David “Dave” Prowse, the former weightlifter and towering figure who was best known for playing Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, has died. Per the New York Times, the actor’s agent, Thomas Bowington, confirmed that he died on Saturday in a London hospital, but did not confirm the cause of death. He was 85 years old.
Standing at 6-foot-6, Prowse was known as a gentle giant within the film and fitness industries. As a British heavyweight weightlifting champion, Prowse parlayed his unforgettable stature into a career in character acting. An uncredited role in Casino Royale marked the start of his impact in a number of immovable works in both TV and film, including the Frankenstein series, Doctor Who, and A Clockwork Orange. In fact, it has his role as a guard in the Stanley Kubrick classic that garnered the attention of George Lucas and would lead to the biggest role of his career.
When Lucas approached Prowse about appearing in Star Wars, the fitness champ was actually given a choice of roles to play between Darth Vader and Chewbacca. For Prowse, the choice was simple. “I said, ‘Well, don’t say any more, George, I’ll have the villain’s part,’” Mr. Prowse recalled in a 2013 interview with BBC. “You always remember the bad guy.” Additionally, the famously furry Chewbacca costume left a lot to be desired: “I thought, ‘Oh, God no, three months in a gorilla skin, no thank you very much.’” Little did he know that his commanding figure paired with the vocal talents of James Earl Jones would culminate in one of the most resonant villains in cinematic history.
Outside of Star Wars, Prowse’s thumbprint can be found in classic movies like 1978's Superman and The Princess Bride, as he trained both Chris Reeves and Cary Elwes for their roles, respectively. In Britain, he was a fitness consultant for the department store Harrod’s and became a local superhero in the form of Green Cross Code Man, a benevolent figure who promoted road safety. Participating in government PSA campaigns and school tours throughout the country, Prowse gained so much local notoriety in his role as a safety advocate that the British government was concerned that his role as Darth Vader would serve as a major conflict—so much so that he was almost fired from the Green Cross Code Man role because of it. “When I became Darth Vader, I almost got the sack from the government because they thought that my image as Darth Vader would have a detrimental affect on my image as the Green Cross Code Man,” Prowse shared in a 1980 interview with Jackie Collins. He then joked, “but in fact, the reverse has been the case.”
Throughout much of his life, Prowse lived with chronic arthritis and endured a number of surgical procedures because of it. His experience contributed to his advocacy work with multiple arthritis and disability organizations in Britain, including Physically Handicapped and Able-bodied Association, where he became vice president. He was also diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2009, for which he underwent radiation therapy. The actor and advocate retired in 2016 for unspecified health reasons. His last onscreen appearance was in Welsh musician Jayce Lewis’ sci-fi music video “Shields.” Prowse is survived by his wife, Norma Scammell, and three children
54 Comments
Hell yeah.
Yeah. It’s all very nice becoming a good guy. After you’re dead, like so many retired conservative politicians, squaring their shit with … God? Hmmm …
It’s not a bad idea on paper, albeit it’s one that has been made awkward post-prequels with Lucas suggesting this wipes the slate for slaughtering an entire village, straight up murdering children, and using your chosen one powers to strangle your pregnant wife.
There’s making bad decisions and then there’s Jedi Homelander.
dad
People who think that Vader was just a vocal performance are nuts. Prowse brought real physicality and a terrifying aura to the character. Every time he so much as tilted his head, or wordlessly strode into a room, he absolutely owned the space. He could have been an awkward mess but Prowse rocked every moment he was in that suit.
Yeah but that voice just undercut all of the physical presence that Prowse provided. Carrie Fisher famously called him “Darth Farmer” on the set of the first movie.
Yeah but it’s not like James Earl Jones could have pulled off the other half of that performance. They were two perfectly balanced elements.
It actually sounds a lot like Dark Helmet, which I’m pretty sure wasn’t deliberate but just makes that movie even funnier.
Rick Moranis brought a lot of intensity to his doll reenactment.
