♪♪
-The monster which appears behind the curtain
is Charles Ogle.
He was the first Frankenstein in film history.
Nobody remembers Charles Ogle.
But we all remember the Frankenstein Monster.
None of the monsters which appeared
in the following film adaptations
of Mary Shelley's work
resemble the Charles Ogle monster.
Well, maybe one did.
And like Mr. Ogle, behind that mask,
there's a man that nobody knows.
Sometimes, the most anonymous person
can hide the most amazing story.
♪♪
[ Film projector clicking ]
-I received a telephone call
from someone called Paul Donovan,
a journalist with the "Daily Mail,"
one of the major British daily newspapers.
After some chitchat and some personal questions
about my home life and family,
came out with a dramatic statement.
"Of course, you're gonna be killed off
in this latest movie, aren't you?
And not only that, but they've already got
another actor playing the dying Darth Vader.
And they are already filming in another part of the studio
so that you don't know what's going on."
"You must be joking," I said.
And I'm certain, if this was actually the case,
then I would've heard the news from George Lucas himself
or from the producer or at the very least
from the director, Richard Marquand.
After the reporter left, I checked on the call sheets.
And sure enough, there was Sebastian Shaw
playing Anakin Skywalker,
working in another studio
whilst I was doing my Darth Vader bit elsewhere.
I couldn't sleep that night for thinking about it.
It played on my mind the whole of the following day.
And I seethed throughout the entire hour
in the studio.
They were now pulling a stunt like this,
substituting another actor for me,
in what should've been the climax
of an outstanding role
and which would've given me recognition
for the last six years' work on the "Star Wars" movies.
-When you think of "Star Wars," the first thing you think of...
Darth Vader.
He stands right out.
-Without a shadow of a doubt, Darth Vader made "Star Wars."
-Well, he was the worst villain ever, right?
He's just a bad guy.
He's just full of, just, evil.
-He's power. He's fear.
He -- he, um, he controls very well.
-He's definitely gave new definition to the word villain.
-He is the character
that symbolizes the real villainy.
-The ultimate villain, definitely.
You know, there's no other villains out there
that compete with Darth Vader, really, is there?
-George Lucas was able to create a character
who was truly evil.
And yet, fit it into a family-entertainment film.
-That's one of the reasons,
I think, the film was so popular.
And a lot of -- a lot of kids
really loved the Darth Vader character.
-I mean, most people can recognize,
um, Vader just from a silhouette.
You don't have to have seen
the whole three-dimensional thing, just the outline,
and people would know it's Vader.
-It's one of the most powerful pop-culture images
from the 20th century,
you know, as the Mickey Mouse ears
or the Coca-Cola bottle, of Marilyn Monroe.
-I -- I can't think of anyone else
that, you know, even comes close.
Uh, you know, when you think evil,
intimidating, you know, that's Vader.
It's just synonymous with him.
-Everyone knows who is Darth Vader.
Anyplace you go around the world
and you show picture of Darth Vader,
they know who he is.
But who is the man
behind the most famous mask in movie history?
-Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to a new edition of "To Tell The Truth."
Number one, what is your name, please?
-My name is Dave Prowse.
-Number two? -My name is Dave Prowse.
-And number three? -My name is Dave Prowse.
-Okay, your job is to identify the real Dave Prowse.
And here is his story.
-Every good story needs a great villain.
Our villain does not come from a distant world,
nor is he the result
of a Machiavellian plan conceived by a mad doctor.
Our villain was born almost 80 years ago
in a poor neighborhood
in the city of Bristol, England.
-I have had my earliest memories,
when my father died, um, I was 2.
Dave was 4. My sister was about 7.
So it was a fairly poor background.
Dave was so big.
I mean, he's about 6'7" and, you know, 18-odd stone.
In the 1950s, um, that was --
that was gigantic.
We didn't have any money in those days.
So consequently, the training was done in the back garden.
And we often didn't have proper weights.
-I remember, sort of, growing up
and having a huge father.
He used to put you in the crusher.
He used to put you between his legs
and squeeze you.
And then his rough beard,
he would rub up against you and tickle you.
And you would never be able to escape 'cause he was so strong.
-Well, it was a bit embarrassing sometimes,
especially when he used to take over the --
the sitting room, uh, at home.
And, uh, but my mother sat there.
And then he would, uh, drape out the windows
with all kinds of things, covered --
covered himself with oil
and have some guy come along and take photographs.
I mean, it was pretty embarrassing for me.
But my mother didn't know what to think of it at all,
as he was slim down
in his tiny, little costume flexing his muscles.
This was at the early beginning.
'Cause my mother didn't have a clue
what was going on, you know?
-But the first time I met him,
I was kind of like, uh, taken aback.
He's a big guy, you know, big as me, strong.
And you have respect for that because it takes a lot
for a tall body builder,
a guy to be very successful.
-But eventually, he'd become British Heavyweight Champion
and then entered the Mr. Universe contest.
And I think that was when he, himself, could see,
"Wow, this is where I'm going."
♪♪
-I remember I was in my room.
And my father called me from the living room.
And he says to me, "Marcus, come here, you got to see this."
So I stopped playing and --
and went running to the living room.
And "Star Wars,"
the first one, "New Hope," was being played on television.
And I sat down with him.
And for the first time in my life,
I watched the whole movie.
-He had this Darth Vader mask.
And he was wearing the mask everywhere, all the time.
And he didn't even once or twice, it was several times
he went to school with that mask.
In 2004, David Prowse
was invited to the Sitges Film Festival.
So I went there with a good friend of mine.
And we enjoyed all the festival. It was great.
And the perfect time was at the end,
when I got the chance to meet Dave Prowse.
And it was great for me 'cause I was a huge fan of him.
-David was working in Harrod's,
the famous London department store
and as a personal trainer.
He had a gym there.
And Jimmy Sangster,
who was one of Hammer's writers
and producers, used to visit Harrod's.
And he met Prowse in his gym
at Harrod's, um, around 1969.
Now, it was at this point that Sangster was being given
his first opportunity to direct for Hammer.
And the first film he made for Hammer as a director
was the "Horror of Frankenstein."
And so when he met David Prowse,
he realized that he had the perfect physique
to play the monster.
-Hammer Films were a very important feature
of the British film industry
at the time of the, you know,
the glory years in the '50s through the '60s.
-After that, he made a film called "Vampire Circus,"
for the director Robert Young.
Um, this was a less significant role.
And then finally, he played the monster again,
a very different monster,
for Terence Fisher, who is widely regarded
as Hammer's most important director.
