RIP David Prowse

 Mark Hamill Mourns Death of 'Star Wars' Icon David Prowse

The Hollywood Reporter

By Ryan Parker

November 29, 2020

The actor and bodybuilder played Darth Vader behind the mask, but James Earl Jones voiced the character.

Mark Hamill on Sunday morning expressed his sadness over the death of Star Wars icon — one half of his screen father — David Prowse. The towering Englishman who played Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy died Saturday morning following a short illness. He was 85.

Although James Earl Jones gave the character his iconic voice, it was actor-bodybuilder Prowse who wore the legendary sci-fi suit. Hamill took to social media to mourn the loss.

"So sad to hear David Prowse has passed. He was a kind man & much more than Darth Vader. Actor-Husband-Father-Member of the Order of the British Empire-3-time British Weightlifting Champion & Safety Icon the Green Cross Code Man. He loved his fans as much as they loved him. #RIP," the Luke Skywalker actor tweeted along with multiple images.

Prowse also appeared in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange in 1971, which is where George Lucas first saw him. Behind the scenes, Prowse worked with actors, such as the late Christopher Reeve, who he trained in order for the star to bulk up to play Superman.

"He was fantastic. He was a very lovely person," Prowse once said of Reeve. "We were like brothers, we got along so well together. And during the course of the period I had him, I took him from 170 pounds when we started and he was 212 [pounds] when he went into the suit."

 

PROWSE, David (David Charles Prowse)

Born: 7/1/1935, Bristol, England, U.K.

Died: 11/28/2020,London, England, U.K.

David Prowse’s western – actor:

Little House on the Prairie (TV) – 1975 (sawmill foreman)