A three-time British weightlifting champion, he represented England in weightlifting at the 1962 Commonwealth Games before breaking into movies with roles that emphasized his commanding size.<\/b>
\nDave Prowse, the British weightlifter-turned-actor who was the body, though not the voice, of arch-villain Darth Vader in the original \u00ab\u00a0Star Wars\u00a0\u00bb trilogy, has died. He was 85. Prowse died Saturday after a short illness, his agent Thomas Bowington said Sunday. Born in Bristol, southwest England, in 1935, Prowse was a three-time British weightlifting champion and represented England in weightlifting at the 1962 Commonwealth Games before breaking into movies with roles that emphasized his commanding size, including Frankenstein’s monster in a pair of Hammer Studios horror films. Director George Lucas saw Prowse in a small part in \u00ab\u00a0A Clockwork Orange\u00a0\u00bb and asked the 6-foot-6 actor to audition for the villainous Vader or the Wookie Chewbacca in \u00ab\u00a0Star Wars.\u00a0\u00bb Prowse later told the BBC he chose Darth Vader because \u00ab\u00a0you always remember the bad guys.\u00a0\u00bb Physically, Prowse was perfect for the part. His lilting English West Country accent was considered less ideal, and his lines were dubbed by James Earl Jones. Prowse donned Darth Vader’s black armor and helmet for \u00ab\u00a0Star Wars\u00a0\u00bb (1977), \u00ab\u00a0The Empire Strikes Back\u00a0\u00bb (1980) and \u00ab\u00a0Return of the Jedi\u00a0\u00bb (1983). He expressed some regret that, thanks to Vader’s mask, \u00ab\u00a0I can walk around with complete anonymity.\u00a0\u00bb \u00ab\u00a0All actors crave recognition and I’d like to have some like Luke Skywalker and Han Solo,\u00a0\u00bb he told The Associated Press in 1980. \u00ab\u00a0Fortune tends to follow fame.\u00a0\u00bb Prowse also worked as a trainer for other actors, helping Christopher Reeve prepare to be the Man of Steel in hit 1978 film \u00ab\u00a0Superman.\u00a0\u00bb Prowse was also known to a generation of British children as the Green Cross Code Man, a superhero in a series of road safety advertisements during the 1970s and ’80s. He was a regular at \u00ab\u00a0Star Wars\u00a0\u00bb fan events, but was banned from official conventions by Lucas in 2010 after the pair fell out. Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the \u00ab\u00a0Star Wars\u00a0\u00bb films, tweeted that Prowse was \u00ab\u00a0a kind man & much more than Darth Vader.\u00a0\u00bb Hamill said the actor \u00ab\u00a0loved his fans as much as they loved him. #RIP\u00a0\u00bb \u00ab\u00a0Ant-Man\u00a0\u00bb director Edgar Wright also paid tribute to Prowse on Twitter. \u00ab\u00a0As a kid Dave Prowse couldn’t be more famous to me; stalking along corridors as evil incarnate in the part of Darth Vader & stopping a whole generation of kiddies from being mown down in street as the Green Cross Code man,\u00a0\u00bb he wrote. \u00ab\u00a0Rest in Peace, Bristol’s finest.\u00a0\u00bb Prowse is survived by his wife Norma and their three children.<\/p>\n