English actor who portrayed Darth Vader dies
David Prowse ‘brought a physicality’ to character
David Prowse, an English actor and competitive weightlifter who used his towering height and broad shoulders to portray the bionic body of the evil Darth Vader in the original “Star Wars” trilogy, died Saturday in a London hospital. He was 85.
His agent, Thomas Bowington, confirmed the death but did not provide a cause. He announced in 2014 that Prowse had dementia, after an earlier episode of prostate cancer.
The phenomenal success of the “Star Wars” series after its launch in 1977 made the Dark Lord of the Sith, as Prowse’s character was also known, one of cinema’s most instantly recognizable villains — even as Prowse remained largely unknown to moviegoers because of his full-body costume.
“Star Wars” creator Lucas said Prowse “brought a physicality to Darth Vader that was essential for the character.”
“He made Vader leap off the page and onto the big screen, with an imposing stature and movement performance to match the intensity and undercurrent of Vader’s presence,” the director said in a statement on the official “Star Wars” website.
“David was up for anything and contributed to the success of what would become a memorable, tragic figure. May he rest in peace.”
Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the “Star Wars” films, tweeted that Prowse was “a kind man & much more than Darth Vader.” Hamill said the actor “loved his fans as much as they loved him. #RIP.”
At 6-foot-7 and 275 pounds, Prowse used his imposing physique to give shape and form to Darth Vader’s threatening presence on screen as the embodiment of the Evil Empire. His costume featured a menacing grilled face mask, a glistening black helmet modeled after samurai headgear, a leather jumpsuit, black gloves, kneehigh boots, a sweeping cape and a flashing electronic chest panel on a fiberglass breastplate.
“The only way of presenting Darth Vader as the ultimate baddie was to show virtually everyone else either terrified or completely awestruck whenever he was around,” Prowse wrote in his 2011 autobiography, “Straight From the Force’s Mouth.”
Adding to the ominous presence of Darth Vader was his signature mechanical breathing, which was created by sound designer Ben Burtt recording himself inhaling and exhaling through an old scuba regulator. The dialogue, delivered originally in Prowse’s West Country English accent, was dubbed in postproduction editing using the voice of American actor James Earl Jones.
“Star Wars” creator George Lucas viewed Darth Vader as the product of a collaboration by a team of artists. In addition to Jones, they included British fencing coach Bob Anderson, who played Darth Vader in many lightsaber duels, and veteran stage actor Sebastian Shaw, who in “Return of the Jedi” (1983) — the final installment in the original trilogy — provided the face of a dying Darth Vader.
The decisions to use Jones and Shaw came as surprises to Prowse and contributed to his strained relationship with the movies’ producers.
Prowse met Lucas at 20th Century Fox’s offices in London in the summer of 1976. He was 40 and had appeared on-screen in minor roles as brutes and monsters. His most noted performance was a brief turn as a bodyguard in Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” (1971).
Lucas offered Prowse a choice between two roles for his coming movie, “Star Wars,” which was being shot partly at a soundstage north of London. The first option was the furry Chewbacca character, but the thought of spending London’s hot summer sweating in a hairy costume led Prowse to select the second option: Darth Vader.
As it turned out, the Vader outfit, weighing about 40 pounds, trapped so much body heat and provided so little ventilation that the mask’s eye lenses frequently fogged up, making it difficult for Prowse to hit his marks.
Unable to use facial expressions, he said, he carefully considered his walk and swagger. He drew on his experience as a bodybuilder to convey Darth Vader’s intimidating aura.
He appeared on-screen for only 12 minutes in “Star Wars” (1977) but became a more central character three years later in “The Empire Strikes Back,” when the father-son relationship between Darth Vader and his young nemesis, Luke Skywalker, is revealed.
Prowse wrote that his worst filming experience came during the making of “Return of the Jedi” (1983). He said a Daily Mail reporter told him that Darth Vader was being killed off in the movie and that an actor was performing the death scene at a secret location. The subsequent article “was written in such a way that it looked as though all the information had come from me,” Prowse wrote in his book.
He said that he felt ostracized for the rest of the production of the film, with his stuntman increasingly doubling in for him.