In Memory of David Prowse (1935-2020)

David Prowse (1935-2020)

To all millions of Star Wars fans, it is with sorrow that the former British bodybuilder/actor David Prowse, the man who embodies the iconic villain Darth Vader in the original "Star Wars" trilogy, passed away on 28th November 2020 after a short illness. He was 85 years old.

While James Earl Jones is known to have provided the voice of Vader, Prowse's imposing six-foot and six-inch physical stature suits him in playing the Sith Lord, formerly known as Anakin Skywalker.

He began as a bodybuilder and competed in the Commonwealth Games in Great Britain in 1962, for which he won the British heavyweight weightlifting championship. After doing competitive weightlifting for several years, Prowse got his first screen role (albeit uncredited) in the 1967 James Bond spoof "Casino Royale", where he played Frankenstein's Monster. David later reprised the role in two Hammer films in the early 1970s, "Horror of Frankenstein" and "Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell".

Prowse was the centre of attention for an up-and-coming filmmaker named George Lucas, who has seen him in his small role as a bodyguard in Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange". He asked David to audition as either the Wookie Chewbacca or Darth Vader in his original 1977 sci-fi movie "Star Wars". However, Prowse opted for the latter while the former went to Peter Mayhew, not knowing he would play a masked character. The voice for Vader was famously dubbed by the booming voice of American actor James Earl Jones when Prowse's West Country accent was deemed unsuitable.

He returns as Vader in "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi". He eventually shared the suit with British Olympic fencer Bob Anderson, who did much of the lightsaber duels when Prowse failed to do it convincingly. When British actor Sebastian Shaw portrayed the face of Anakin Skywalker at the end of "Return of the Jedi", Vader got unmasked. At one point in 1978, Prowse accidentally blurted out that Darth Vader was Luke's father, which, at that time, he claimed was a lucky guess and not yet revealed until "The Empire Strikes Back". It strained his relationship with George Lucas and his production company, Lucasfilm. Prowse was a regular at several fan conventions but got officially barred from many Star Wars conventions due to his earlier controversies until ill health forced him to retire from fan conventions in 2016.

Prowse also starred in movies like "Vampire Circus" and "The People That Time Forgot" and TV shows including "The Saint", "Doctor Who", "Space 1999", and "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". He also appeared in two Star Wars-related documentaries, "Elstree 1976" and "I Am Your Father". The latter of which details his relationship with working in Star Wars.

All I can say is, Dave, wherever you are, you created one of the most iconic movie villains in history, and you are now one with the Force.

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