You’re not wrong, a great example is the way he looks back and forth between Luke and the Emperor at the end of Return of the Jedi and it’s clear he’s weighing up a decision (as far as I’m concerned, he does so silently – it works better that way and adding Darth Vader shouting NO! repeatedly was obviously a terrible idea at the outset).Additional shoutout to Bob Anderson who was brought in to play Darth Vader for the lightsaber battles in the second and third films of the original trilogy as he was a master swordsman. That’s not to say the fight between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi was lacking. I don’t take the view it had to be flashy as I figured they were beyond all that posturing given their long history. I think of it as being a more cerebral fight than that.
Lucas adding “NOOOO” to that scene was straight-up trolling and I will not ever be convinced otherwise.
He acts without using his voice or showing his face. He can convey menace by curling his fist or turning his head. It’s an amazing performance.
Question: Why did they choose Sebastian Shaw as the “face” of Anakin Skywalker (he was 78 at the time!) and not David Prowse (who was 48)? Prowse earned that kind of recognition for how vital his contributions were to the character. And Prowse’s age would have fit much better in the time line (Anakin was supposedly 47 when he died). Was it ever considered? Why was it nixed?
I fully agree. Using JEJ’s voice for Vader was the right call, but no reason they couldn’t give Prowse his moment in the sun.
Lucas wanted an anonymous face for Vader and Sebastian Shaw barely knew what Star War was. He also may have resented Prowse’s boasting of his importance in the part when other men had worn the costume.
Lucas was really pissed at Prowse by the time that movie rolled around. It’s been said that more than a few of Vader’s RotJ bits were actually played by Prowse’s stunt double.
My guess is to show the extreme degradation to his body from having lived in essentially a life support system for most of his life. After seeing him as this imposing and terrifying presence throughout the movies, it makes his reveal all the more pitiful. Exaggeration are part and parcel for theatrics.
You could still do that with prosthetics & makeup
Yeah but I wouldn’t have expected him to be so fleshy. He might be severely, prematurely aged but not slightly overweight.
Lucas and Prowse didn’t like each other. IIRC Prowse wasn’t shy about being upset that James Earl Jones overdubbed his part, and Lucas suspected that Prowse was the source of on-set leaks to the media, which was part of the reason he wasn’t told that Vader was Luke’s father (he was given a different line to read during the scene with the same number of syllables so that Jones could dub in the real line later). So it’s no surprise that Lucas didn’t want to entrust that scene to Prowse, since he didn’t like his voice or line readings, and thought he might blab to the press.
According to Mark Hamill, no-one knew – not even the rest of the cast. He said that Harrison Ford didn’t even know until he saw the finished film (and had a few words to say to him about that!).This seems to confirm it – and that David Prowse happened to guess it quite by chance years before it happened (they might not have even decided upon it yet!). https://www.cbr.com/star-wars-david-prowse-darth-vader-luke-father-spoiler/
The odds are better than not it hadn’t been decided by then.
Even the first drafts for Empire featured Anakin as a separate character (at the time Bracket was writing those, Lucas was still describing Vader as a throwaway villain.)
He’s hardly featured on the Lucasfilm site. At least, he’s not mentioned on the homepage.
I don’t know if it’s changed since I last looked into it but another person who’s barely mentioned in the history of Star Wars is George Lucas’s then wife Marcia Lucas and she was one of the three people who won an Academy Award for editing the first Star Wars movie.
fd.noneinc.com/secrethistoryofstarwarscom/secrethistoryofstarwars.com/marcialucas.html
The older I get, the more I find myself of two minds about George Lucas.
I still enjoy SW, and there’s aspects of his younger, scrappier self and his general sense of wonder that I find endearing.
At the same time, it’s hard not to look at the stories of people like Marcia and David and not feel like he screwed them over, often due to personal grudges.
As a kid, and for years afterwards I’d thought that was what they’d actually done, and thought it was a pretty classy move.
