David Prowse
| David Prowse | |
|---|---|
David Prowse in 2013
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| Born |
1 July 1935 Bristol, England, United Kingdom |
| Alma mater | Bristol Grammar School |
| Occupation | Actor, body builder, weightlifter |
| Years active | 1956–2010 |
| Spouse(s) | Norma Prowse (m. 1963) |
| Children | 3 |
| Website | darthvader-starwars |
David Prowse, MBE (born 1 July 1935) is an English bodybuilder,weightlifter and character actor in British film and television. Worldwide, he is best known for playing Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, though the character's voice was provided by James Earl Jones. In the United Kingdom, he is also remembered as the Green Cross Code man, a character used in British road safety advertising.
Prowse played the physical form of Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy.James Earl Jones, however, provided the voice for the character. Prowse spoke the dialogue during filming and although he was never going to be used as the voice of Darth Vader, Prowse claims he was originally told that he would be seen and heard at the end of Return of the Jedi when Vader's mask was removed. Instead, actor Sebastian Shaw was used. Lucas claims he wanted a "darker voice"—that is, a deeper, more reverberating voice—and never intended to use Prowse, who has a West Country accent. In the 2004 documentary Empire of Dreams, actress Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia in the original trilogy films, quipped that they nicknamed Prowse "Darth Farmer" because of his un-intimidating accent. In the lightsaber fight scenes between Vader and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Prowse, who wasn't a very skilled swordsman (he kept breaking the poles that stood in for the lightsabers), was replaced by the scene's fight-choreographer, the stuntman and fencing coach Bob Anderson. Prowse felt sidelined by Anderson during the making of Return of the Jedi in particular, and claims that he was only able to persuade director Richard Marquand that he should be the one to throw the Emperor off the balcony after Marquand had tried and failed for a week to film the scene successfully without him.
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