Over the years I’ve heard rumors that the Star Wars character, Yoda, was patterned after the LDS prophet, Spencer W Kimball. For those of you who are not familiar with Spencer Kimball, here is a picture of him:
Compare that picture with Yoda and you can see a slight resemblance (minus the green face!):
Recently, we took my niece, who is a huge Star Wars fan to the local Art Museum for a Star Wars Exhibit. I learned there that this myth was false and that Yoda was actually patterned after Einstein as shown in the picture I took at the exhibit:
So next time you hear that rumor floating around, now you know the true story!
Grace for Grace 
18 comments
Comments feed for this article
July 15, 2011 at 10:48 pm
jks
Hmmm, those of us who know Pres. Kimball think he seemed way more like Kimball than Einstein. Not only was it looks, but there was a kind, gentleness plus strength going on. And he was short. Especially when Kimball was really old the similarity was striking.
Head shape, facial features seem all wrong for Einstein.
LikeLike
July 20, 2011 at 7:27 am
ama49
Hi JKS,
I don’t know if that’s a compliment or not to be compared to looking like Yoda! : )…One thing is for sure…neither Kimball nor Einstein were green!
LikeLike
October 30, 2012 at 7:45 pm
Tyler Lazenby
HEY HEY HEY, just remember that “when 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not!”
LikeLike
July 19, 2011 at 9:11 am
Steve
This is another example of the Mormon tendency to think that everything is about them.
We are a rather small religion that most of the U.S. and world really doesn’t care much about. I doubt that anyone around Star Wars had the foggiest idea who the elderly LDS prophet was or what he looked like.
Even today, President Monson is virtually unknown outside LDS circles.
Unless one can prove that the person who crafted the character was LDS, which no one ever has, then this is in the category of an urban myth.
LikeLike
July 20, 2011 at 7:25 am
ama49
Hi Steve,
Exactly my point!
LikeLike
December 23, 2015 at 4:14 am
Maggie
But one of the producers(?) was LDS ………. and right at the very last scene of one of the movies when Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia were looking out the front window of the ship one of them said ‘As man is God once was, and as God is man will be’ ……… i saw it when it was on TV one saturday night, and people were talking about it the next day at church. They have since removed that ending from the movie.
LikeLike
May 10, 2012 at 1:49 pm
teotwawkisos
Wikipedia: “he battled recurring throat cancer. This led to one and a half vocal cords being removed in 1957; as a result, he was thereafter barely able to speak above a hoarse whisper.”: Yoda’s voice.
Kimball was prophet from ’73 through ’85, i.e. during the years in which the Star Wars characters were likely being formulated.
Though previous prophets are unknown outside LDS circles, it’s not too far-fetched to believe that a philosophically oriented person like Lukas knew something of the LDS church and of the prophet at the time. If Kimball was the charismatic, short, wise, friendly ‘Yoda’ to the world that so many sources suggest, the fact that he is otherwise an unknown figure (outside LDS) makes him an ideal inspiration.
There may never be ‘proof’, but ‘reading between the lines’, this hypothesis appears acceptable. Reading Wikipedia on Yoda, i found a reference to Kimball missing but reading Wiki on Kimball, all i found were MORE references that suggest the Yoda connection.
I’m not LDS (but was once).
LikeLike
May 10, 2012 at 1:55 pm
teotwawkisos
clue1: Kimball was prophet from ’73-’85, the very years Lucas was developing the characters for his movies;
clue2: Wikipedia on Kimball: “he battled recurring throat cancer. This led to one and a half vocal cords being removed in 1957; as a result, he was thereafter barely able to speak above a hoarse whisper.”, i.e. a clear reference to Yoda’s voice;
clue3: the fact that Kimball is not well-known outside LDS makes him a good source of inspiration. The fact that he was prophet of LDS, makes it plausible that he was known by a man like Lucas, a person clearly interested in spiritual and social developments;
the other clues: short, known to be wise, easy-going, old, and frail.
I’m not even LDS and i think it’s plausible. Wikipedia would probably not accept adding the reference but reading between the lines, it seems wholy acceptable.
LikeLike
May 10, 2012 at 5:09 pm
graceforgrace
Teotwawkisos,
I can see why you think that and why many people think Yoda is patterned after Kimball. I’m just saying that officially, no one claims it and Lucas hasn’t publicly stated that either, so theories are just hearsay
LikeLike
May 10, 2012 at 11:45 pm
teotwawkisos
In 1939 there was no PROOF that Hitler was going to murder 11,500,000 of his own people… yet thousands who read between the lines got the hell out of town!
What has been “publicly stated” or ‘proven’ isn’t necessarily superior to what data, logic, and common sense will get you. Actually, it’s usually quite inferior to it. No authority figure needs to verify for me what is staring me in the face.
LikeLike
May 11, 2012 at 5:01 pm
graceforgrace
I guess only George Lucas will truly know and until he makes some sort of statement on that we’ll never truly know.
LikeLike
May 29, 2012 at 11:06 am
karenwindness
I’m with Steve on this. Why fight about it? It’s not like it’s doctrine or anything. And it really rubs me the wrong way when Hitler comparisons are made. Not the same thing at all.
LikeLike
May 29, 2012 at 12:04 pm
graceforgrace
Karenwindness,
Amen to all you said!
LikeLike
May 29, 2012 at 2:24 pm
teotwawkisos
who’s fighting? And WW II just serves as a clear example of how relative demand for ‘proof’ are. I can’t speak for anyone else but as far as i’m concerned, it’s just a friendly harmless debate. No one was making more of it than that so far. Do i have to justify having an opinion and voicing it best as i can now? NOW it’s starting to sound like fighting…
LikeLike
December 22, 2015 at 12:35 pm
No, Yoda wasn’t based on Mormon prophet Spencer W. Kimball | Bloggernacle Blog | LDS Church, institutionally
[…] designer, Stuart Freeborn, never mentioned Kimball as an inspiration, but instead seems to have modeled the character after Albert […]
LikeLike
December 22, 2015 at 2:44 pm
How Mormons awoke to ‘Awakens’ in an out-of-this-galaxy way | Star Wars: The Force Awakens | What we know, what might be, what will be
[…] designer, Stuart Freeborn, never mentioned Kimball as an inspiration, but instead seems to have modeled the character after Albert […]
LikeLike
December 22, 2015 at 9:04 pm
How Mormons awoke to ‘Awakens’ in an out-of-this-galaxy way | Bloggernacle Blog | LDS Church, institutionally
[…] designer, Stuart Freeborn, never mentioned Kimball as an inspiration, but instead seems to have modeled the character after Albert […]
LikeLike
April 4, 2021 at 2:09 pm
Kember
Actually, George Lucas stated in an interview I saw on 60 Minutes back in the early 2000s that he had patterned Yoda after Spencer W. Kimball because he wanted to pattern him after a wise and prophetic man.
Sorry, but I know what I heard him say.
LikeLike