AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: THE MAGIC OF STUART FREEBORN'S YODA

With all the previous facial designs for the character by Joe Johnston and Ralph McQuarrie not quite working, the Yoda puppet was finally realized as an effective puppet for filming by Stuart Freeborn from August 1979, created under great time pressures (during Spring/Summer 1979) and enormous practical challenges, with round the clock help from his team. Though he used Albert Einstein’s eyes to denote a vast intelligence for the wise Jedi, the rest of the generally old but cheekily youthful face for the character was based on Stuart Freeborn own visage, with the final design of the ears also being another improvised stroke of genius. (An additionally planned moustache sadly didn’t look right on the design- Freeborn would compromise by giving Yoda a very subtle shaped moustache on his bottom lip, instead.) A small decorative flute would hang around Yoda’s neck in both Empire and Jedi, also created by Freeborn. 

At the workshop, Lucas, Kershner and Robert Watts watch Frank Oz manipulate a Yoda head.

Freeborn's face for Yoda would be unveiled before George Lucas left the UK and returned to the US (part of several on and off trips to see what was happening with the live-action filming). He and his team then built the first working Yoda for practical stage filming from a rough dummy then a screen test dummy that was often used for filming rehearsals. British technician Dave Barclay, then only nineteen years old, would join the team of people operating Yoda, also given the job of sculpting 6 different top lip appliances for Yoda, as the original foam latex face skin needed a longer top lip. He also expanded the foam latex head skins to bring the foam back to the original sculpt size. Young make-up intern Nick Dudman also becomes seriously involved in the development of Yoda, and is soon aware of the pressures to get the character ready in time for filming. He recalled to Star Wars Insider: “Stuart’s Yoda was literally down to the wire with myself, Stuart, Bob (Keen), and the team being up all night, frantically trying to get it together. Trouble being, we didn’t know what we were doing because nobody had ever done it before quite that way. It was a real race against time, and quite scary when we first took our finished work out to the set.” 

When a duplicate Yoda is required, Barclay continues to help out the team - Nick Maley, Graham Freeborn (Stuart's son) and Bob Keen being the key personnel involved in it - and was also drafted in as a puppeteer for Yoda's eyes when Wendy Midener-Froud became ill -  allergic to something on the Dagobah set, of whom a puppeteer replacement was needed for her. Dave stayed on as puppeteer for Yoda for the rest of its filming, and worked with Frank Oz, the chief puppeteer, Kathy Mullen (Yoda's right hand) and Wendy. For the last week of Yoda filming, as Principal Photography had gone over schedule, Frank Oz gave Dave the responsibility of being his replacement chief puppeteer for those remaining days of filming. Dave performed Yoda for many wide and vista vision shots, and parts of the training sequence (which involved a very basic remote control version for Yoda in Luke’s backpack, created by John Hatt) including where Luke is doing a handstand, with Yoda atop his feet. For the wide shots, Dave puppeteered the radio controlled Yoda, soon handling the hero hand puppet for the close up - "concentraaaate..!" sequence with Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker.

Talking to Star Wars Insider in 1999, Frank Oz’s singular reason why the character ultimately works so well is “because Mark believed in him and responded to him. If Mark didn't respond to him so well, then the audience wouldn't have.” Oz and Hamill are not the only ones to see how the magic of Yoda has begun during filming. Nick Dudman recalls the thrill of both working on Yoda and Empire as a movie to Star Wars Insider: “I think Yoda was the one I felt was magical, because it was the first time I went to rushes, and saw the dailies of something that I’d helped to do, however minimally, actually functioning on film. It’s something, of course, that nowadays is rare because with digital you don’t go to rushes and see this wonderful thing suddenly there. Back then, you shot the stuff and you went in the next day and you sat in the theatre and you watched it. You knew instantly whether it had worked or not. I do remember that feeling of, “It’s a character and it worked.” 

The original Yoda prop created by Stuart Freeborn would break down on numerous occasions (working better ultimately for its later brief use on Jedi than Empire), with a back-up which was built around the clock by Nick Maley rushed into effective action. A third version was used as a dummy stand-in prior to filming. A fourth version of Yoda, built in a very quick three days, included ears that were created by Nick Maley, with assistance from Bob Keen, was based on designs that were created for the first version by Wendy Midener. All of the heads for the Yoda puppets had to be specially moulded to take into effect the hand manipulation inside them by Frank Oz, as well as all the delicate pieces of the puppet that had to be put together- some parts literally soldered on and all containing state of the art servo/control/articulation mechanisms that were unique and specially built for the film. Stuart Freeborn supervised all the delicate work for the original first mask which the Windsor Hills foam latex was cast from. Yoda’s ears, hands and feet were all moulded separately. Graham Freeborn, Stuart’s son, would be involved in hair punching and art working the skin for the varying Yoda’s, making them look believable. 

Additional key workers on the puppet would include UK talents Ron Hone, Dennis Lowe, and Roger Nichols. 

Image: Nick Maley.

Here's a selection of behind the scenes images of Yoda's creation.

Young trainee Nick Dudman makes some adjustments to one of the Yoda heads.

Three shots of Dennis Lowe at work on the animatronics for one of the key Yoda puppets.

Nick Maley with the developing Yodas at Freeborn's Elstree workshop.

Ron Hone making some adjustments to the key Yoda puppet.

One of the key Yoda's in the Elstree workshop.

Irvin Kershner has fun in this great publicity image.

Frank Oz with the in development Yoda head created by Freeborn, which he would accidently drop at one point in the Elstree lab!