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Star Wars Fans Pay Tribute To Darth Vader Actor David Prowse

James Earl Jones may have lent his sonorous tones to Darth Vader's iconic booming voice, but the onscreen performance itself came from former bodybuilder David Prowse. Legend has it that he didn't know his lines would be dubbed over until he'd seen A New Hope for the first time, and it seems hilarious at this stage to imagine the most fearsome villain in the galaxy sporting the actor's thick Bristol accent.

James Earl Jones may have lent his sonorous tones to Darth Vader’s iconic booming voice, but the onscreen performance itself came from former bodybuilder David Prowse. Legend has it that he didn’t know his lines would be dubbed over until he’d seen A New Hope for the first time, and it seems hilarious at this stage to imagine the most fearsome villain in the galaxy sporting the actor’s thick Bristol accent.

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Following Prowse’s death at the age of 85, tributes have been pouring in from every corner of the internet. While Star Wars will rightfully define his career, there were many more strings to his bow. After making his big screen debut as Frankenstein’s Creature in the 1967 spoof version of James Bond novel Casino Royale, the newcomer quickly cornered a wide open gap in the market looking for very tall and physically imposing people to play various creatures and monsters.

This let to guest spots on Space: 1999 and Doctor Who, while he also portrayed Mary Shelley’s literary creation twice more in The Horror of Frankenstein and Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell, as well as making a brief appearance in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. Tons of fans have been paying tribute to Prowse following his passing on social media, and you can check out just some of the reactions below.

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Despite being banned by Lucasfilm from all official Star Wars events in 2010 without any official reason being given, David Prowse will always remain a vital part of the franchise’s history, as well as leaving a lasting imprint on cinema in general having been the personal trainer to Christopher Reeve and Cary Elwes for Superman and The Princess Bride respectively, while during his competition days, he befriended an unknown young bodybuilder with a thick Austrian accent who had dreams of making it big in Hollywood.