-And I think part of the success
of that film is, in fact,
due to Dave's performance,
which is all the more remarkable, really,
because we see less of Dave in that film
than we do in his preceding two Hammer films.
And he has to really convey the pathos
of the creature and the poignancy of the situation,
largely using just his eyes
because that's really all you can see of him.
-Help me.
-But he was always playing monsters, though.
You know, very seldom did he play scenes
where he was himself.
-The Hammer thing was,
you know, I was -- I was quite young then.
So I wasn't really allowed to watch the Hammer horror films.
Shows like the "Benny Hill"
and the, uh, "Two Ronnies,"
watched those, remember watching those with everyone.
-The Mighty Tonka.
-♪ Tonka, Tonka, Tonka, Tonka ♪
-Mighty tough, I show you.
-Even though he did a lot of serious "B" movies
at the '60s and '70s and TV shows,
he got his first big opportunity
on Stanley Kubrick's "Clockwork Orange."
-I really enjoyed my association
with Stanley and "Clockwork Orange."
Having worked with Stanley,
I became accepted for the first time
as Dave Prowse the actor,
rather than the heavy or the muscle-man roles,
which I have played throughout my career.
-David Prowse played a Superman character
on a Max Factor commercial.
So years later, he found out
that they were doing the Superman movie.
And they're gonna -- they were gonna shoot a Superman movie.
So he cast himself for the role.
Sometime later, Richard Donner,
the director of the film, called,
uh, David Prowse and said,
"You are gonna build up,
you are gonna train Christopher Reeve,
a young actor, that is actually going to play Superman."
-I would think that the worst part, though, was --
was having to get physically fit to play Superman
because I wasn't very healthy when I started out.
And, uh, in fact,
they brought along a coach, the British Olympic, uh...
-Dave Prowse, yeah. -Well, no, at first,
it was an Olympic coach for the British team.
-Oh. -And then, you know, he said,
"Well, I don't know what you can do with this guy.
He looks too skinny to me.
He looks like a, you know, string bean."
And so they went over his head and got Dave Prowse,
who, if you saw "Star Wars," he was...
-Yeah, we had Dave on the program.
-Did you? -And he was telling us
how you -- how he worked you out.
-Oh, God. Well, that was the hardest part
because we used to go into the gym
for two hours every evening
after shooting all day and --
and lift weights, you know, for -- for two hours.
And he started out by having me lift every weight
I possibly could, adding 5 pounds more
and 5 pounds more until finally I just couldn't even move.
And he said, "Right, that's where we start."
[ Conversing in Spanish ]
-I was a young kid.
And I was trying to understand,
what was the concept of a movie?
So I asked my mother, what -- what is a movie?
And -- and she told me,
"A movie is something a film director does,
a filmmaker does."
So from that day,
I got pretty obsessed with filmmaking.
-Well, I had worked with, uh, Francis Coppola several times
in the Roger Corman films that we made.
And Francis wanted me to, uh, produce "Apocalypse Now"
with George directing.
And we had several discussions about that.
And, um, out of that grew the fact that,
uh, Columbia Pictures was not really interested in --
in financing it at the time
because the Vietnam War was still in progress.
And they decided it was too controversial.
So George and I shifted to another project,
which was his idea for a science-fiction film
in the model of "Flash Gordon."
-I was asked to go down to John Mollo's,
um, office,
down in the wardrobe department.
And he showed me, um, uh,
just a drawing from one angle,
just a line drawing, um,
no shading to show -- show three-dimension.
And it was the new character
that I was to start working on.
And the character was Darth Vader.
-When George Lucas made "Star Wars"
at Elstree Studios in 1976, um,
Elstree was still, at that time,
the production base for Hammer films.
And, uh, the costume director
of "Stars Wars," Irene Lamb would've seen,
at Elstree Studios, would've seen the, uh,
the corridors lined with pictures of the Hammer stars.
-She read the script and looked
through all of the people that we needed.
And one of the requirements
was to try to find the tallest people
that we could find.
-Obviously, when George Lucas came to cast Darth Vader,
he wanted somebody with a major imposing physical presence.
He wanted a big --
a big man, you know, who could fill out
that very scary black silhouette that Darth Vader has.
There was nobody better in the British film industry
in 1976 than David Prowse for that job.
-[ Laughing ]
I am the crusher.
Got ya. Got ya. Got ya.
Oh, there's another monster!
-We just had everybody come in
that she had written down and, uh,
and interviewed everyone. And it --
it was -- it was clear right from the very beginning
that he was probably best for that part.
-The plasterers actually took a --
a mold, a live mold, from Dave Prowse
and created him in plaster.
And that's what I actually worked upon
to actually create Vader, knowing
that everything I sculpted would fit on Dave perfectly.
-So he looked like a superhero 'cause
he had that physique.
And that physique brought him into this film.
It's not about his ability to act or not.
It was about his ability to be himself.
-And I went up to the 20th Century Fox office
and George says, "Look, I've got --
I'm making this film, which is a space fantasy.
And I've got two parts I'd like you to consider."
And I said, "Well, tell me what they are."
And he said, "Well, the first part's the part
of a character called Chewbacca."
I said, "What in the hell's Chewbacca?"
And he said it was like a furry-type gorilla
that goes through the film on the side of the goodies.
And I turned my noise up. I thought,
"Well, I don't fancy, you know,
three months in a -- in a gorilla skin."
I said, "What's the other one?" And he said,
"Well, the other one's the big villain of the film."
I said, "Say no more, George, I'll take it."
-Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to London.
We inform you that we have landed
prior to the scheduled time of arrival.
♪♪
-Life is a one-way path, you know?
And there's some stops and gos.
And I think that there's a point in your life
that you have to decide if you stay or you leave.
Since I met Prowse in 2004, there has been this idea
that has been brewing in my mind.
And now I think's the perfect time.
So I want to propose Dave something
that no one ever has proposed him.
♪♪
So what I'm trying to do
is to get David Prowse, sit with him,
and ask him, "Would you like to re-shoot the scene
of 'Return of the Jedi' that you never did,
the scene that you couldn't do?
And, you know,
and fulfill that emptiness
you have with that part of the 'Star Wars' trilogy.
You know, give you back the glory."
And I hope he accepts my proposal.
[ Doorbell rings ]
-Ah, good morning. -Mr. Prowse.
-Good morning. -Good morning.
-Welcome to sunny Croughton. -Sunny Croughton.
-Sunny but cold. Now are you coming in?
-Well, long time no see. -Please, come in.
-Come on, let's go. -In, in.
