His last credit was as a technical consultant on last yearsStar Wars: The Force Awakens.
London-based photographer Kevin Baker, one of Kennys sons, remembers his father in touching detail, below.
If that hadnt been his personality, the chance to play R2-D2 wouldnt have come along.
Credit: Used with permission of Kevin Baker
Why dont you come and meet him.
And he loved every second of it.
He really enjoyed that enormously.
Kevin Baker
And his comedy partner, Jack Purvis, is the Jawa who shoots R2 near the beginning ofStar Wars.
Still to this day, they cant really get the robot to move they way that Dad did.
Its tough to recreate the character in just the same way.
Kevin Baker
But Dad was always down-to-earth about everything.
At conventions he always had the longest line, only because he took so much time with each fan.
He took sometimes several minutes to sign an autograph with certain fans.
Kevin Baker
Everything was pretty hard for this girl.
And the one thing that got her through the horrible times was being able to watch R2-D2 inStar Wars.
That really resonated with Dad and touched him deeply.
He always hoped that would be his legacy.
I would just play in the forest.
I remember one time being inside Yodas house.
And I was in there one time and Yoda came to life.
It was actually Frank Oz, of course, underneath the floor.
And Yoda said to me, Been to school you have?
And I said, Yes, Yoda.
It was extremely surreal to be walking up the ramp and onto the Millennium Falcon.
My brother and I used to sit in the cockpit and pretend that we were flying it.
But every time we did this, the lighting guys had turned all the cockpit lights off.
So all the buttons were just kind of dead.
But I kept asking Harrison Ford, When can we turn it on?
And he kept saying, Another day, kid.
And then Harrison cued the lighting guys and they turned on all the buttons in the cockpit.
I also remember that I couldnt say the word Harrison because Id lost my two front teeth.
And Harrison said, Dont worry, kid.
Just call me Peaches.
I have no idea why.
