Posted on 09/25/2017 9:48:18 PM PDT by nickcarraway
George Lucas ended up real crazy and angry at Prowse for some reason fathomable only to Lucas.
From what I can gather, Prowse is a likeable enough fellow.
David Prowse spoke at my college about 40 years ago. Nice fellow. Thing I remember is he had auditioned to be Superman and was a bit put off to discover Hollywood felt only an American could play the part.
what happen between him and lucas was that he made a joke between the first star wars movie and filming empire strikes back that he was lukes father. this was carried in a fan news letter and published right before the release. The actor claims that he said this before he ever got the script and at the time had said a lot of other goblygook in jest to the person who interviewed him. to this day no one but him and the fan who interviewed him knows if it true. George Lucas was stuck using him because of contract and tried to remove all evidence of him being the actor including digitally removing his face and putting another actors face on the body of a dying Vader in the return of the Jedi
my source is a documentary I viewed this year unfortunately cant remember the title
I have heard that Prowse was miffed when Star Wars came out that his voice was dubbed over by James Earl Jones. However, using his own voice would have been a disaster as he had a high pitched voice that sounded like it was coming from inside a garbage can when in costume. For the sequels, knowing that his voice would be dubbed over anyway, his dialog became a bit random.
The reason?
The reason was because someone framed Prowse as a leaker who gave interviews to the press about Star Wars. Prowse denied it, and it was clear other people were talking to the press. But Lucas thought it was him.
Here’s a true story about meeting David Prowse. He was at a memorabilia show at the Montgomery Fairgrounds in Gaithersburg, Md in the early 2000’s along with his son, and Peter Mayhew, Chewbacca, and others.
After I got his autograph on a beautiful color picture (also featuring Billy Dee Williams and Bobba Fett Jeremey Bullock), I asked him where Chewie was. He pointed over to a man stretched out on a chair and said “Never wake a wookie”.
I took his advice and finally got Mayhew’s autograph. I also one bought a couple packs of Star Wars Evolution series cards that were lying around a Walmart and in them was a Chewbacca autograph.
That day I actually got three autographs at two different stores, one of them being Mitch Pileggi from X Files The Movie (have two of the same autograph from two different stories).
Ah the memories of the past.
There is (or at least was) on Netflix a great biography on Dave Prowse called “I Am Your Father.”
Spoiler Alert: Dave Prowse was not born on Tatooine.
The burning question: does Vader take a knee in this video?
Lucas himselg gave it away. He made tge chadaxter’s name similar to the Indoeropean words for father.
An old co-worker of mine has a sister who’s married to Prowse. Once a year, they come to Colorado for a visit and often just stay at his house. I remember him saying “Yeah, there’s nothing quite like taking a 2am trip to the kitchen, only to suddenly see the large dark silhouette of Darth Vader exiting the hallway bathroom.”
I was just speaking about why Lucas disliked the actor.
Had the privilege of meeting Prowse at a sci-fi con in east Canada over 20 years back. He taught us a little song (to the Star Wars theme) “Star Wars/Made me a fortune/Paid off the mortgage/Bought a new car!”
This has been sad for me. I met Dave right after Star Wars and we’ve been friends ever since. He took me to the Empire set and introduced me to George Lucas who gave him the cold shoulder. On one U.K. trip we went to a children’s event and he was dressed as the Green Cross Man, very impressive - the kids loved him. We’ve spent many good times over the years in the US and U.K. I walked with him to the London medical clinic when he was going to get checked for what turned out to be arthritis that has crippled him over the years since then, and five years ago his memory became a slight problem. I saw him late last year in Texas and still hope to see him again.
Not to mention a pronounced Surrey accent that would have made Darth Vader sound quite rural. So far as I know, Lucas never intended to use Prowse's own voice.
Ping!
How about that?
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