Bingowings said:

Yeah but they would remember most of the Star Wars characters by name and by some vague notion of what they did (unlike the PT characters because they aren't anywhere near as clearly defined other than Jar-Jar).

I must have misunderstood this line of your text:

And if we're counting characters that didn't start in movies, Yoda would probably be pushed off the list.

That part of my text was exactly what I said. Mickey Mouse has been in movies. Superman has been in movies. Batman has been in movies. Donald Duck has been in movies. Spider-Man, Daffy Duck, Merlin, Sherlock Holmes etc..