He spent his early years under canvas roofs, learning that if he could make people laugh, they might forget to pity him. That instinct—to connect before they could judge—followed him into the metal shell of R2‑D2. No one saw his face, but every tilt, jolt, and impatient shake came from him. He turned a cramped costume into a living soul, proving that visibility and recognition are not the same thing.

At home, he and Yvonne faced the quiet terror of genetics and statistics, choosing hope anyway. Their average‑height children arrived like small miracles, rewriting every warning. When Yvonne died, he refused to cast her memory aside with a new partner, choosing devotion over comfort. By the time he passed in 2016, the world still didn’t truly know Kenny Baker—yet every joyful chirp and stubborn spin of that little droid still carries the full height of his unseen life.