David Charles Prose, a British film and television actor, former bodybuilder and formerly successful weightlifter, is best known to the film community for playing the role of one of the canonical antagonists in the history of world cinema Darth Vader.
Beyond Star Wars
In the United Kingdom, the performer became famous for playing the role of a superhero - the fearless Man of the Green Cross Codex. David Prose was born on the first day of July 1935 in Bristol, where he spent his childhood and youth studying at a local grammar school. Before the unparalleled trilogy of George Lucas, the actor managed to star in A Clockwork Orange and light up in the Benny Hill Show .
Most famous role
The most famous character played by the actor is the physical embodiment (without voice acting) of Darth Vader, one of the key characters in the Star Wars movie epic. The image of a knight of good, who has crossed over to the Dark side of the Force, is undoubtedly recognizable, and the wing “Luke, I am your father” became a quote, firmly entered the life of ordinary people, becoming an excellent motive for the existence of innumerable parodies, jokes and memes.
David Prose during the filming process of each episode of "Star Wars" spoke out the dialogues of his hero, but subsequently the creators invited James Earl Jones and re-voiced Vader. Their decision was explained by the fact that, according to the characteristics, Dart should be the owner of a thundering, deep, “dark” timbre of his voice, and Prouse had a completely non-intimidating voice and reprimand with a noticeable Devonian accent. For the features of his pronunciation, the actor received the mocking nickname "Darth Farmer." And Jones recorded all the replicas of the antagonist in one day, receiving a fee of $ 8,000.
Another disappointment
To calm the actor’s indignation somewhat, the creators promised him that his real face would be captured at the climax of the episode “Return of the Jedi,” when, according to the scenario plan, Vader would be a ghost. But even here the authors of the project deceived, not keeping their promises, eventually involving Sebastian Shaw instead of Prose.
Due to his extraordinary power, during the filming of the first part of the trilogy, David Prose continuously broke lightsabers in fight scenes. Therefore, the creators decided to find him an understudy - a professional fencer. They became Bob Anderson - a British fencer, stuntman and film actor, who trained many famous performers for fighting scenes on swords, swords, rapiers.
The darkest part
“The Empire Strikes Back” (the fifth episode in the franchise) was not only the darkest of the three early ones, for Prous it was a real test. The intensity of the passions and disagreements between the actor and the creators caused the most shocking scene in which Vader admits to Luke that he is his son. An unexpected plot move became one of the most famous in the history of world cinema. This moment during the production of the tape was kept in the strictest confidence, only five knew about it: D. Lucas himself, director I. Kerschner, screenwriter L. Kazdan, M. Hamill (actor playing Skywalker) and D.E. Jones, voicing Darth . All others, including David Prous, C. Fisher (the beautiful Leia) and H. Ford (the brave Han Solo), learned the content of the dialogue only after the premiere of the picture. During the filming of the episode of confession, Prose speaks the memorized remark given to him by the scriptwriter, which sounds like “Obi-Wan killed your father”, and Johnson eventually wrote the text “I am your father”. After the premiere, a private conversation took place between the actor and Kerschner, in which an angry performer tried to explain to the director the inappropriateness of his act. Indeed, knowing the real text and understanding its semantic load, David could beat the scene differently. This unpleasant incident during the production of the film "Empire Strikes Back" completely disappointed the performer.
Later, knowing that at the end of the filming process of episodes V and VI his voice would be replaced, he deliberately curiously spoke out his remarks, a mixture of others. This, of course, caused the dissatisfaction of the creators and completely ruined the relationship between them and the performer.
David Prose - Darth Vader Forever!
Subsequently, Prose returned more than once to the image of his character. For example, he played the role of the Dark Lord of the Sith in commercials for the video games Star Wars: An Interactive Board Video Game and in The Star Wars Monopoly.
Currently, the actor in an interview with the media admitted that he did not even watch trailers for the subsequent episodes of the epic. David Prose films, where his character was played by other artists, simply ignores and claims that he is not at all interested in continuing the franchise. At the same time, the performer with pleasure accepts invitations of various festivals dedicated to the legendary trilogy. For example, he regularly attends the Generations of Star Wars festival, which takes place annually in the French town of Küsse. Franchise fans from all over Europe come here to demonstrate do-it-yourself outfits and outfit of your favorite characters.