Who's Your Daddy?

 It is entirely forgivable if you answered the question, "Who played Darth Vader?" by replying, "James Earl Jones." Well, feel good about yourself. You didn't say "Hayden Christensen." Really. Or "Jake Lloyd." Come on. 

Oh. Sorry. You weren't expecting Nerd Central? Okay. Consider this your warning. Because today we come together to celebrate the life and work of David Prowse, the man who played Darth Vader. Well, as you can kind of piece together from that initial flurry, he had some help. And the record will show that Mister Prowse only appeared as the Sith Lord in the original trilogy. The movies that most of us will refer to as "the first three." This was before George Lucas got it into his head to tell us "the whole story" of young Anakin Skywalker, the poor little kid (bad actor) who grew into a troubled teen (bad actor) and became Darth Vader embodied by a man who we never saw and never heard. Considering how lame the initial portrayals of the baddest man in the galaxy, this was a savvy move on the creative team at Star Wars Inc. Extremely savvy when you consider this choice was actually made before messrs Lloyd and Christensen got their crack at it. 

Essentially, David Prowse was smart enough to keep him mouth shut and let Academy Award Nominated actor and national voice treasure James Earl Jones do the talking. Luke's father was an amalgam. But if somebody asked you, say at the beginning of this blog, to name the actor who played Luke's Skywalker's father, you would get solid props from the geek contingent by picking the guy whose name appears prominently on the movie's poster. You'd have to discern from Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker, who also appeared without actually appearing as themselves. 

And if this was all David Prowse ever did in his screen career, that would be significant. He also showed up as Frankenstein's monster a couple times as well as an appearance as Frank Alexander's bodyguard in A Clockwork Orange. He got the part because his bodybuilding background allowed him to carry Mister Alexander around the set. A big guy. So when it came time to cast the biggest bad guy in the galaxy, George Lucas picked David Prowse. 

The rest, as they say, is history. The history of a galaxy far, far away. And it should be noted that right about this same time, back here on earth, David Prowse became known as the Green Cross Code Man, champion of pedestrian road safety in his native Britain. He was awarded the honor of Member of the Order of the British Empire for teaching kids how to use the crosswalks. 

Aloha, David Prowse. You stomped on the crosswalks, Death Stars and the Terra. You will be missed.