These are some I found earlier on.
-Oh. -That's, uh, from
"Casino Royale" with David Niven.
-Oh. -Me then, with Frankenstein.
-Uh-huh.
The first time I met Dave, um, yes,
he was a very calm person, a very serious person.
And -- and a lot of people say that he's too serious.
But come on, that's the way we all imagine Darth Vader.
-I -- I found this somewhere. I don't know --
I don't know where we found it. -Mm-hmm.
-But I -- I -- I actually autographed the bottom, just --
just for a joke, I autographed.
-Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
-All right. And I said,
"Now I know why Sebastian Shaw got the role.
I was too handsome for the -- for the..."
-[ Laughs ]
I think this should be you.
-Yeah, it should've been, yeah, definitely.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
-Okay, everyone's ready?
And camera?
-Rolling. -Okay.
Uh, David, let --
let me call you David for this conversation.
Um, I'm here because I want to do your proposal.
But before that, I need to know,
what's your relation, now,
with Lucasfilm?
-Nil. Nil.
I've absolutely none,
no association with Lucas whatsoever.
I wish I had.
I'm very, very sorry, though. I'm sorry for --
I'm -- I'm sorry for all the things
which have happened to me wrongly, that's the --
that's the big problem.
I mean, if I -- if I -- if I --
if I'd been responsible for it, I would've,
uh, you know, I would've, uh, you know, I would've,
why, not sort of, uh, obviously, apologized.
But, I mean, it's a, um...
But some-- somebo-- somebody was obviously, you know,
using the information to, uh,
to sell to the press, using it from a money point of view.
-Have you ever tried to -- to reach anyone from Lucasfilm?
-No. No. No. -Okay.
Uh, uh, uh, I think... I, personally...
-No, you don't -- Well, you try, you know,
you explain your side of the story.
And if they don't accept it, they don't accept it.
And unfortunately, um, you know, they --
they prefer to, you know, acce--
accept their own, you know, their own versions of it.
-Okay, David. I understand.
But, um, to truly understand the whole story,
I need to know everything from the beginning.
♪♪
-It wasn't until the films came out
and you saw people queueing 'round the block to --
to get in to see the movies that you sort of realized,
"Well, hang on a minute, you know, what's --
what is actually going on here?
This has be-- become a phenomena."
-When it opened, it did something amazing,
you know, that we never seen before.
And none of us anticipated it.
-I went to the premiere in --
in Lester Square in London.
The Millennium Falcon went overhead.
And you're in the seat in the -- in the cinema.
And -- and big cinema screen with a wraparound screen.
And this thing went over our heads,
it -- or it felt as though it did.
And it went, "Whoosh."
Well, that roaring and the seats were moving with the sound.
-And at the end of the film,
everyone, the crew,
who are quite pessimistic
when it comes to films, stood up and applauded.
And I've never seen anything like it since.
-I mean, I remember my sister in Bristol, uh,
when she used to go to the butcher's, uh, the --
the guys behind the counter serving the meat
would sing the "Star Wars" song...[ Humming ]
...while she was in the queue.
-But we had no idea.
We didn't even have any idea that the -- the film
would be popular beyond the --
the sort of hard-core, science-fiction audience.
-The success of the thing was so phenomenal
that it changed the way films are made.
It changed the way films are even released,
you know, the pattern in which films are released.
And, uh, you know,
we're still in the kind of post "Star Wars" era
as far as filmmaking is concerned.
-The voice, of course, you don't provide.
Do you find it frustrating as an actor not to --
not to be performing vocally? -Um, yes, terribly.
I -- I -- Actually, I performed all the way
through the picture, um,
'cause I have to learn all the dialogue.
And the actors, you know, the other actors in the film
have to react to me and things like this.
Um... -But then they re-dub?
-Um, but then they re-dub, yeah.
I think the -- the problem was, as you obviously realized,
I have a -- a -- a west-country accent.
-Oh, I wouldn't say that. -Very slight, very slight.
-Probably the voice of David Prowse
at the time wasn't the voice
that George Lucas imagined for his character.
-He comes from the part of England
which has a very strong accent,
a lovely accent, the west country accent.
And it doesn't fit very well with a futuristic character.
-We told Dave at the time, during shooting,
that his voice would not be used,
that we needed an electronic voice.
We needed a processed voice.
One that sounded like it came through the respirator
and was -- and was electronically filtered.
So it had to be highly,
highly processed in -- in post production.
-My job was to go to a -- a -- a -- I went to a place
where they sell underwater equipment, scuba equipment.
And I recorded me breathing in an old oxygen,
in -- in a scuba mask.
I put the microphone down inside it,
so it was very close perspective,
and, uh, recorded that, me breathing.
And then we -- we edit that
to fit the rhythm of the speaking in the film.
So as James Earl Jones is the voice.
And then, Ben Burtt as the --
as the breathing. So there you go.
-James Earl Jones has very graciously
acknowledged, I believe,
that, uh, David Prowse is Darth Vader.
-I'm simply special effects.
Uh, George has recently admitted that he --
when he hired David Prowse,
he thought that was his Darth Vader.
This guy who's over 6 foot, 6 1/2 feet tall.
-I think, uh, Dave had said several times
that he thought that his voice would be used
in the -- in the finished film.
-So I had no idea. I mean, when I saw the movie
and this strange voice came -- came out.
And everybody comes up -- everybody was coming up to me
after the movie, and when -- at the premiere.
And things -- As you know, when we -- When the first --
the first press showing we have, they said, "Oh, that was...
When did they do the voice, Dave?
When did you do the voice?" And I said, "I don't know.
It wasn't me, like, you know, in that."
-James Earl Jones did a wonderful job
portraying the voice of Darth Vader.
No one can change that.
But curious enough, the voice from David from today
is very similar to the voice of James Earl Jones
when they did "Star Wars."
-You are part of the rebel alliance.
Take her away.
Impressive, most impressive.
-So at the end of shooting on the first film,
we took bits of set like interior Millennium Falcon,
bit -- all sets we might use in another movie
and put them in containers
on the back lot at Elstree studios
to store them.
So a year later, we bring 'em out and use 'em.
Or a year later, we bring 'em out
and break 'em up
and send 'em away like all the sets.
Well, we brought them out and used them again.
-Once upon a time in a film studio far away,
they decided to make a science-fiction film.
And they saw that -- that it was good.
So they made a sequel. And that was even better.
That amazing film is called "The Empire Strikes Back."
-I think it's the best of the... all six.
If you -- if you think, you have --
you had everything in that. You had so much going.
