One of Your Favorite ‘Star Wars’ Characters Lived in Montana Briefly

We're currently doing a "Star Wars"-rewatch-a-thon in our house leading up to Star Wars Day this Saturday and while in the middle of the "Empire Strikes Back," I stumbled on an interesting piece of trivia I'd never seen before.

One of the most iconic characters from "Star Wars" briefly lived in Montana.

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It's not Harrison Ford because even though he's talked about (sworn about?) working in Montana, he lives on a ranch in Wyoming. It's actually more of a character.

While I was watching "Empire Strikes Back" I couldn't remember who had voiced Yoda. It's such an iconic role, not just because of the way the voice sounds but also the syntax. I pulled up IMDB and saw it was Frank Oz and had that "Oh, yeah," moment and then tried to remember what other iconic roles he was responsible for, so I tapped on his profile.

That's when I saw in his bio that he briefly lived in Montana.

It turns out, thanks to an exclusive interview in IGN in 2021, Frank Oz was born in England but when he was young his dad wanted to come to the United States.

"At that time you had to have six months residence supported by a sponsor in the United States," Oz said in the interview, "He finally found a sponsor in Montana, bizarrely enough, so in 1951 he took my brother and I and my mom, who I think was pregnant with my sister, from Belgium to Montana."

Eventually, his family moved to California, but you could say, thanks to someone in Montana helping Oz and his family come to America, we all benefited from Oz's talents, from voicing Yoda to the iconic characters in "The Muppet Show" and "Sesame Street."