Lockdown 2: Isolation Boogaloo #4 – Everyone Keeps Dying

David Prowse died last night. He was 85, so it was a good run, in fairness, but still. It seems like a lot of good people have been getting old lately. But the rest of those people weren’t Darth Vader.

[image error]Image from Wookiepedia

Ok, so Prowse wasn’t all of Vader. He was the man in the costume for the first three Star Wars films. He was the man who read all Vader’s lines to the other actors – in a West Country accent. He didn’t actually end up voicing Vader, of course – though apparently he didn’t find out he’d been replaced until he actually watched the premiere of the film (which was a bit of a crappy thing for George Lucas to do).

From the documentary ‘Empire of Dreams’ (2004)

But he was still Vader. For all three of the original films, it was Prowse who loomed over Mark Hamill, who dominated every one of Vader’s scenes with his massive frame. It was also Prowse who apparently kept breaking prop lightsaber blades in all the fight scenes (he wasn’t a very good swordsman). It was Prowse who threw the Emperor down that bottomless pit. Prowse might not have been Vader’s voice (or even his face), but he was still Darth Vader.

It’s a sad thing to lose him. The original Star Wars cast has started to grow thin in the last few years: Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew, Carrie Fisher, and now Prowse. And as I mentioned earlier a lot of other people have been getting old lately – Sean Connery for one.

But I did come across this when I was looking up Prowse’s life. He got together with musician Jayce Lewis back in 2015 – he was actually Lewis’ PR manager for many years – and after some technical wizardry and a bit of recording, they finally turned Prowse’s voice into Darth Vader’s. It was a long time coming. You can watch the results below.

May the Force be with you.

‘From the Force’s Mouth’, by Jayce Lewis and David Prowse (2015)