You had comedy. You had thrills.
You had everything. And it was -- it drove --
that film drove for the next film.
-I think, probably, it's more down to the time
spent working with the characters.
It turns the normal model of a --
of a big, epic film on its head
by placing the big action scene
at the beginning.
-The -- the way that the -- the characters
just blend and meld,
they -- they evolve right in front of your eyes.
-It was the whole look of the film.
It was the cinematography of the film as well.
-It's hard to --
to explain unless you watch it.
I mean, you've seen it. You know.
The -- the -- the characters, they...
You fall in love with them so easily.
It's -- it's just...
I don't know how to explain it.
-It was the way that, uh, that George Lucas, uh,
and Gary Kurtz, the producer and Irvin Kershner,
the director, color-coded the film.
-Uh, the story line on it was just awesome.
The director who did it was awesome on it.
I mean, visiting other planets, actually, other thing...
Just the way the whole thing lines up.
You end up on Cloud City
and everything else like that, just awesome.
-It's the best directed.
It's got the best actors in it, I think.
It's got the best story line. It's -- it's...
I think it's the most polished out of all the movies.
It's darker, as well, uh, "Empire."
-You got a taste of what Vader could do in the first one.
Uh, you know, in "Star Wars."
But in "Empire," you really saw what he's capable of.
-In the first film, he's probably only in, maybe,
10, 12 minutes of the whole film.
Uh, but in -- in the sec--
He has a much bigger part in the second film.
-I enjoyed working on the movie.
It was... I -- I enjoyed working with, uh,
Irvin Kershner, who was a very nice
director, nice -- nice guy to work with.
-You know, the -- the true "Star Wars" fan film
that you have to always go back and watch.
If someone's never seen "Star Wars," they have to watch
"The Empire Strikes Back" first.
-Well, I was fortunate.
When I saw "Empire Strikes Back," I didn't know
about the big twist in the ending of that film
when Darth Vader reveals that -- that he is Luke's father.
No one spoiled it for me at all.
I'd say it was an astonishing thing, absolutely astonishing.
-It was the biggest movie twist ever because that moment,
especially when you're a kid, you don't know that's coming.
It defines the entire trilogy.
And it -- it set the tone
for all the future "Star Wars" everything.
-People started calling me Luke from there on in.
So, uh, yeah, it's bit of a nickname is Luke for me.
-It's a brilliant piece of, um,
vault fast, if you like.
It was a complete turnaround. And it was perfect
because that's the nature of the film,
"I am your father."
-My understanding is that when the confrontation
between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker was filmed,
my understanding is that, um, David Prowse
was given different dialogue in that scene.
-In the script, it was written at the --
at the final moments
between Luke and -- and Vader,
and the lightsaber duel,
that Darth Vader was going to say
"Obi Wan, um, killed your father."
And then Luke was going to yell,
"No, it's impossible."
And then commit suicide.
And when -- when they were filming that scene,
that particular day, Larry Kasdan and George Lucas
came to the set
and talking privately with Irvin Kershner.
And we've got this idea.
What if Darth Vader is Luke's father?
-Why this was done, I don't know.
Um, it was possibly to ensure
that the big revelation, the big twist in the film,
was kept a secret.
Kept a secret even from the cast members
who were taking part in it.
-We -- we didn't tell anyone.
We didn't tell Dave, or Mark, or anybody.
Um, that was added in post-production,
so that there wasn't anyone on the set
except George and I who knew
that that's the way the scene was going to play.
-My understanding, equally,
is that David Prowse only knew that --
only realized, discovered
that Darth Vader was Luke's father
when he actually saw the finished film
with the dialogue that had been dubbed.
-I didn't know I was Luke Skywalker's father
until I went to the cinema and saw it in the movie.
-During the creation and research of, uh,
this documentary,
we found a, um, interview
that they did to Dave Prowse
in 1977 after "Star Wars: A New Hope" was released.
And on that interview,
they ask him if there was going to be another "Star Wars" movie.
And he said, "Yes, I hope so."
So when they ask him for the possible plot,
he said that it would be a great idea
if Darth Vader could be the father of Luke Skywalker.
-And when we were shooting the first film, there was no --
no feeling that there would be any other films.
It was intended to be a single film, and that was it.
And when it was released and popular,
and Fox decided they liked the idea of a sequel,
then the sequels were written.
-The funny thing is that that interview
was made before Leigh Brackett
wrote the first draft of "The Empire Strikes Back,"
and obviously before the film was shot.
-I remember that particular interview,
that it wasn't --
I told Dave that I didn't think that he should do those
because they were potentially damaging to the projects.
-So my question is,
did he accidentally have one of the greatest ideas
in movie history?
-Do -- do you know who -- who was the person
who had the idea,
the original idea, to make the big, bad villain of the film
the father of the hero?
-I can only assume it was George Lucas.
He never discu-- discussed it with me.
-I can't really remember exactly how that came up,
but it was clear that the drama needed to move that way
to allow the rest of the story to play out,
so that Luke's dilemma in dealing with Darth Vader
had to be brought to the forefront
of how the story was told.
-W-w-well, how did they know
there was going to be a lightsaber duel?
How did they... -'Cause...
-How did they know
there was going to be a lightsaber duel between...
-You said it. You --
-No, no. -You advanced it.
You advanced it. It was something you said,
and you advanced it, and...
It's not only impossible he knew that information,
it's impossible he knew that there was going to be
a second movie. -Hmm.
I -- I -- I don't know where it's come from.
-He doesn't remember the interview
today or what he said.
Remember, this was very long time ago.
-It was purely brought out of his imagination
because it certainly wasn't a thing
that any of us knew about.
So maybe he's got an ability,
um, almost psychic to, um,
see a future event.
-So he -- It -- it was guess. It was a lucky guess.
-Yeah, absolutely.
-It was, uh, annoying, I suppose,
that he was even talking about it
because it was the wrong time
to mention it at all.
-So -- so, if he didn't know about it, it was a guess.
-It was a guess, yes. -"So you've got
Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker,
the young hero in the first part
of the first film, played by Mark Hamill,
are hooked up in a do-or-die lightsaber duel
when Luke learns that Darth is,
in fact, his long-lost father."
Well, I mean, I -- I -- I...
Luke learns from Darth Vader.
But, I mean, um...
Oh.
-So it's kind of funny that Dave Prowse,
the bodybuilder, you know,
the actor who played, actually had a right guess
of something like that. -Mm-hmm.
-That was -- that was gonna happen.
So I guess... He -- he didn't know until,
uh, he said until the screening
of the movie. -Yeah.
