Kenneth Baker (24 August 1934 – 13 August 2016) was an English actor, comedian and musician. He portrayed the character R2-D2 in the Star Wars franchise and appeared in The Elephant Man, Time Bandits, Willow, Flash Gordon, Amadeus and Labyrinth. While working with Purvis and the Minitones, Baker was selected by George Lucas to operate the robot („droid“) R2-D2 in the fantasy feature film Star Wars, released in 1977. Baker recalled that he initially turned down the role, concerned about breaking up the Minitones partnership when the duo had reached the final on the British television talent show Opportunity Knocks. Baker appears as R2-D2 in six of the episodic theatrical Star Wars films, and played an additional role in 1983’s Return of the Jedi as Paploo, the ewok who steals an Imperial speeder bike. He was originally due to play the ewok named Wicket, but he fell ill and that role was handed over to Warwick Davis. We celebrate this remarkable little man with a lego figure of R2D2 – the character he played in Star Wars …