Dave Prowse, actor who played Darth Vader, dies at 85:
Dave Prowse, the British weightlifter-turned-actor who was the body, though not the voice, of arch-villain Darth Vader in the original "Star Wars" trilogy, has died. He was 85.
Prowse died Saturday after a short illness, his agent Thomas Bowington said Sunday.
Born in Bristol, southwest England, in 1935, Prowse was a three-time British weightlifting champion and represented England in weightlifting at the 1962 Commonwealth Games before breaking into movies with roles that emphasized his commanding size, including Frankenstein's monster in a pair of Hammer Studios horror films.
Director George Lucas saw Prowse in a small part in "A Clockwork Orange" and asked the 6-foot-6-inch (almost 2-meter) actor to audition for the villainous Vader or the Wookie Chewbacca in "Star Wars."
Prowse later told the BBC he chose Darth Vader because "you always remember the bad guys."
[...] Prowse is survived by his wife Norma and their three children.
David Prowse, Man Behind the Darth Vader Mask, Dies at 85:
David Prowse, the champion English weightlifter and bodybuilder who supplied his 6-foot-7 frame — but not the voice or the deep breathing — to portray Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, died early Saturday morning following a short illness. He was 85.
Prowse's death was confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter by his agent Thomas Bowington. Bowington Management also shared the news on Twitter, announcing his passing with "great regret and heart-wrenching sadness for us and million of fans around the world."
[...] George Lucas had seen him in Clockwork Orange and offered him a part in the first Star Wars(1977).
"Lucas said to me, 'You've got a choice of two characters in the movie,'" Prowse recalled in a 2016 interview. "He said, 'There's a character called Chewbacca, which is like a huge teddy bear, or alternatively, there's the main villain in the piece.' Well, there's no choice, is there? Thank you very much, I'll have the villain's piece."
Prowse didn't realize that his head and face would be covered by that now-iconic Samurai-inspired helmet and mask or that his outfit, made of fiberglass and leather, would weigh 40 pounds and be extremely, uncomfortably hot.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday November 29 2020, @10:28PM
1) Must be able to wear heavy-ass hot costume for hours and still follow direction.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Troll) by looorg on Sunday November 29 2020, @10:33PM (10 children)
Why didn't they use his voice? Did he sound like Mickey Mouse or didn't he have a suitable voice to go with the darklord of the Sith? A lot of the other empire officers have british accents. Or perhaps I should ask why they picked James Earl Jones for the voice but not the body, after all if he was going to wear a mask for the entire movie (until death) it wouldn't have mattered if he was black. It would probably have been less work to transpose a white face on Jones then instead (the reverse blackface?). Jones has a great and iconic voice and all but I guess then once again why didn't they let Prowse do the voice to?
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 29 2020, @10:38PM (2 children)
You can find videos with Prowse's voice on youtube, IIRC. Apparently they wanted a deeper voice than Prowse had. As for why they didn't dress Jones up, Prowse is far more physically intimidating than Jones would be.
Besides, they only decided to dub the voice after all the film shooting was done. It's not like Lucas had a plan; for the first movies he had people around him that helped fix his mistakes. For the later movies, he was too powerful by then for anyone to argue against him.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 29 2020, @11:03PM (1 child)
And, of course, we all known how that turned out.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday November 30 2020, @04:47PM
At least they only had an emo villain for a small section of the last film in the 1,2,3 collection. His mother was a slave for crying out loud. The molding and creation of the villain was at least reasonably plausible.
Compare that with the start of the new Disney Star Wars Trilogy and you have grade A cinema comparatively.
The only redeeming quality for Star Wars Episode VII is the Saturday Night Live special of Under Cover Boss. I also ditched the series after that.
Disney did produce some good Star Wars films, but they were the prequels. I absolutely loved Rogue One and the Han Solo film. Even though Rogue One was a bit on the depressing side, it fit well with the Star Wars universe of films.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday November 29 2020, @11:05PM (3 children)
Because they could afford JEJ as a voice actor and he added that "familiarity" star quality that the lead actors were missing.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday November 30 2020, @02:46AM (2 children)
Nope... see below. They decided they needed a better voice *after* casting Prowse.
And the relatively-unknown faces for the lead actors was deliberate; the idea was to have a completely fresh look.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday November 30 2020, @03:07AM (1 child)
Nope... read for meaning, not for what you think was written.
Alec Guinness unknown? Because it's so hard to find an old man who can wear a hood and wave a sword-stick like he swept a floor once or twice in his life. Peter Cushing unknown? No, I believe the word we're actually looking for is: affordable.
That "completely fresh look" was certainly the P.R. blitz before Empire was released, but when you've spent your budget on special effects into a gamble in an unproven genre, the money has to come out somewhere.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Reziac on Monday November 30 2020, @04:04AM
Yep, there was a lot of that. And Lucas was a prime retconner. Sometimes his original proclamations didn't make good sense, or even match reality.
I remember when he said there would be no sequels, because "sequels are made by people without enough imagination to do new projects." (That's a near quote.) And then the next thing we heard, once the money proved too good, was how it was always planned to be a trilogy, and then was always planned to be nine...
But anyway, Prowse himself said they didn't want his voice or his accent. Which was probably true, since it was hardly good villain material.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Reziac on Monday November 30 2020, @02:30AM (2 children)
Because he had a rather obvious working-class accent (not sure if it was proper Cockney or just similar), which was definitely not what they wanted, aside from having a rather light and decidedly unvillainous voice. Saw Prowse live at a convention and that's what he himself said.
He also joked that the Star Wars theme had words:
Star Wars, made me a fortune
Paid off the mortgage
Bought me a car...
And of course James Earl Jones was picked for his one-of-a-kind voice, but was uncredited. Lucas said they wanted to maintain the illusion that Vader was portrayed by a single person, not by a composite.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Informative) by dw861 on Monday November 30 2020, @03:02AM (1 child)
The reporting that I read called it a "lilting English West Country" accent.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/david-prowse-darth-vader-actor-1.5821101 [www.cbc.ca]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Reziac on Monday November 30 2020, @04:07AM
Yeah, that's a better description. Pleasant on the ear, but hardly fear-inspiring.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 30 2020, @12:56AM (4 children)
This short illness wasn’t COVID I presume.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 30 2020, @01:44AM
You mean "Wuhan"?
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 30 2020, @03:45AM (2 children)
Nope. It was COVID v1.11
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 30 2020, @04:09AM (1 child)
You mean Wuhan v1.11.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 30 2020, @04:44AM
You can stop now. Your guy lost, remember?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Monday November 30 2020, @01:51AM (1 child)
He was apparently a very amiable gentleman who both respected and was respected by even, or in particular, the nerdiest of SW fans.
I'm sure he'd have preferred a role where his face was seen to be his iconic role, but even in the absense of that he's certainly left a legacy. I must rewatch /A Clockwork Orange/ again, and try to look out for him.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Reziac on Monday November 30 2020, @02:40AM
Prowse plays Mr.Alexander's manservant Julian, who carries him around since he was crippled by Alex's attack.
When I briefly met him, he seemed gracious enough, if perhaps a bit tired of being relegated to the convention circuit. But he was starting to have health issues and had trouble getting around.
I was always quite impressed by his use of body language to completely fill any space he stood in, which IMO made Vader a far more memorable character than would have anyone's face.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 30 2020, @02:12PM
Everything about the first 3 movies was based on WW2, down to the Empire helmets being variants on German equivalent and the stormtrooper rifles being kitbashed Sten guns.
Even the space battles were patterned after WW2 carrier fleet combat, down to the formations and movement the X- and Y-wings followed.