-What a guess. -Yes.
It was -- it was a good guess.
-The curious thing is that the first person
to say that Darth Vader is the father of Luke Skywalker
was Dave Prowse, the real Darth Vader.
Eddie.
-Hey, Marcos. -Hey, how you doing.
-All right. -Thank you.
-Okay. Let me show you this.
Okay. What I'm going to show you is, uh,
what I told you before, what I want to re-create.
-Mm-hmm. -And I think, uh,
that you're the person
that can help me do this. -Uh-huh.
-You may think it's a little bit crazy,
or it's very risky,
but I think we can do it.
Let me show you this.
[ Speaking Spanish ]
-The Green Cross Code and Darth Vader
came at the same -- almost exactly the same period.
In fact, the, uh, "Star Wars" people
gave me a week off to go
and film the Green Cross Code commercials.
And it's marvelous because the, uh, you know,
Darth Vader has given the Green Cross Code man
a lot of publicity.
-Yeah, it's double-casting, yeah?
-It is, it is, 'tis, yes.
Because I'm this sort of goody on one side
and the baddie on the other, and the, uh, at one time, the --
the Department of Transport
nearly sacked me because they thought my image
as Darth Vader would have a detrimental effect on my image
as the Green Cross Code man.
-Emergency! Calling Green Cross Man.
-Green crosses.
-Where do you think you're going, you dumbo?
-Green Cross! -When you get to the curb,
always stop, stop, stop!
-Sorry, Green Cross.
-Remember, stop near the curb,
not on it.
That's the way!
Always use the Green Cross Code
because I won't be there when you cross the road.
-I think every person my age in this country, in England,
will remember David Prowse as the Green Cross Code man.
-I did, um, I think six.
Six or nine television commercials
for the campaign o-- o--
over a period of something like 14 years, we were doing it.
-He dressed up as a sort of superhero-type character,
and he made television commercials,
um, telling children
how to be safe when they cross the road.
But I think David took it --
took it a lot further than that as well.
I think he also visited a lot of schools, I think.
And I think it's, um, I think
he undeniably saved probably an awful lot of lives,
I think, as the Green Cross Code man.
-We actually halved
the road accident figures in Great Britain.
They went down from over 40,000 a year,
down to just less than 20,000 a year.
It was a tr-- a-- amazing campaign.
-He used to be given, uh,
vehicles to travel around the country
to go to all these different schools.
But at one point, he had a Bedford --
a Bedford van,
and he had it all painted with his figure on the side
with the green cross and the little robot as well.
And, um, yeah.
That was quite embarrassing.
-So, I mean, even today, you can still hear --
you can still hear people in their middle age
singing the Green Cross Code tune.
-♪ When there is no traffic coming ♪
♪ Walk straight across ♪
♪ Looking and listening as you cross ♪
♪ He's the Green Cross Code man ♪
♪ He wants you to be safe and you can ♪
♪ If you stop, look, listen ♪
♪ And wait ♪
♪♪
-I'm amazed. I -- I really am.
I'm knocked out by the -- you know,
by the reactions of the fans.
I must say, by the way, that you've, um, you -- you --
you've made a wise decision.
You've come to probably one of the best conventions.
Megacon has been going, you know, quite a few years.
And they -- they're attracting audiences.
Or, at least, they're attracting, well,
fan -- fans in their thousands.
I think, probably, we'll have over 70,000 people here
over the weekend.
-I'm going to send a girl around,
the girl that was with me, to find out
what time you all would like to go back to the hotel
this afternoon. -Okay.
-Okay? And she'll --
she'll get any information, or anything you need...
-What time -- what time do we finish?
-Um... -What time does it close?
Is it 6:00?
-I was going to say I think it's 6:00.
I was going to look at the back of my badge.
-Yeah, yeah.
I'm a little behind time as well.
-Yeah, we stay till the bitter end is finished.
-Till the bitter end? That's funny.
-We'll be there till 6:00.
-That's why everybody loves you guys so much.
'Cause you're there for the long haul, as we say.
-Yeah, yeah.
-The whole thing is growing. It --
it's, like, been getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
It's like, you know, the fan reaction
a few years ago was fairly --
was fairly mundane.
Like, you know, okay. That was Dave Prowse.
I -- I've been in quite -- quite a few movies,
and one of which was "Star Wars."
But now, of course, "Star Wars" is...
We're now -- we're now...
"Star Wars" is now regarded as one of the --
the ultimate sci-fi movies of all time.
I'm now regarded as the ultimate screen villain
of all time.
And so, consequently, as I said, the, uh,
the fan acclaim
has just got better and bigger.
It's not hard work at all.
It's -- it's, uh, it's -- it's --
it's a very rewarding work.
You know, and you get the appreciation from --
from older people, like myself,
who have been going to the cinema
for all these years and things like this.
You get children who love -- who love the scene --
who love the, uh, who love the films
and their, uh, you know, their parents.
And, uh, you know, it's just -- it's just a knockout scene.
It really is.
-Hello, good morning. This is Jeremy Bulloch.
CNN, downtown Florida. Well, as you can see,
it's beginning to get rather busy here.
We've had the great Darth Vader,
who's just moved in.
The great Boba Fett, who's far more
experienced at these sort of things.
But, uh, nice to see you.
And just hang around. And there's lots to see.
Huge hall. Nobody coming in at all.
I don't -- I think they're sunbathing.
But we'll see you later on. Thanks.
-Ladies and gentlemen, the real, the only,
a true international legend,
Mr. David Prowse.
-Well, I think what -- what Dave gave to the character was,
um, was just the way he --
he behaved in the costume,
the way he moved and his presence
in the scenes was,
uh, was unique in the sense
that any actor would give it a slightly different twist.
-It was a perfect marriage,
and as a result --
God bless him, good luck, Dave --
he became, if you like,
the most evil presence
in the whole universe.
-You know, the way he carried himself, every little gesture.
He really sold it, you know.
And as much as James Earl Jones was the voice,
David really, you know,
is the one that sold the acting.
-It is the ultimate acting because he only uses his --
his body, you know?
The -- the great -- greatest actors
from the beginning of film history, you know.
Chaplin and Buster Keaton, they didn't use his voice.
They -- they only use their --
their bodies and their movement.
So David Prowse is acting --
acting in a very difficult manner to express himself
because we can't even see his face.
-I think, uh, I mean, definitely. He was --
he was Darth Vader, you know? -Yup.
-Like that was, it was his character.
I mean, James Earl Jones may have done the voice,
but David Prowse, he was the body, the movements that,
like, that awesome glove, like, clench, you know?
