Dave Prowse (1935- )

8x10 Color In Person signed portrait as 'Darth Vader' from 'Empire Strikes Back'.


Personal quote on having to choose between playing Darth Vader and Chewbacca in 'Star Wars' - "I took the part of the villain because everyone remembers the villain."

Because of his loftiness, George Lucas hired him to occupy the costume of Darth Vader in Star Wars (1977). But because of his British accent, Lucas chose James Earl Jones as the voice of Vader.

He commented in an interview that he was unaware that his voice been dubbed with that of James Earl Jones' until he saw the movie on opening night.

When Sebastian Shaw was revealed in "Return of the Jedi" as the "man behind Darth Vader's mask", Darth Vader became the first recurring role in a movie series to be played by three actors at the same time: body by Prowse, voice by James Earl Jones, and face by Sebastian Shaw.

He was barred from doing the lightsaber duels in "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" because he kept breaking the poles that stood in for the laser blades during the first film. The lightsaber duels in the sequels were instead done by Bob Anderson, the swordmaster who handled the lightsaber choreography; in order ot make up for the height difference, Anderson wore platform shoes and was often filmed from low angles.

Was the Green cross code man, a character used to teach [UK] children how to cross the road safely.

Trained Christopher Reeve for his role in the first Superman (1978) movie. Was many times weightlifting champion in Britain.