Tributes paid to Bristol actor Dave Prowse

Dave Prowse, who played Darth Vader in the original Star Wars films, has died at the age of 85.

The former weightlifter, who grew up in Southmead and won a scholarship to Bristol Grammar School, represented England at the World Championships and the Commonwealth Games.

He was cast as the Sith lord for his imposing 6′ 6″ physique. But the character was voiced by James Earl Jones as it was thought that Prowse’s West Country vowels were not menacing enough, creating the start of a long rift between Prowse and Star Wars director, George Lucas.

Prowse also played the Green Cross Code Man, promoting road safety in the UK in the 1970s.

He was awarded an MBE for this work heading up the UK Child Pedestrian Road Safety Campaign, helping to significantly reduce child casualty figures and being awarded an MBE.

Lucas almost cast Prowse as Chewbacca, with Bristol’s connection to Darth Vader remembered at the Balloon Fiesta in 2019 when a Vader balloon flew over the city.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JbIjaqqPgM

Prowse was born in 1935 and his family lived in Southmead. His father, Charlie, was a sheet metal worker at the Bristol Aeroplane Company in Filton.

As a child, he spent a long spell in hospital with knee problems, which may have ruined his promising school athletic career but made him become a bodybuilder and weightlifter.

Even before finding fame for his weightlifting and work on the silver screen, he was well known in Bristol as a supervisor at The Glen, Bristol’s first commercial dance hall, where the Bupa Spire hospital on Redland Hill off the Downs is now located.

Prowse used to travel to The Glen on a tandem bicycle, “and if I met a girl I liked,” he told Somerset Life in 2011, “I would offer her a lift home. Little did she realise that she would be pedalling on the back half of my tandem!”

Prowse was also a member of the swimming club and worked as a lifeguard at Henleaze Lake.

Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, called the news of Prowse’s death after a short illness “so sad”.

In a tweet, he said: “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”

Anthony Daniels, who played C-3P0, said: “More sad news. Dave has gone. I don’t think 3PO ever faced Vader’s mighty presence on set, other than as a bag of bits on Chewie’s shoulders in the carbon freezer. But Dave’s iconic figure dominated the finished film in ’77 and has done so ever since. And will continue to do so.”

Film journalist, Hayley Campbell, said: “When I was a kid my dad phoned from a comic convention and asked my mum if he could bring Darth Vader home for tea. And that’s how Dave Prowse ended up in my house bitching about having his voice dubbed in Star Wars and how his wife made him keep his Vader statues in the garage,”

“May the force be with him, always!” said Prowse’s agent, Thomas Bowington, announcing the news of his death on Sunday morning.

“Though famous for playing many monsters – for myself, and all who knew Dave and worked with him, he was a hero in our lives.”

Bristol mayor Marvin Rees tweeted: “Sad to lose Dave Prowse, our #GreenCrossCode man and #DarthVader. A Bristol man and along with #WhyDon’tYou and #GrangeHill, part of our 70s and 80s childhoods”

Main photo: Lucas Film

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