-He is Vader.
The stance, the presence, the strength, the --
the power of Vader.
That is who we all look at.
When we think of Vader, that's who we think of.
-And he's still doing it.
To this day, he's still here doing this for people
that he enjoys because these people enjoy him.
-A figure that has resonated
as a, uh, one of the best bad guys in Hollywood history.
-Yup.
He made it.
He made Vader.
-Well, Dave, I think,
was probably born to be Darth Vader.
-It pleases me to no end
that something I have done
has affected fans in -- in such a way.
-Darth Vader is bigger than life.
David Prowse is bigger than life.
-I didn't really feel
that I could contribute anything more to --
to "Jedi" because I didn't like the way the script was going
and -- and I'd done all of the visual effects before.
So I was really looking for a new challenge.
"The Dark Crystal" was -- was that challenge.
-I had more control,
personally, on "Jedi."
And I'm not saying as a result it all went perfectly,
but as a result, I was able
to pitch things in a way
that they could get done in that way so that, um,
the entire process would work out okay.
-Well, that was the worst film I've ever --
I've ever been involved in because we had a director there
who, uh, called Richard Marquand who didn't want to speak to me.
And he never spoke to me for the entire movie.
Yeah.
I mean, it was a -- it was a really weird movie
to get involved in.
He started using my stunt man to do lots of the things
I should have been doing myself, you know.
And I'd be sitting around, waiting,
a-all in my gear,
all ready to do -- all ready to work,
and next thing I know, the stunt man
would be up and doing what I should be doing, you see.
And, um, I let this go on for a little while,
then all of a sudden, one day,
I, um, I --
I saw my stunt man getting, um, getting dressed again.
And I said -- I said to myself, "You know -- you know,
what -- what -- what's this?"
It was Bob. Bob Anderson.
I said, "W-w-what are you getting dressed for?"
He said, "Oh, well, this is the bit where,
um, the, um,
Darth Vader is going to throw the --
the Emperor off the balcony, you see."
I said, "Well, hang on a minute, are you going to do this?"
And he said -- he said, "Well, yeah. They want me to."
Well, I said, "Well, hang on a minute."
I said, "You know, how -- how are you going to do it?"
Then he said, "Oh, they're gonna rig it
in such -- in such a way, you see."
So anyway, I thought, "Well, this is -- this is --
this is gonna be interesting." And then we got --
we got to -- we got right to the Friday.
They went from Monday through till Friday doing this,
trying to get this scene.
And at the end of this, at the end of Friday, I --
I admit, I -- I thought, "Well, I must --
I must say something, all right."
So I went up to Richard Marquand, you see.
And I said to him, I said, "Excuse me," I said,
"But just what are you trying to do?"
And he said, "Well, you know, you see,
we've got to get the scene where the Emperor
gets thrown off the balcony." And I said, "Well, it's easy."
He said, "What do you mean, easy?"
I said, "Well," I said, "All that, you know, all
you've got to do is pick him up, lift him up here,
throw him off the balcony." He said, "Could you do that?"
I said, "Well, of course I could!"
I said, "I wasn't the British heavyweight weight-lifting
champion for nothing, like, you know."
He said, "All right. First thing Monday morning."
-And I remember I talked to Dave about it.
Dave told me when he did that scene,
he injured his back.
And he was in a lot of pain.
And I remember he told them, he said one or two takes.
I'm going to pick the Emperor over my head,
and make sure you get this shot.
-So, uh, I went in.
Picked him up, threw him off the balcony.
One take, yeah.
-"Wretched devil!
You reproach me with your creation.
Come on then, that I may extinguish the spark
which I so negligently bestowed."
-In "Return of the Jedi,"
when Darth Vader's helmet is removed, uh,
it's not David Prowse
that we see underneath,
which I think was the source of some disappointment to him.
It's, um, it's the classically trained
Sebastian Shaw.
-Dave wasn't involved in those things
because it wasn't right, you know.
I -- I didn't want Dave to know personally.
I didn't want Dave to know what we were doing
because he had a tendency sometimes to talk to the press,
which wasn't, uh, okay
for this particular revelation.
So I know he had a bit of a thing
about "Return of the Jedi," and that.
But how can I put it?
It was probably half our fault and half his.
-I was very disappointed they didn't use Dave
at the end scene where they unveil the mask.
I was very disappointed
because I think it should have been Dave
because he played Darth Vader all these movies,
and then they have another actor
to play Darth Vader for the look of it.
-It wouldn't have actually worked for him to do it.
And it wasn't right.
But I knew that, um...
The day we shot that, I thought,
"I wonder if Dave's gonna know that this is being shot today?"
So just in case, I had a security guard
on every door of the stage.
-They didn't use, uh, Dave Prowse
in the -- in that scene.
It's because, uh, they...
George felt that, uh,
that the character should look old.
And -- and Dave didn't look old.
-He looks old now. He probably --
he could probably do it now.
-Yes, he could probably do it now.
-Well, it would -- it would have been nice.
It would have been nice to have ended the --
to have ended the movie in --
in -- in, uh, in the proper way, as it were.
-I truly think that for that one-minute scene,
he had the ability, the acting ability to do it.
-The -- the -- the -- the only, basically,
what I call the wrong thing was "A,"
I think they should have told me.
And number two, I shouldn't have had to wait until I saw --
I, you know, I -- I saw the film
and since realized
that they cast somebody else as the, uh,
as the dying Darth Vader.
When I arrived,
I was immediately told to report to George Lucas' office,
and I was confronted by George who had that morning's copy
of the "Daily Mail" in his hands.
There, on page 3, in bold headlines, it states,
"Darth Vader To Be Killed Off In The Next 'Star Wars' Movie."
And the subheading, which reads,
"In An Exclusive Interview With Dave Prowse."
No matter what I said, George wouldn't believe me.
If he had only thought about the situation,
he would have soon realized that it wasn't me
who was giving information -- or more likely selling it --
to the press.
-The article, the "Daily Mail,"
was a pretty big reason
for George Lucas to get upset with Dave Prowse.
Because, uh, on that interview,
David Prowse supposedly revealed the end
of George Lucas' trilogy.
So me, as a director, if one of --
if one of my actors actually revealed the end
of my film,
I would get very upset, too.
So I can understand George Lucas getting angry.
-You had to be very, very careful when, um,
when you were doing interviews
and when you were working on the movie because last thing --
the last thing Lucasfilm wanted was for any --
any -- any information from,
you know, from the film getting out to the press.
