Kenneth George Baker (born August 24, 1934) is a British dwarf actor and occasional musician, best known as the man inside R2-D2 in the popular Star Wars film series.

Baker, who stands 3 feet, 8 inches (112 cm) tall, was a circus and cabaret performer with entertainer Jack Purvis when George Lucas hired him to be the man inside R2-D2 in Star Wars in 1977.

Baker appears in five of the six Star Wars films; though credited on Episode III, he never filmed any scenes. George Lucas decided to credit him in the film out of loyalty. Baker played an additional role in 1983's Return of the Jedi as Paploo, the Ewok who steals an Imperial speeder bike. He was originally going to play Wicket W. Warrick, but he fell ill, and that role was handed over to Warwick Davis.

Baker's other films include The Elephant Man, Time Bandits (also with Purvis), Amadeus and Jim Henson's Labyrinth. On television, he appeared in the British medical drama Casualty.

In the late 1990s, Baker launched a short stand up comedy career. Baker played harmonica with the James Coutts Scottish Dance Band at Hugh McCaig's Silverstone Party in July 1997. Baker currently resides in Preston, England. While both he and his late wife have dwarfism, their two sons do not.

Kenneth Laurence "Kenny" Baker (September 30, 1912 – August 10, 1985) was an American singer/actor who first gained notice as the featured singer on Jack Benny's radio shows during the 1930s.

At the height of his radio fame, and after leaving the Benny show in 1939 (succeeded by Dennis Day, whose lilting tenor was similar to Baker's), he appeared in seventeen film musicals (At the Circus, The Harvey Girls) and later co-starred with Mary Martin in the original Broadway production of Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash's One Touch of Venus. He returned to radio as a regular performer on Fred Allen's Texaco Star Theater program of 1940-1942. Baker also recorded a number of hymn albums for his church. After retiring from performing in the early 1950s, he became a Christian Science practitioner and motivational speaker.

He died of a heart attack in Solvang, California.

Kenny Baker (born June 26, 1926), is an American fiddle player best known for his 25 year tenure with Bill Monroe and his group The Bluegrass Boys. He was born in Kentucky and learned the fiddle by accompanying his father, also a fiddler. After working in the coal mines of Kentucky, Kenny served in the U.S. Navy before pursuing a musical career fulltime.

Kenny Baker served more years in Monroe's band than any other musician and was selected by Monroe to record the fiddle tunes passed down from Pen Vandiver, Bill Monroe's legendary "Uncle Pen." After leaving the Bluegrass Boys in the 1980s, Baker teamed with Josh Graves who had played dobro for Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs as a Foggy Mountain Boy. Baker teamed with Graves until Graves' death in 2006. Baker continues to record studio sessions and tour bluegrass festivals.

Baker is considered to be one of the most influential fiddlers in bluegrass music. His "long-bow" style added a smoothness and clarity to the fiddle based music of his boss, Grand Ole Opry member Bill Monroe. His long tenure with Bill Monroe included banjo player Bill Keith's development of the "melodic" method of banjo playing that included note for note representations of fiddle tunes on the banjo.

He was named to the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1999. He recorded many albums for various record labels, including County Records, Jasmine, Rounder Records and most recently OMS Records. His most recent recordings include "Cotton Baggin' 2000" and "Spider Bit the Baby" on OMS Records. It was often mentioned that Kenny Baker's records were more popular at Bill Monroe concerts than the band's own releases. There were, and remain, hordes of Kenny Baker students of the bluegrass fiddle.

Kenny Baker was born on 1 March, 1921 in Withernsea, East Riding of Yorkshire and died 7 December, 1999. He was an accomplished jazz trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn player and composer.

Baker joined a brass band and by the age of 17 and had already become a professional musician. After leaving his home town of Withernsea, in Yorkshire's East Riding, for London, he met and began performing with the already well-known jazz musician George Chisholm. While serving in the RAF during World War II, Baker was called up to do forces programmes.

Baker was first heard on record in a British public jam session in 1941 and quickly established a strong reputation in London clubs. He was brass band trained and had faultless technical command. The young Baker was lead trumpeter with Ted Heath's post war orchestra with such tours de force as 'Bakerloo Non-Stop' recorded for the Decca record label in 1946 and still well remembered with a tenor saxophone solo from Johnny Gray, the piece becomes an exciting feature for both Baker and drummer Jack Parnell. In the 1950s Kenny led his own group called Baker's Dozen for which he played lead and solos and wrote the library. With this group he performed on the first regular jazz show on British radio, the BBC Light Programme series 'Let's Settle For Music'.

By the 1950s he was regularly performing in studios but his numerous jazz recordings (with a quartet for Parlophone with groups of all kinds for Nixa and others) are considered world-class, a confident replay of Bunny Berigan without the errors and range to spare. So good was Baker that when the Musicians' Union were trying to justify their ban on American players working in Britain, they were able to ask, "While we have Kenny Baker who needs Louis?". (Quote from BBC News). In the 1960s and 1970s he was still on call for film and studio work. He often appeared on BBC radio's 'Sounds of Jazz' programme introduced by Peter Clayton in the 1970s with recordings made at the Maida Vale studios in London and broadcast late on Sunday evenings.

A famous appearance on soundtrack for Baker was a long hot trumpet solo mimed by Kay Kendall in the famous 1954 film called 'Genevieve'. He regularly emerged to play at jazz clubs often with co-trumpeter John McLevey. Baker's skills brought him wider prominence, starting in 1955 when he appeared at Blackpool with the up-and-coming comic pair of Morecambe and Wise. He also went on to share top billings with other big comedy variety acts of the day, such as Tommy Trinder, Benny Hill and Ken Dodd. Appearing on the BBC's Big Band Special in 1962, leading British jazzman John Dankworth said, "Everybody regarded him on a different level to any other trumpeter in the British Isles. He was a world class performer." (Quoted from BBC News)

He formed the 'Best of British Jazz' which was a show with Don Lusher and Betty Smith. This group toured regularly in 1976 and after the death of Harry James in 1983, he was asked by the James Foundation to take over their orchestra. A small 'fighting cock' of a man (he once elbowed Benny Goodman out of the way for persistently mis-judging the tempo of a Baker feature on British concerts) he was a world-class lead trumpeter, solo performer and improviser.

His career saw him play with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Junior and Tony Bennett. He also performed on James Bond soundtracks and with The Beatles. In addition to this, he was also heard on hundreds of TV programmes including The Muppet Show, through his involvement with the Jack Parnell Orchestra, which played for the now-defunct ATV company.

In the 1980s he provided the music for the Beiderbecke trilogy, starring James Bolam.

His famous group, 'Baker's Dozen' reformed in 1993 for four sell-out nights at Ronnie Scott's in Birmingham.

He was presented with the best trumpet player title for the third time at the BT British jazz awards in 1999. He was also awarded the MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 1999.

He died in a hospital close to his home at Felpham, West Sussex at the age of 78 after suffering from a viral infection for more than three weeks. He is survived by his third wife Sue and daughter Julie. People have said of Baker that 'He was to jazz what the Rolling Stones are to rock music'. (Quote from BBC News).

Jim Simpson, head of Big Bear Music Agency, which handled Baker's career, said, "It's not just the passing of good man and a wonderful musician, it's the end of an era musically." (Quote obtained from BBC News 9 December 1999).