
We'll miss you, Mr. Baker. You gave all of us a robot buddy.
2 comments:
This is very sad news. I remember being blow away as a child when I saw this picture: http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c103/ThinWhiteDuke1/2592.jpg
Conceptually, I realized that C-3P0 was a guy in a gold metallic suit but had to be some sort of remote controlled contrivance. Once I saw that there was a real actor inside R2-D2 it explained how he seemed like such a fully formed character.
He will be missed.
I'm not that sad. The guy go to be R2-D2. I'm going to go through my whole life and die without ever getting to be R2-D2 in a Star Wars movie. Now THAT's sad.
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