A Jedi Master and a stormtrooper

Quote of today

"When nine hundred years old *you* reach, look as good *you* will not, hmm?"

Yoda explain his old face to Luke
The Empire Strikes Back

Today we celebrate...
Frank Oz at his 67th birthday (born 1944)
Colin Michael Kitchens at his 64rd birthday (born 1947)

Frank Oz was born in England, UK and played Yoda. He is a Master Puppeteer and gives Yoda a voice and movement. Frank Oz' birth name is Richard Frank Oznowicz. Read about the Composite Identity of a Jedi Master in A Phantom Menace.

Colin Michael Kitchens was born in California, USA and was an assistant film editor in A New Hope. He also did the voice for a stormtrooper ("Look sir, droids").


Yoda is the small and green ancient Jedi Master. Yoda had trained Padawans for eight centuries and is very powerful in the Force.
In The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and A Phantom Menace is Yoda a puppet. But for Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith he is entirely computer-generated. The ILM animators took great efforts to not outdo Frank Oz's puppeteering skills, so they actually toned down the biological realism in their animation. Rather than have true, realistic lip sync and eye blinks, Yoda would instead have more of a "jaw sync" and slower blinks and other imperfections.

Stormtrooper is the military soldiers loyal to the Emperor.

Today...
year 1977 was the premiere of Star Wars (A New Hope) in USA
year 1983 was the premiere of Return of the Jedi in USA

Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope is the first episode released in the Star Wars saga. It had premiere in USA and the next to see it was Philippines August 23. Sweden had to wait until December 16 the same year.

Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi is the last episode in the Star Wars saga. It had premiere in USA and the next to see it was United Kingdom June 2. Sweden had to wait until September 30 the same year.