David Prowse reprised his role as Frankenstein’s monster in the 1974 Hammer production of FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL. The film found “Baron Frankenstein” (Peter Cushing) working with a mental patient (Shane Briant) to reanimate the dead.
David Prowse in FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL
This was the last of Hammer’s “Frankenstein” films. It was also the final film directed by Terence Fisher before his death on June 18, 1980 at the age of 76. It was the 29th and final Hammer film that he directed. The first was MAN BAIT (1952). James Bernard’s score was released in 2000 by GDI Records as a major part of a Hammer Frankenstein compilation CD.
David CALLAN (Edward Woodward) was a top agent/assassin for the S.I.S., who was forced to retire because he had lost his nerve. Now, Callan is called back into service to handle the assassination of “Schneider” (Carl Möhner), a German businessman. His former boss promises Callan that he'll be returned to active status if he follows orders, but as always, Callan refuses to act until he knows why Schneider has been marked for death.
David Prowse played a gangster’s hit man, “Arthur,” in this 1974 feature, which was an expansion of a 1967 teleplay, “Armchair Theatre: A Magnum for Schneider”. That had led to a series entitled “Callan” (1967-72) in which David Prowse had appeared in a 1970 episode. Because of his thick Bristol accent, Prowse's voice was dubbed by another actor for this film. The feature film was directed by Don Sharp, and had an unreleased score by Wilfred Josephs.
In Terry Gilliam’s 1977 film JABBERWOCKY, a young peasant (Michael Palin), with no interest in adventure or fortune, is mistaken as the kingdom's only hope when a horrible monster threatens the countryside. David Prowse had a small dual role in the film as both the Red Herring and the Black Knight. The film did not have an original music score.
Peter Mayhew and David Prowse were given a choice as to which giant character they wanted to play in STAR WARS, “Chewbacca” or “Darth Vader.” Mayhew wanted to play a good guy, and Prowse wanted to play a bad guy, so they ended up playing the matching characters. Prowse opted to play Darth Vader believing that movie audiences best remember villains. He also didn't like the prospect of wearing a furry monkey costume for his part. Prowse's Darth Vader mask had to be padded with foam because even though Prowse stood 6’6” and was a body builder, the mask was much too large to fit over his face properly. Although it seems Darth Vader is the movie's antagonist, ninth-billed Prowse has only twelve minutes of screen time in the two-hour film.
Director George Lucas kept Anthony Daniels’ speaking voice for “C-3PO” because the actor “really got into the role” and therefore transformed the character to match his identity, turning C-3PO into what Lucas described as a “sort of fussy British robot butler.” However, the speaking voice of weightlifter Prowse was over-dubbed by actor James Earl Jones to give the character a more “commanding” presence. Lucas originally wanted Orson Welles to do Darth Vader's voice, but decided against it, feeling that Welles' voice would be too recognizable.
According to Lucas, special dialogue and sound effects artist Ben Burtt experimented with approximately eighteen “different kinds of breathing, through aqualungs and through tubes” to match the rhythmical tone of Vader’s iron lung, which was explained in a subplot eventually eliminated from the final film. One of Lucas’s original STAR WARS screenplay drafts included the back story of Vader’s heavy breathing, and his black facial breathing mask: When Vader and “Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi” were young Jedi knights, a confrontation between the two caused Vader to fall into a “volcanic pit,” where he was nearly burned to death. Vader was disfigured, and forced to breathe through a machine.
Al Lampert, David Prowse, and Carrie Fisher in STAR WARS
David Prowse was heard doing the voice of Vader in the rough cut of STAR WARS, as well as in the outtakes and bloopers. It gives the scenes a dramatically different flavor. Prowse claims he had no idea the voice of Darth Vader was overdubbed by James Earl Jones until he first saw the completed film. While he admitted his own accent didn't fit the part, he also felt his voice was muffled by wearing the Darth Vader mask. Prowse felt he could have overdubbed the voice, but George Lucas never arranged for him to try.
