We never saw his face, heck we never even heard his voice, but still a towering figure of our collective childhoods.
Sad to hear. I met him once at a convention. Seemed a quiet fellow and kind of sad. Never got the recognition he deserved for the physicality of Vader. He was very courteous and I was glad to get his autograph.
Indeed, the presence he displayed as Vader is as memorable as the voice work by James Earl Jones.
According to my mother, he was my uncle’s cousin. So no real relationship but my mother met him many of times in Bristol (where my family is from). I’ll remember him more for Clockwork Orange than anything else. The Hello Internet guys (podcast) they did a screening of one of the Star Wars movie with him in England and he was great guest.
The Force is strong with this one.
RIP.
Quite a team effort!
RIP The Green Cross Code Man. Another part of our childhood dies.
I had dinner with him at one of the Star Wars Celebrations a long time ago – I think the one in Indianapolis. He was a very nice, and gracious person. He was great with the fans.
I did get a sense of bitterness of always being the body of Vader, and that he wished it was his face in Return of the Jedi.
He was good friends with Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett), and shared the fate of not even having their voices in the movies.
I was going to mention that he trained Christopher Reeve for the original Superman film, but it’s there in the obituary. He was definitely a bodybuilding icon in the '70s before his most famous role.
As DarrenO and the obit mentions, in England we saw his face and heard his voice as he did the PSA about how to cross the road safely as the Green Cross Code man. He was a big part of my childhood.
Those boots.
RIP Mr. Prowse.
I remember reading how during the filming of A Clockwork Orange, Kubrick made David Prowse repeat carrying Malcolm McDowell down the stairs over and over again in his typically exacting, perfectionist manner. That can’t have been easy even for a super strong guy like him. RIP!
I hope he was also grateful that he was in the movie at all, and probably made hundreds of thousands at fan conventions over the years.
If I remember correctly, James Earl Jones refused to be listed in the credits for Star Wars because he felt bad for Prowse.
It’s been a while since I watched this on Netflix, but I do recall there being a bit of bitterness in him about how everything went down.
I think he was, given my interactions were limited. It was just part of the whole David Prose IS Darth Vader thing.
As for the conventions, I never got the feeling that was an easy life. You need to be “on” for 10-12 hours a day selling autographs and photo ops. Not so much from him, but generally talking to folks on that circuit.
I’m sure it’s grueling at times, and it’s a lot of travel for relatively low compensation for a lower-rung star like Prowse. But compared to most of us working slobs (well, I’m normally working!) it’s not a bad gig. Here’s from an article about it:
“The fact is, a guest star on a TV show can [get] around $10,000, whereas you can work two days at a convention and pull in the same amount — and sometimes double and triple that,” says Firefly actress Jewel Staite, who did 12 conventions last year while pregnant with her son and, as she says, “pretty much not hireable.” She’ll do the same when she has a second child. “Have I turned down smaller jobs that won’t pay as much? Absolutely. It would be silly of me to say yes to the job that pays $10,000 for a week of work and bow out of a big convention where I could potentially walk away with $40,000 in two days.”
I think with Prowse there was a bit more going on. It appears he may have had a beef with Luscasfilm over residuals. Beyond that, I get it. He’s one of the big five or six stars from the original triology but he never got the acclaim.