-On this particular day, my --
either my boss, Rod Gilchrist,
the showbiz editor, or his deputy, Nick Gordon,
who were in a separate office from me,
they got a call from someone on the set of Elstree,
where the third "Star Wars" film was being made.
I didn't know who this person was.
It was either a technician or an extra.
-Well, unfortunately, once again I got the blame --
I got the blame for it.
But somebody -- somebody on the set
was obviously giving information out to the press.
-So the showbiz editor comes out of his office
and says to me, sitting at my little desk,
"Paul, get onto Dave Prowse.
We've had this tip that they're killing off his character.
Does he know about it?
What does he think about it?" There's obviously that.
If that can be stood up, as we say,
if that can be substantiated, that's a very big story.
-There was somebody asking me if I was getting --
if I was getting killed off in the movie.
I -- I couldn't have said yes or no.
Um, I wouldn't -- I wouldn't --
I would never have answered the question.
The last thing I would want to do is incriminate myself
any -- any deeper than I was with Lucasfilm
in the -- in the first instance.
-So I can't remember how I got on to Dave Prowse,
whether I went to see him or whether I called him.
And he said,
"I know nothing about this at all,
but they make a habit of not telling me things."
-When they came to episodes two and three,
they were absolutely paranoid about secrecy.
And, as I said, oh, you used to get your pages --
your pages, you used to get sort of
motorcycled down to you the night before,
when you had to -- when you had to sign to say
you had received your pages.
And then you had to learn your lines overnight.
And then, uh, and then you -- and then the following day,
you used to have to go back to --
go to the studio, and take your pages with you,
hand your pages back into the studio, and, uh,
and then you'd do your little bit of filming during the day.
But so -- but I never, ever had any information, um,
to say that I was going to be killed off in the movie.
-So if George Lucas thinks that Dave Prowse
was the source of something, he's completely mistaken.
-It's a sad way for the -- for the whole thing for me to end.
And I -- I'm still...
And to this day, I'm still suffering
from the wrath of Lucas over that,
over whatever was happening on --
on episode three. And I'm -- I'm --
I'm totally being ignored by Lucasfilm.
They -- they ignore me completely.
Um, I've tried to explain time and time and time again
that there's no way that I could have known
that Darth Vader was going to be killed off
in the movie.
-I think the phenomenon of the conventions
is a really interesting one.
I know there are a lot of fans out there.
They -- they like the idea
of being able to talk to the actors
and getting them to sign an autograph for them
that they can have at home.
I think that's great.
♪♪
-Something's happened along the way
to ban me from doing the Cel-- Celebration conventions.
I mean, that is def-- that's a terrible thing to do.
I mean, because it is the biggest "Star Wars" celebr--
biggest happening. And they come --
they come up every three years with the launch of the films.
-I vaguely know about that,
and I can't tell you 100% why,
but I think it's to do with his saying
to the press things that he shouldn't do.
-I missed -- I missed him here.
Yeah, and I heard in the last days
that he also said that he would come to here,
but no one ask him to come here to Celebration.
And I think it -- it's not good.
-I saw him a year ago in Holland,
in a smaller convention.
So I got lucky to meet him.
But a lot of fans here are, uh,
are not so lucky.
I think it's too bad he's not here.
-The film business is a nasty game in general, you know.
It's full of a lot of egos.
-Entertainment is a tough game.
You guys work in entertainment.
It's tough, isn't it?
-You know, if you're working for a big company,
you get employed to do a job.
Once that job's done, you're paid
and you're out the door.
So it's business.
-George doesn't actually,
uh, run the -- run the area
that deals with merchandise and the public appearances
and the conventions.
All that's done by outside people.
So I think that,
um, that's where the, um,
probably the strained relationship is.
Not with -- not with George personally.
-It's all a mystery to me, really.
Nothing to do with me.
You know, I'm surprised he's not here today.
But he's not.
So there you go. What can I say?
-Yeah, I think he should be here.
I mean, uh, after all, he's Darth Vader,
lord of the Sith,
and he should be a part of this celebration, yeah.
Definitely. -It does seem a little odd.
That's something you'd have to ask them about because it --
it does seem odd.
-I can understand that,
and, you know, hey,
it's not my decision, those kind of things.
I'm not trying to wriggle out of answering to you.
-If if is true that George Lucas
or his colleagues have penalized Dave Prowse for something
he did not say and for a leak
for which he was not responsible,
that clearly is an injustice.
And if Lucas has done that, then he should apologize,
in my view.
Seems natural justice
'cause Dave Prowse never told us anything.
-We actually went to the "Daily Mail,"
and we talked to the reporter. His name is Paul Donavan.
And we asked him,
"Is it true that Dave Prowse gave you all this information?"
And it was surprising for us because he said,
"No, he never told us anything."
Um, it was members from the crew.
But for the news, it was okay to put that it was Dave Prowse.
Do -- do you know anything about that?
-That's very interesting.
I've not heard that before,
and I think that makes sense all around
because the reputation that Dave had
of potentially talking to,
uh, the press, et cetera, about anything
was there within our organization.
We had acted accordingly.
But it's interesting to hear that
because probably he, uh, you know,
is completely innocent of all of that.
-You know, Dave, um, I'm going to be honest here.
Um, there's something that has --
has been running my mind all these days, and --
and I want to ask you.
And I want you to tell me the truth.
Would you like to be Darth Vader again?
Would you like to reshoot the scene
of Darth Vader's death, the dying Darth Vader,
and have me as a director and reshoot it again?
[ Telephone rings ]
-Good morning. How may I help you?
-Hi. Good morning.
My name is Marcus. I'm one of the directors
who are doing a documentary about actor David Prowse,
the actor who played Darth Vader in "Star Wars."
-Mm-hmm. -Yes, um,
I would like to know with --
with who do I have to speak to get permission for, uh,
a reshoot of one of the scenes
of "Episode VI: Return of the Jedi?"
-Yes. Just hold the line, please.
-Thank you.
♪♪
-David Prowse was the body
behind the mask of Darth Vader
in "Star Wars," bigger than life,
dodging and swaying the laser sword,
bad guy fighting the good.
In real life, Darth Vader is a good guy helping kids
to cross the street.
David Prowse is our feature story for today.
-Two.
Three.
I was a -- a strange situation whereby every--
everybody thinks that because I'm Darth Vader that they --
My whole family should be involved
in Darth Vader and everything which has happened to me.
Um, they said that -- that there -- there
should be some sort of involvement in them.
But it's -- it's -- it's quite strange where, in,
I mean, particularly with my family.
