On Tuesday the 7th of March 1995, Kenny Baker, the innards of R2D2 in STAR WARS was our guest and took part in a question and answer session with the group.
He also starred in TIME BANDITS as one of a gang of inept time travelling plunderers. Kenny has been a guest once before in March, 1990, when we were last in the same venue (although it was called The Bodega then).
Kenny has had a long and interesting career in TV, theatre and films. In the sixties he was in a TV film called MAN OF THE WORLD and since then has worked with nearly all comedians. Some of these are; Dicky Henderson, Lesley Crowther, Ken Dodd (as a Diddyman), Little and Large, Russ Abbot, Ben Elton, Dick Emery and Dave Allen. He has also been on 3,2,1 and Opportunity Knocks. Kenny has even met Laurel and Hardy.
His film career really took off with STAR WARS but he had been in film prior to this, called CIRCUS OF HORRORS.
The first STAR WARS film was made in 1977 and they had some location work to do in the desert. They went to Tunisia, where the mornings are bitterly cold and the afternoons scorching hot. There were also fierce sandstorms which caused many problems. Luckily Kenny was better off than Antony Daniels who played C3-P0 (the golden one). It took an hour for Daniels to get into his suit and the heat was unbearable in all that plastic. Kenny, on the other hand had a seat in R2-D2 and was not in contact with the walls at all. He also had a nice breeze blowing in from the bottom, and the white surface seemed to reflect the heat.
All the shots of R2-D2 were not of the one with Kenny inside, some were radio controlled models, which sometimes went out of control. Seemingly the one that Kenny was in was not always perfect, as the bright Tunisian sun sometimes got in his eyes and caused his to go off in the wrong direction.
Kenny was also in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RETURN OF THE JEDI in the same role. One of these had location in Arizona which was little better than Tunisia by all accounts.
Kenny was also in THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980) as a `Plumed Dwarf' and FLASH GORDON (1980) as one of the army of dwarves. His next major work was in 1981 when he appeared in TIME BANDITS as Fidgit, one of a gang who were supposed to be helping the supreme being but ended up helping themselves to whatever treasure Time could offer them. This is an excellent film which bursts with inventiveness.
Kenny also had a part in AMADEUS which was released a year after RETURN OF THE JEDI. In 1986 he played the part of a busker (with Bill Moore) in MONA LISA, and was one of the goblins in LABYRINTH. In 1987 he played an Elf in a film version of SLEEPING BEAUTY.
He has been on the Royal Command Performance and in THE PARADISE CLUB (with dirty Den). He was also in the wonderful TV serialisation of THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, although like many of his parts he was in a costume and so can't easily be recognised.
However, comedy and drama are not the only strings to this man's bow, he has also appeared in commercials. He was in one for the South East Gas Board and one for BRITISH AIRWAYS won an award. This one involved two astronauts getting trapped on the moon and having to get British Airways to transport them home again.
His bread and butter work is in pantomime which he performs all over the world. The most usual pantomime he is asked to perform in? Snow White.