David Prowse

At 85 years old, David Prowse has this physical status:

David Prowse MBE (born 1 July 1935) is a retired English bodybuilder, weightlifter, and character actor in British film and television.

He is best known for physically portraying Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy (with the character's voice being performed by James Earl Jones), and he appeared in a documentary about the character entitled I Am Your Father in 2015.

Prowse had firmly established himself as the first Green Cross Code king in British road safety literature aimed at youth prior to his role as Vain.

Early life

David Charles Prowse was born in Bristol on July 1st, 1935. He is the son of Gladys (née Burt) and Charles Prowse. He was enrolled on the Southmead housing estate in Bristol, receiving a scholarship to Bristol Grammar School. Prowse was tall, 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m), and he aspired to bodybuilding. Henleaze Swimming Pool's early careers included a bouncer at a dance hall, where he met his future wife, and a Henleaze Swimming Pool helper. Following his triumphs in the British heavyweight weightlifting championship in 1961, he moved from Bristol to London weightlifting firm.

Personal life

Prowse was married from 1963 to Norma Scammell and was the father of three children. He was a backer of Bristol Rugby Club. He lived in Addiscombe, Croydon, south London, from 1963.

In the 2009 European Parliament election, Prowse publicly voiced support for the United Kingdom Independence Party: "I've looked right and left and right now, and the only party I can safely vote for is UKIP."

Prowse suffered from arthritis for a large portion of his life. Both hips and ankle were fused, as well as several revisionary surgeries on hip replacements. He first noticed his arthritis signs when he was 13. Despite the fact that they seemingly vanished after he resumed competitive weightlifting, they returned in 1990.

Prowse's left arm became paralyzed, followed by his right in 2000. He had septic arthritis caused by an infection that had nearly killed him. The amount of surgery he had was reported to have decreased his height from the 6 foot 6 inches (198 cm) of his younger days.

Prowse has worked with multiple arthritis clinics in the United Kingdom and was vice president of the Physically Handicapped and Able-bodied Association.

Prowse revealed that he was suffering from prostate cancer in March 2009. He underwent radiation therapy at the Royal Marsden Hospital in South London starting in early 2009. He was supposed to be in remission in 2009 and he was still in prison.

In November 2014, the Daily Mirror announced that he had dementia. Prowse denied this, but admitted to having memory problems, which he attributed to age.

Prowse resigned from all public appearances and appearances in October 2016 due to his ill health and family's aspirations. In a sci-fi music video called Shields, the Welsh singer and his long-time friend Jayce Lewis were filmed for his final onscreen appearance.

Prowse died in London, England, on November 28th, age 85, after a short, unspecified disease.

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Career

In 1962 and the two years that followed, Prowse captured the British heavyweight weightlifting championship. In the weightlifting competition at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, Western Australia, he represented England.

After lobbying for the part himself, Prowse helped to prepare Christopher Reeve for the lead role in Superman (1978). In a television interview, he remarked how his reaction to being told "we've found our Superman" was "Thank you very much." He was only then told that Reeve had been chosen for the job and that he was only going to be a coach. Cary Elwes was trained by him for his role as Westley in The Princess Bride (1987).

Prowse has also worked as a fitness consultant to Harrods, including 'Jack the Ripper,' and opened a number of gyms, including Prowse Fitness Centre in Southwark, London.

In the 1968 television show The Champions: the opening sequence of episode 2 "The Invisible Man," his first appearance in a gym as a weightlifter.

In the United Kingdom, Prowse was best known as the Green Cross Man, a superhero who was created to promote a road safety campaign for children in 1975. In 2000, he was granted the MBE in recognition of his service with the campaign, which spanned 1971 to 1990.

In the film A Clockwork Orange (1971), in which he was discovered by future Star Wars director George Lucas, he appeared as Frank Alexander's manservant, Julian. In Vampire Circus (1972), a Minotaur in the Doctor Who serial The Time Monster (also 1972), and an android named Coppin in The Tomorrow People in 1973, he appeared as a circus strongman and a circus strongman. He appeared in an episode of Space: 1999, "The Beta Cloud" (1976), right before he was cast as Darth Vader. He appeared in Jabberwocky (1977) as the Black Knight, but he was supposed to appear in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) instead of Peter Mayhew, who later played Chewbacca in Star Wars.

Prowse claimed that he almost got the role of Jaws in James Bond (which eventually went to Richard Kiel) and that he was given the role of Conan the Barbarian before Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In the 1981 BBC TV version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Prowse played a minor role as Hotblack Desiato's bodyguard. In Callan (1974), a theatrical recreation of the television series, he appeared in the first series of Ace of Wands on LWT and as a bodyguard. In the BBC Television Shakespeare production of As You Like It in 1978, he played Charles, the duke's wrestler.

