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by Chris Snelgrove
| published
Most autographs don’t have much of a story attached for the celebrity doing the signing. Sure, you’ll tell friends about this moment your whole life, but for a big player in your local concern, it was just another weekend afternoon during the offseason. However, the man behind the most famous Star Wars character of all has a signature story that is equal parts wild, sad and inspiring. David Prowse was in the Vader suit but voiced by James Earl Jones, and he was so angry that he signed most of his autographs with “David Prowse is Darth Vader”.
David Prose is Darth Vader
To understand why this Star Wars icon was so mean with his autographs, you have to understand the history of bad blood between the late, great David Prose and George Lucas. It all started with the original Star Wars movie. Parves was a tall bodybuilder who was hired because his imposing physique made him perfect for the role of Vader. However, his voice didn’t quite fit: the deceased Carrie Fisher Revealing that the cast once nicknamed Prose “Darth Farmer” due to his rustic English accent, Lucas famously hired James Earl Jones to cut all of Vader’s lines in a move that surprised Prose.
Having his famous character surprisingly dubbed probably wouldn’t be enough to ruin the relationship between the two men, but what really drove a wedge between Proves and Lucas was an incident in 1978. Parves and other Star Wars actors signed autographs when Darth Vader The actor revealed that his character was, in fact, Luke Skywalker’s father. actually, The empire strikes back Not written yet, so the screen’s favorite cyborg spoke out of his exhaust port. He just accurately predicted what would be released one movie later.
until the end The empire strikes backLuke isn’t sure if Vader is really his father or if this was some strange ploy by the dark side designed to manipulate him emotionally. return of the jedi confirmed who Luke’s father was, but this big reveal was dropped to fans one year before the film’s release by a UK tabloid. Because of the earlier incident, Lucas always blamed Proves for the leak, and the results were swift and brutal: Proves was fired during filming, replaced by Sebastian Shaw for Vader’s one bare-faced scene, and banned from official Star Wars conventions until 2010.
Still, it could be said that Parves had the last laugh. Being temporarily banned from the official Star Wars conventions didn’t stop him from appearing at other Comic-Con-style events around the world, signing autographs for legions of fans. And he made sure that each signature was a statement in itself: “David Prose is Darth Vader.” Some saw it as a slight against James Earl Jones, but we see it as the player’s way of reminding people of his accomplishments in a franchise that has increasingly kept its distance from him.
Obviously, this Star Wars story of sad signatures and youth isn’t a feel-good story, but we like to think it helps us remember something important about this franchise. Fans tend to single out individual creators (like George Lucas, Dave Filonior Rian Johnson) when a movie or TV show in a galaxy far, far away crashes and burns, but the truth is that it takes a village of creators to bring our favorite stories to life. To celebrate Star Wars is to celebrate all those who were a part of something that has always given fans immense joy.
David Prowse played one of the most important parts in the early days of this franchise, and we can only hope that his surviving family knows that we don’t need an autograph to remind us of a simple, profound truth: now and forever, David Prowse is Darth. Vader.
source: can be crushed
