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David Prowse, the British actor best known for playing Darth Vader in the original film. Star Wars trilogy, has died at age 85, his agents have confirmed. Prowse died Saturday after illness.
“It is with great regret and heartbreaking sadness for us and millions of fans around the world to announce that our client Dave Prowse MBE has passed away at the age of 85,” Bowington Management, agents of Prowse, tweeted Sunday.
Prowse was born in 1935. He won the British Weightlifting Championship in 1962 and represented England in the weightlifting category at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane the same year. Prowse played Frankenstein’s monster in Royal Casino (1967), and again in The horror of Frankenstein (1970) and Frankenstein and the monster from hell (1974).
He played a bodyguard at Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971), where George Lucas saw it. He auditioned for Darth Vader and Chewbacca and eventually landed the role of the Sith Lord. However, his accent was deemed inappropriate for the role and although he played the role physically, the voice acting was by James Earl Jones.
In 1975, he became an integral part of British culture when he performed the Green Cross Code Man, a superhero invented to promote a British road safety campaign for children. His long association with the campaign earned him the honor of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2000.
Prowse will be best remembered for being the man behind Darth Vader’s mask in Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983).
In his later years he was a familiar figure in Star Wars conventions. His memories Straight from the mouth of the force was published in 2011. The story of his life was told in a 2015 documentary titled “I Am Your Father.” – Reuters
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