I do not know if Lucas thought this far ahead, but young Anakin was not 6 feet 6; that was added later through his artificial legs, etc. Maskless lying on the deck Vader and the original version of Luke’s Force vision Anakin should be the height of Hayden Christensen, and of course was revamped later to be Hayden Christensen.
Surprised no one has said it but despite what Lucas has claimed it’s clear he had, at best, some notes about the timeline of the series. He was winging a lot of this shit and probably just like how Shaw looked
He was well known for standing behind young people being scolded by older men. He will be missed.
… and now I’ve gone down a Green Cross Code rabbit hole. These come from the days when Great Britain had Darth Vader, robots, and the Doctor, but before they discovered crosswalk technology.
There’s a great youtube video (which I can’t find at the moment) that is just John Pertwee saying “Splink!” out of context that is just surreal.
Strong Austin Powers vibe from Prowse in that Clockwork Orange frame
Oh, we’re just getting started. Later in the film, his mojo is in full effect. Since A Clockwork Orange was filmed in 1970-71, it’s a sure bet that Kubrick had seen Powers before he went into cryogenic stasis in 1967 and wanted Prowse to recreate that raw sexuality.
I can’t believe I missed this, but Powers and Prowse have the same letters! It’s a conspiracy! Or a synchronicity! Or mojo!
Holy cow I didn’t notice this either. Now I’m seriously wondering if Mike Meyers did this on purpose (altho Clockwork Orange would be a very strange precursor to Austin Powers).
I doubt it, but maybe? Austin and Julian don’t have much in common besides the glasses and hair.Even though he’s a bodybuilder, I wouldn’t really describe Julian as being strong in mojo of Austin’s type. At times, I’ve even wondered if he was Frank’s boy-toy. His job seems kind of ill-defined — he’s kind of a nurse, but also a live-in butler who’s been allowed to set up a weight bench in the living room, and he’s involved with the plot against Alex.
That sequence of pics is absolutely hilarious. Thank you!!
He was also Hotblack Desiato’s bodyguard in the BBC television adaptation of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
He was also the minotaur on Doctor Who in 1972.
Hotblack Desiato really fits well as a science fiction futuristic name of a character but funnily enough, Douglas Adams got it from the name of a Real Estate agency in Islington (it’s the surnames of the two founders and Douglas Adams being who he was, asked for permission to use it first).
I wonder if he asked Ford for the use of the name of their Prefect car line (which was already kind of obscure when he created the character as they had stopped making Prefects in the 1960s)
That is a Fun Fact!! I always thought that BBC production was crap, but it somehow stays in my memory a lot better than the Americanized version. I do think the casting was better in the US version though, Dent and Prefect were, well, perfect.
It’s crap but it’s also got all the charm of a 80s BBC production. As a fan of classic Who it hits all my silly buttons
“As a fan of classic Who it hits all my silly buttons”That’s exactly it, and I couldn’t figure it out until you said it. I also always forget that Alan Rickman voiced Marvin in the US version, and I never realized it, but even when reading HHG when a kid in the 80’s, I’m pretty sure that’s how I read Marvin’s voice in my head. The US film was stacked with great actors and somehow still fucked it up.
Peter Cushing actually played Dr. Frankenstein in those Hammer movies where Prowse played the monster, so Star Wars was a reunion for them. I’m also pretty sure Vader breaking out of the slab at the end of Revenge of the Sith is another Frankenstein reference because of this.
Poor guy, he is as much Vader as Jones is. I kinda wish he had gotten to play him without the mask. Farewell.
Very few people could become a physical representation of James Earl Jones’ voice like that.
Make sure you watch the full video in the main article. It includes a great attempt by the Musicians’ Union to disrupt the show, and right at the end, some great insight into the world of fetishism.
Rest in peace.
I got to meet him once decades ago when I was a teenager at my very first comic convention. He was really nice.RIP.
We can only hope that during the Oscars in memoriam segment, the picture presents him as a force ghost.