David Charles Prowse MBE (1 July 1935 – 28 November 2020) was an English actor, bodybuilder, strongman and weightlifter.

[1] He portrayed Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy and a manservant in Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film A Clockwork Orange.

His early jobs included a bouncer at a dance hall, where he met his future wife, at Henleaze Swimming Pool.

The following two years[7] he represented England in the weightlifting event at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, Western Australia.

His first appearance is a brief cameo in a gym as a weightlifter in the 1968 TV show The Champions: the opening sequence of episode 2 "The Invisible Man".

He made an appearance as henchman Tony in the 1969 TV show The Saint (series 6 episode 20) starring Roger Moore.

In the United Kingdom, Prowse was well known as the Green Cross Man, a superhero invented to promote a road safety campaign for children in 1975.

[18] He had a role as Frank Alexander's manservant, Julian, in the film A Clockwork Orange (1971), in which he was noticed by the future Star Wars director George Lucas.

[19] Prowse claimed that he nearly got the role of Jaws in James Bond (which ultimately went to Richard Kiel) and was offered the part of Conan the Barbarian before Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[20] Prowse had a small role as Hotblack Desiato's bodyguard in the 1981 BBC TV adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

[30] Upon Prowse's death, Lucas stated that:David brought a physicality to Darth Vader that was essential for the character.

[31]In the 2004 documentary Empire of Dreams, actress Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia in the original trilogy films, quipped that they nicknamed Prowse "Darth Farmer" (a jibe regarding his West Country accent).

[34] After the original trilogy, future actors to succeed Prowse in his physical portrayal of Darth Vader include Spencer Wilding and Daniel Naprous (Rogue One), Hayden Christensen (Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan Kenobi), Dmitrious Bistrevsky and Tom O'Connell (Obi-Wan Kenobi).

In the episode, Prowse commented that he had a dispute with Lucas after he allegedly leaked reports of Darth Vader's death to the press.

Prowse had previously suggested that Darth Vader could be Luke Skywalker's father in a speech he gave to University of California, Berkeley, in 1978.

Gary Kurtz, the producer of The Empire Strikes Back, said in the 2015 documentary I Am Your Father that Prowse's apparent plot spoiler was simply "a good guess.

[52][53] Prowse became friends with Welsh musician Jayce Lewis when the latter was a teenager, after they met at a science fiction convention.

[59] On 1 October 2015, Lewis created a mini-documentary entitled The Force's Mouth, which gave Prowse the opportunity to hear himself voicing Darth Vader's lines with studio effects applied for the first time.

[64] Prowse worked with multiple arthritis organisations in Britain and was vice-president of the Physically Handicapped and Able-bodied Association.

[70][71] His final onscreen appearance[72] was filmed with his long-time friend the Welsh musician Jayce Lewis in a sci-fi music video titled Shields.

[76][77][78] Prowse was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to charity and road safety at the New Year Honours in 2000.