Prowse was still disgruntled more than twenty years after the movie's release. In an interview with the Canadian press, Prowse claimed that he was a victim of "reverse racism" because the cast had no black members, and the studio was worried they would lose a significant slice of the audience. However, Jones wasn't credited in the original movie, so no one who didn’t already recognize Jones’ voice knew a black actor voiced Vader. George Lucas said he dubbed Vader's dialogue because of Prowse's strong Bristol accent. The cast and crew's nickname for Prowse was Darth Farmer. James Earl Jones and David Prowse never met.
The cast of STAR WARS (l. to r.): Harrison Ford, David Prowse, Peter Mayhew, Carrie Fisher, Kenny Baker, and Mark Hamill
This is the only movie in the STAR WARS franchise where David Prowse did the light-saber fighting on his own. He was doubled in the sequels because he kept breaking the poles that stood in for the blades. This switch might explain why Vader pivots on his feet in this movie, but not in the others.
The scene of Darth Vader's TIE Fighter spinning out of control was added late in the movie at the insistence of George Lucas. Other members of the movie crew were opposed to including this shot, feeling that it set up a sequel (at the time, sequels were generally regarded as inferior cash-in movies), but Lucas insisted upon its inclusion nonetheless.
Before the film was released in the UK, it was described as a new science fiction film featuring Alec Guinness and "The Green Cross Code Man". At the time, David Prowse was playing a character in a series of road safety advertisements aimed at children to help them safely cross the road. In later Green Cross advertisements, Prowse’s Bristol accent was dubbed over, as in STAR WARS. In the following two examples, I’m guessing that Prowse’s real voice is in the first, and that the second one is dubbed.
In 1919, a British expedition in the Antarctica region is searching for a lost American explorer and instead finds a hidden prehistoric world and THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT. The party, led by American “Major Ben McBride” (Patrick Wayne), is searching for his boyhood friend, “Bowen Tyler” (Doug McClure), who was marooned on an “ice continent” near Antarctica called Caprona in 1916. David Prowse played a tribal executioner in the film.
Kevin Connor directed the 1977 release, which was a sequel to 1975’s THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT. John Scott released his score on his own label in 2006.
David Prowse reprised his role of Darth Vader in the 1980 STAR WARS sequel, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.
Darth Vader's name comes from the following: "Darth" is a variation of the word "Dark" and "Vader" is the Dutch and German word for "father". Darth Vader's costume was more detailed in this movie, including the flashing red lights on his chest box.
In an early outtake, when Vader entered the Hoth base, he tripped over a cable and fell down face-first. This was the first movie in which there was a double for Darth Vader. Stunt coordinator Peter Diamond said that this was done because of the bigger fights. The light-saber fight scenes set in the carbon freezing chamber tend to focus on Luke. This is because during many of the shots, Bob Anderson (Vader's fight double) was not wearing the Darth Vader helmet, as it made it difficult for him to breathe.
Director Irvin Kershner provided the voice of Darth Vader in the temporary mix of the movie, before James Earl Jones recorded the final version.
David Prowse in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
The film’s set was shrouded in secrecy. To prevent the shooting script from being publicized, several actors had access only to their own lines, and David Prowse performed his role with “dummy lines,” since the character’s voice was later overdubbed by the uncredited James Earl Jones. Prowse told Time magazine that he remained oblivious to the film’s actual story throughout production, with no concept of events in the narrative before or after he appeared onscreen. He also reported that the filmmakers were “really paranoid, about security.”
Prowse was unaware that Darth Vader was Luke's father until he saw the movie, since, on set, George Lucas had Darth Vader say "Obi-wan killed your father", and dubbed it later to be "I am your father". Prowse was quite upset with Lucas afterward, saying that his physical acting would have been completely different if he'd known the real line.
Ironically, the movie's novelization was published a month before the film was released, and not even the first editions attempted to cover up the revelation of Darth Vader being Luke's father.
David Prowse reprised his role of Darth Vader in the third STAR WARS film, 1983’s RETURN OF THE JEDI.
Prowse only portrayed Darth Vader completely for the first half of the movie. In the second half of the film, the character was played by stuntman Bob Anderson during the light-saber fighting sequences, with Anderson wearing platform shoes and being carefully filmed to make up for the height difference. The duel between Darth Vader and Luke is one of the few times where John Williams' score and light-saber sound effects can be heard simultaneously. This was a deliberate choice by George Lucas and John Williams to highlight the epic final battle.
