DAVID PROWSE

28 Nov

(1 July 1935 - 28 November 2020)

The British actor, bodybuilder and weightlifter David Prowse, who has died aged 85, will be best remembered on two accounts. Apart from his being a British weightlifting champion in the 1962 Commonwealth Games, he became the face of road safety for children as the superhero figure, the Green Cross Code Man, in several commercials from the 1970s. At six-foot seven-inches (2.01m) he was a commanding figure and at first was typecast as Frankenstein’s Creature in the 1967 Casino Royale and also appeared in The Horror of Frankenstein, as well as the comedies Up Pompeii, Up the Chastity Belt and Carry On Henry until film producer George Lucas saw him in A Clockwork Orange. This ultimately led to Prowse playing Darth Vader in the first trilogy of Star Wars films from 1977. Prowse also appeared in many more films and television shows but he made an indelible mark on his role as Darth Vader - whose face is never seen. Having been born in Bristol, Prowse had a strong West Country accent, forcing Lucas to cast James Earl Jones as the ‘voice’ of Darth Vader. Ironically enough, at 89, James Earl Jones is, at the time of writing, still with us. However, no Star Wars fan will forget the physical presence of the ‘giant’ behind the battledress... the hypnotically impressive Dave Prowse.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

DAVID PROWSE

RAFER JOHNSON

JOHN FRASER