In three films, Casino Royale, and Hammer horrors, Prowse played Frankenstein's monster. Frankenstein's Monster is a film about violence and violence. Frankenstein and Frankenstein, a Monster from Hell Prowse made two uncredited appearances on The Benny Hill Show. He appeared as a briefs-clad muscleman in the "Ye Olde Wishing Well" quickie in 1969, and in 1984 "Scuttlevision" he displayed his muscles in a sketch set to the song "Stupid Cupid." In the 1974 film The Best of Benny Hill, in which he was credited, the earlier routine was also included.

Prowse played a major role in "Portrait of Brenda," the penultimate episode of The Saint broadcast in 1969, among his many non-speaking roles.

Frank Bryan appeared in The Kindness of Strangers, an independent British film directed by Queen Bee Films, in May 2010. At the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, the film was on view.

In the original Star Wars trilogy, Prowse appeared as Darth Vader on physical appearance. Prowse interacted with the character during filming, but George Lucas wanted a "darker voice" than Prowse's tyrical West Country accent, and James Earl Jones provided Prowse with a more sinister, malevolent voice for the character. When Vader's mask was removed, Prowse said he was supposed to be seen and heard at the end of Return of the Jedi. Rather, actor Sebastian Shaw was used.

Upon Prowse's death, Lucas stated that:

Carrie Fisher, the actress who appeared in the original trilogy films, referred to Prowse "Darth Farmer" as the proverbial in the film Empire of Dreams, (a remark referring to his West Country accent). Valiant and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Prowse, who was not an expert swordsman and kept breaking the staff used as the lightsabers, was replaced by the scene's fight choreographer, stuntman, and fencing coach Bob Anderson in the lightsaber fight scenes. Prowse said he was unfairly portrayed by Anderson during the production of Return of the Jedi, and that after Marquand tried and failed to film the scene without him, he was only able to convince director Richard Marquand that he should throw the Emperor down the shaft.

Prowse reprised his role as Darth Vader for the video games Star Wars: The Interactive Video Board Game (1996) and Monopoly Star Wars (1997).

Prowse was a founding member and honorary chief of the 501st Legion, a fan club dedicated to Star Wars costuming.

Prowse continued to identify himself with his appearance in the Star Wars films and was actively involved in the convention circuit. Despite this, he was not included in any reunions of the original cast, such as those for the Empire of Dreams documentary and the 2005 Vanity Fair cover. When being interviewed by Kevin Moore of The Moore Show Prime Time, he admitted his displeasure with the prequel trilogy and said the latest films were "out of context" in terms of special effects in comparison to the original trilogy.

Prowse was joined by several others from the Star Wars films in July 2007 at the first ever Star Wars Celebration event held outside of the United States. At the ExCeL Exhibition Centre in London, Lucasfilm Ltd. and the Cards Inc. Group ran it. The occasion was to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars.

Prowse appeared in "Order of the Sith: Vengeance" and its sequel "Downfall" – Order of the Sith, alongside Jeremy Bulloch and Michael Sheard. These fan films were made in the United Kingdom to promote the charity Save the Children.

In 2008, he was one of the cast members of Justin Lee Collins' Bring Back...Star Wars. After Prowse allegedly leaked details of Darth Vader's death to the public, he admitted that he had a dispute with Lucas. In a address he gave to University of California, Berkeley, in 1978, Prowse had previously stated that Darth Vader might be Luke Skywalker's father. However, this was shortly after the launch of Star Wars and almost two years before The Empire Strikes Back was published, and the script had not even been completed at the time. In the 2015 documentary I Am Your Father, Gary Kurtz, the creator of The Empire Strikes Back, said that Prowse's apparent plot spoiler was simply "a good guess."

Prowse said in an interview in 2009 that his return to Return of the Jedi included a part of the film's earnings, but Prowse said in an interview that never received residuals for his performance. The true income are sent to the studio as "distribution fees," not having to give anything to others due to "Hollywood's accounting."

Lucas barred Prowse from attending official Star Wars fan conventions in July 2010. Lucas had no reason to anger Prowse other than a proclamation that Prowse "burned too many bridges" between Lucasfilm and himself.

Prowse wrote and published his autobiography Straight from the Force's Mouth in 2011.

I Am Your Father, a Brazilian documentary by filmmaker Marcos Cabotá, has been released in the United States. Prowse's life and his blackballing by Lucasfilm, which the documentary said was unjustified, was chronicled. The leaks in the film came from a technician who worked on the film.

After meeting at a science fiction convention, Prowse became friends with Welsh singer Jayce Lewis as a child. Lewis recalled learning that Prowse's uncle, whom he later discovered after a performance, was also a drummer. Prowse referred to himself as a "music fan" for years, moving from big band jazz to trad jazz, modern, and progressive, according to him.

With Prowse as a manager and public relations consultant, the two became business partners. He was also included in the album Orderart's music video for "Shields." Lewis produced The Force's Mouth, a mini-documentary that gave Prowse the opportunity to hear Darth Vader's lines with studio effects applied for the first time on October 1, 2015.

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