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Dave Prowse, the British actor who gave the imposing physical presence – but not the voice – to Darth Vader in the original ‘Star Wars’ trilogy, died in a London hospital on Saturday. He was 85 years old.
Mr Prowse’s death was confirmed by Thomas Bowington, his agent. Mr Prowse’s family have not disclosed a cause of death, but he retired in 2016 due to health issues, Mr Bowington said.
Standing 6ft 6in and with a physique perfected by years of weightlifting (he was once the UK heavyweight champion), Mr. Prowse had the perfect presence for the role of Darth Vader, which he played in ‘Star Wars ”in 1977, in“ The Empire Strikes Back ”in 1980 and in“ Return of the Jedi ”in 1983.
He was spotted for the role by George Lucas, the creator of the franchise, who saw Mr. Prowse play a bodyguard in Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange”.
Mr. Lucas actually offered Mr. Prowse a choice of roles for the original “Star Wars”: Chewbacca, the gentle furry giant and a hero of the franchise; or Darth Vader, the arch villain. Mr Prowse told the BBC in an interview in 2013 that the choice was easy. “I said, ‘Well don’t say anything more, George, I’ll be the bad guy,’” Mr. Prowse recalls. “You still remember the bad guy.”
There was another reason why he had refused Chewbacca, he added: “I thought, ‘Oh my god no, three months in gorilla skin, no thanks a lot.’ ‘
Mr Prowse’s voice had the distinctive agricultural tones of someone born in Bristol, South West England, and many believe this is the reason he failed to voice Darth Vader . Instead, his lines were added by James Earl Jones after filming was finished.
In the BBC interview, Mr Prowse said it wasn’t actually his accent that drove the change. Wearing Darth Vader’s mask made his lines muffled during filming, he said, and Mr. Lucas didn’t have time to send him to America to overlay the lines afterwards.
Mr. Prowse only learned that his voice was missing from the film when it premiered. “I’m watching the movie and all of a sudden this strange voice is heard,” he told the BBC in the 2013 interview. “I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this isn’t ‘not me.’ ”But he said Mr. Jones had been“ a great fit ”for the role and the couple became friends.
But some said change was inevitable because of her accent. “They always knew they weren’t going to use that voice,” said Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia in the movies, in a 2016 BBC interview. “We called him Dark Farmer.”
Mr. Prowse’s face and voice could have finally made an appearance in the franchise in “Return of the Jedi” when Luke Skywalker (played by Mark Hamill) removes Darth Vader’s mask so the duo can look at each other. But Mr. Lucas instead decided to use actor Sebastian Shaw to play the character at that time.
In some fight scenes, Darth Vader was also played by Bob Anderson, a swordsman and stunt double.
Regardless of the changes, Mr. Prowse has always been a fan favorite of “Star Wars” and has spent much of his life thereafter attending conventions and handling fan mail – some of the salacious nature of the game. share of women who found his costume sexy, he said. Jackie Collins in a 1980 interview.
David Charles Prowse was born in Bristol, England on July 1, 1935. His first passion was not theater but bodybuilding and he won the British Heavyweight Championship in weightlifting in the 1960s. entered the theater, his first roles were mainly monsters in horror films.
In Britain, he became better known when he got the role of Green Cross Code Man, a superhero who promoted road safety. He appeared as a character in a government television campaign and also visited schools to encourage children to stop, watch and listen before crossing the street.
The British government almost fired him from this role after the release of “Star Wars,” Mr Prowse told Ms Collins in the 1980 interview, as they believed the image of Darth Vader might conflict with a road safety campaign.
This campaign lasted until 1990, and Mr Prowse wrote in a 2014 article for The Guardian that it was “the best job I have ever had, including my role in Star Wars, and by far my greater pride. But even in Britain, Mr. Prowse will probably be remembered more for being the man behind the costume in “Star Wars” than anything else.
He is survived by his wife, Norma Scammell, and three children, Mr Bowington said.
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