I mean, my wife, basically,
wants nothing to do, uh, publicity wise with --
with Darth Vader and everything else.
And I think she gets sick and tired of Darth Vader.
-Constantly being teased
and constantly being asked for autographs.
And whenever dad used to drop us off at school,
he'd be mobbed. -I used to get
to the school playground, and they used to run away, gone.
And all the other kids at school
in the playground, they'd always come and crowd around me.
They all wanted to know --
All wanted autographs and things like this.
But my kids were embarrassed about it, like, you know.
-A lot of family don't really understand it.
Well, I mean, I only just, uh... [speaks indistinctly]
But he loves the, uh, he just lives for "Star Wars."
I mean, it's his -- it's his life, really.
-My wife -- my -- my wife, unfortunately,
thinks that -- that --
that Darth -- Darth Vader is --
is an intrusion into our married life.
But that's -- that's -- that's her opinion, you know.
She feels that my life is taken over completely
by Darth Vader to the, um,
and to, basically, to -- to --
to the, um, exclusion of, um,
of -- of -- of married life,
as it were. Yeah.
So I, uh, have to be really careful.
-Attention, passengers.
We've now reached our destination.
We hope you enjoyed the flight and have a nice day.
-Every good story needs a great villain.
But the best villain is the one who,
on his death bed,
having failed in his evil plan to rule the world,
looks for redemption.
And while the inexorable passage of time
heralds his inevitable end,
he seeks a second chance,
a new hope.
-Even if they don't let me reshoot that scene,
even if we haven't got permission to show it,
uh, I think
that we're gonna do it because David Prowse,
he's 80 years old now.
And if we -- if we don't do it now,
we're not gonna do it never. You know, it's not gonna work.
So I think now's the time
because we have a great team
who wants to do it.
We have the ability to do it.
And it's something that we want to do.
And no one's gonna stop us.
And -- and we think it's the perfect time
to give David Prowse the glory
that he didn't have, the recognition
he didn't have 35 years ago.
-I'd be quite happy to do it.
All right. -Thank you, Mr. Prowse.
-Yeah, lovely. -Thank you for everything.
♪♪
-Okay, guys. Thank you for coming here.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away,
this scene was already, uh, shot.
-And you're -- you're gonna get your picture taken.
[ Camera shutter clicks ]
-Now we're going to do it again
for a special occasion.
It's not only special for me.
Uh, it's not only special for you.
I think it's special for David Prowse
that is being dressed right now.
-Will my wife recognize me?
-[ Speaks Spanish ]
[ Indistinct conversations ]
-On the -- on the cushion, as well.
You know, the whole...
-Wire shadows.
And camera. -Rolling.
-Action.
-Will the real Dave Prowse please stand up?
Dave, in all these movies that you're in, "Jabberwocky"
and "The Frankenstein," did they ever see your face?
-Uh, I think you saw my face once,
uh, in "Clockwork Orange."
That's one of the few films you've actually seen
where you do see my face because, uh,
most of the "Frankenstein" films are all very, very heavy,
big make-up jobs.
Uh, this film, uh,
"Star Wars" was, obviously, you know, covered from head
to toe in black all the way through.
Uh, very, very seldom you actually do see my face.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
Dave. -Good morning.
How you doing?
-Very well. Very well.
-All the fans are inside waiting for you.
-You mean both of them? -Yeah.
How was the -- how was the ride, fine?
-Yeah. Lovely. -Great, great.
Thank you very much, Dave.
-Nice taxi driver. -Okay.
-It's been very lucky to get the part of Darth Vader
or choosing the part of Darth Vader
when it was offered to him.
His career, he's achieved a lot,
and not just in acting but in weight training,
being British champion.
He's been a good family man.
He's brought us -- brought all of us up very well.
He's been very generous.
He's nice -- nice person to have around.
-He's a normal, everyday person.
When he's not at a convention,
and he's not dealing with his fans
and doing anything to do with his movies,
he's a perfectly normal person
who sits at home,
watches the TV, watches the news,
watches the sports,
loves reading, his music.
-But you come a long way
because anybody else would have probably
played Darth Vader gone through the motion.
But David went beyond that.
He -- he contributed a lot to humanity
because especially what he does for the children.
And other -- He's done other films,
other things to publicize himself.
And he's out there promoting himself.
That's what makes him stand out because even though
he's the man behind the mask,
now it's gonna be almost the mask
behind the man is David Prowse.
-He was quite, uh, quite enthusiastic.
And, uh, he was easy to work with.
-He's done other work that he -- he's proud of.
But he will always be remembered for Vader.
-I think he was the right guy
in the right place at the right time.
-I think if you look in film,
he's probably the best-known villain
of all time in film.
And he achieved that.
-In a way, I hope we've given back David
the recognition he didn't have.
Even though it's been 35 years later
and for only a small group of people in a small theater.
But, in a way, um, yes.
We've given him back something
that was taken from him a long time ago.
[ Applause ]
-I hope, and I -- I hope I'm, like, a good-will ambassador
for Lucasfilm and "Star Wars."
You know, it's, uh...
-You are.
-Well, I like to think I am, yeah.
But whether Lucasfilm appreciates --
appreciates what I do, I don't know.
-David Prowse was gonna be Darth Vader.
But what happened to him had to be one of the all-time,
big-time Hollywood guffs.
-[ Speaking native language ]
-Please warm welcome to David Prowse.
-Perhaps the greatest villain
in the history of movies, Darth Vader.
And he was the man that you never really saw.
He was the body man.
-Basically, the man sitting beside me,
Darth Vader, of those original three.
-[ Speaking native language ]
-The first three, basically IV, V and VI.
But, well, we are going with the original three, David Prowse.
-The man behind the mask, David Prowse
joins us here on "Morning Live" with members
of the 501st Canadian garrison stormtrooper members.
-And if you think back on all the movies
that you've ever seen where there are good guys
and bad guys, you always remember the bad guy.
-Thank you. It's been a pretty great job.
Thanks. -Thank you.
-That's amazing. I think that's --
that's great.
You take the exonerated Dave. Everything is -- No.
I'm not surprised because there's always somebody.
You know, it's so difficult to keep it quiet,
particularly when you're making a movie
where there's so many people on it.
-Mr. Dave Prowse for services to charity and to road safety.
-There have been many great actors
in the history of cinema,
faces that will live forever in our memories.
But we cannot forget those
who hid their faces behind a mask,
behind a character that captivated, seduced
or terrified thousands of spectators.
A mask may hide a face.
But it can also hide a great story,
a true story.
♪♪