George Lucas ended up hating Prowse. It's why you never saw David at Star War conventions, or otherwise. Lucas all but shut him out of everything post-original trilogy. The pisser is that Prowse had a certain level of anonimity because of being behind the mask all this time, so he never got recognized. He certain went unnoticed even more after Lucas got up in his feelings about Prowse.

He was replaced in a couple of sword fighting scenes, and wasn't even the actor who threw the emperor off the ledge in Jedi. Here's an interesting take from Wikipedia, too:

...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. However, this was shortly after the release of Star Wars and nearly two years before The Empire Strikes Back (which he considered to be his favourite of the trilogy) was released, and the script had not even been written at the time. 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."

Prowse claimed his contract for Return of the Jedi included a share of profits on the film, and although it grossed $475 million on a $32 million budget, Prowse explained in an interview in 2009 that he never received residuals for his performance. Due to "Hollywood accounting", the actual profits are sent as "distribution fees" to the studio, leaving nothing to distribute to others.

In July 2010, Prowse was banned by Lucas from attending official Star Wars fan conventions. Lucas had reportedly given Prowse no reason, other than stating that Prowse "burnt too many bridges" between Lucasfilm and himself.

Variety article.

Sticky

R.I.P

JoeTyler said:

Damn,this 2020 is just ruthless. RIP David; most people associate Vader with the voice of James E. Jones, but in my opinion half of the success of Darth Vader was David's presence and body language. Classy and menacing. Rewatch ESB and you will realize that he owned every scene he was in, and that's with a helmet covering his entire face and without uttering a single word. [Edited 11/29/20 4:15am]

Agreed, tho as TP pointed out, a lot of the fighting scenes Prowse was replaced. Still, Vader's presence was what made him so fearsome and Prowse gets credit for that. Plus IIRC he was Christopher Reeve's weight trainer for Superman: The Movie.

[Edited 11/30/20 7:13am]

Darthie.

Frst off, RIP to Dave. May he rest in heaven.


So, too bad that Dave didn't become way more famous as a result of Star Wars. I'm sure him playing Darth Vader did help his career, but considering how popular Star Wars is, you really can't compare the two.


One thing i haven't been able to get an answer to, and that maybe someone can point me in the right direction, is when Star Wars first came out they had a meet and greet tour with the Darth Vader character. They had Darth Vader there signing posters and stuff (the one i was at was in San Francisco, at the old Sears store on Geary St). i really would like to know if it was Dave Prowse who was there or just someone in a Darth Vader costume. The costume was authentic, and even though i was fairly young, the person in the costume was really big. So maybe it was Dave... Oh god i wish i had kept that poster. i think he even signed our light sabers.




Damn, and in looking at Darth Vader posters, i remember i had the bubble gum cards(Topps) as well.

Again. Rest in Peace..