Mark Hamill and David Prowse in RETURN OF THE JEDI
David Prowse was unaware of the planned unmasking scene in which a different actor, Sebastian Shaw, played Darth Vader's/Anakin Skywalker's face. Shooting the scene of Darth Vader's unmasking was handled with so much secrecy that Sebastian Shaw was not even told what he would be doing until he arrived on the set. He was spotted by his old friend, Ian McDiarmid, who played Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious. He asked Shaw what he was doing there, and Shaw answered, "I don't know. They haven't told me anything about it except that it has something to do with science fiction." James Earl Jones voiced the character throughout, with the exception of the unmasking scene.
Prowse felt sidelined by Anderson during the making of RETURN OF THE JEDI, and claimed that he was only able to persuade director Richard Marquand that he should be the one to throw the Emperor down the shaft after Marquand had tried and failed for a week to film the scene successfully without him.
Prominent U.K. newspaper The Daily Mail ran a story shortly before the film’s release, revealing that Darth Vader might die at the end. It was suggested that David Prowse was behind the leak, which led to his subsequent strained relationship with Lucasfilm (he wasn't interviewed for the DVD release of the original trilogy, and made few appearances at official Star Wars-related events). Prowse denied being the one who told the newspaper about Darth Vader's death, since he was unaware of it. It later emerged that unnamed crew members were responsible for the leak. Nevertheless, in July 2010, Prowse was banned by George Lucas from attending official Star Wars fan conventions. Lucas had reportedly given Prowse no reason, other than stating that Prowse "burnt too many bridges" between Lucasfilm and himself.
Prowse claimed that his contract for RETURN OF THE JEDI included a share of profits on the film, and although it grossed $475 million on a $32 million budget, Prowse explained in an interview in 2009 that he never received residuals for his performance. Due to "Hollywood accounting", the actual profits are sent as "distribution fees" to the studio, leaving nothing to distribute to others. Prowse said, “I get these occasional letters from Lucasfilm saying that we regret to inform you that as RETURN OF THE JEDI has never gone into profit, we've got nothing to send you.”
RETURN OF THE JEDI effectively ended David Prowse’s feature film career, at least on American screens. Her made a few appearances on British television, and appeared in some UK films, usually portraying himself.
In 2011, Prowse wrote and released his autobiography Straight from the Force's Mouth.
During his early years of competitive weightlifting, Prowse became lifelong friends with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno, who at the time were not professional actors but rival competitors. He trained Christopher Reeve for the title role in the first SUPERMAN movie (1978).
Despite the fame of Darth Vader, Prowse says that the role he is most proud of is the Green Cross Code Man. "Best job I've ever had,” he said.
Prowse said that “Everybody comes up and says, 'It wasn't you they unmasked as Darth Vader, was it?' and I say, 'Well, no, it wasn't actually.' The guy that played Darth Vader was a guy called Sebastian Shaw and Sebastian Shaw was a good friend of Alec Guinness's and, by all accounts, he was out of work. He'd been out of work for a long period and he was having a bad time financially. And he said to Sir Alec, 'Could you do me a favor?' He said, 'I'm destitute. Is there any chance of you having a word with George Lucas to see if there's a possibility of a part in this movie?'
“So, Alec had a word with George and George said, 'The only part we can offer you is the dying Darth Vader.' And all this was done without me knowing anything about it. I mean, I'm watching the movie and they unmask somebody completely different and then you sort of think, 'Well, why wasn't that me?' But then, when you learn how it all came about, you know, if it helped him in any way, then all well and good. But everybody comes up to me and says, 'Why wasn't it you that was unmasked as Darth Vader?' And I say, 'I'll tell you about it later.'”
In the American Film Institute’s poll of fans and critics to determine the greatest movie villains of all time, Darth Vader was voted as number three, behind Hannibal Lecter and Norman Bates. All well and good, David. And thanks.
David Prowse and Carrie Fisher in STAR WARS
Peter Cushing, George Lucas, Carrie Fisher, and David Prowse on the set of STAR WARS
David Prowse, Peter Cushing, and Mark Hamill on the set of STAR WARS
