| The following information was written by Dave and can be found on his website along with much more about Dave and Vader, the link is above.
SAVING STARWARS 2003 - I had the pleasure of playing myself in this fan run film written, produced and directed by Garry Wood of Woodworks Films. Most of the action takes place during the Celebration 2 convention where a group of fans are trying to steal a briefcase from George Lucas who is attending the convention with the briefcase chained to his wrist containing the script of Episode 3. Worked on the film for 10 days and ended up saving George and the briefcase from the fans. The film is now out on DVD and has been accepted for showing at film festivals around the world. Just recently we had a showing at the London Film Festival and it was nominated for best screen play and won the best supporting actor role. Gary is to be congratulated on the tremendous amount of work that he and the production team have put into making Saving Starwars so successful especially considering that it is his first production effort.
STARWARS EPISODE 6 'RETURN OF THE JEDI' 1982 - This for me was the weak part of the trilogy and unfortunately turned out to be the worst film experience I have ever had. You can read about this in my book 'Straight from the Force's Mouth'. I did not like the introduction of the Ewoks, although the kids loved it, but the premise that a bunch of teddy bears with sticks and stones could defeat the might of the Storm Troopers was totally unbelievable and spoilt the film for me even though I did not have a great involvement. Did not go on location although the locations this time were better being the Northern Californian redwood forests and the desert scenes were filmed in Yuma, New Mexico.
THE ROSE MEDALLION 1981 - A three episode thriller for the BBC in which I had the co lead playing Stanley, the cousin of the male lead, Donald Sumpter a seedy run down detective. Anna Nicholas supplied the glamour for the production and the special effects had the task of creating Sicily in the Cheddar Gorge area where the filming took place. Another great acting role for myself with plenty of dialogue and acting opportunities. The story was a search for missing treasure that involved the Mafia hence the Sicily connection.
HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY 1981 - I played the bodyguard to Hotblack Desiato in the final episode 'The Restaurant at the end of the Universe'. Former Dr. Who, Peter Davidson, played the pig that wanted to be eaten and spoke the role with a strong West Country accent. In interviews that he subsequently did he was always asked how he arrived at the voice of the pig to which he replied 'I just listened to Dave Prowse'. Douglas Adams was the author of the book and it was a pleasure to meet and talk with him on set.
STARWARS EPISODE 5 'THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK' 1978 - This for me was my favourite of the Starwars movies. We had a wonderful director Irving Kershner who I rank as one of the best directors I have ever worked with. It was, of course, a big reunion for us all and by now we all knew that we were involved in a cinematic phenomena. Once again I did not go on location - Norway for the snow scenes - and my work was in the studio in Elstree. The old team were back together plus new cast members like Caroline Blakiston who played Mon Mothma and my old friend Bruce Boa who played General Reikeen. Bruce and I remained good friends right up until his death last year, in fact it was me who introduced him to the convention scene, Come to think of it, it was also me that introduced Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker, Warwick Davis, and Jeremy Bulloch to the Sci Fi convention scene when I got them together for the Men Behind the Masks venture. Peter Sujitsky was the lighting cameraman on the movie and I thought the carbon freezer scenes were sensational, Although it looked great, working on the set and trying to fight a light sabre scene with Luke was very difficult in as much as the temperature on set was over 130 degrees Fahrenheit.
SHAKESPEAR'S 'AS YOU LIKE IT' for BBC TV 1978 - I played Charles the wrestler and for the first time in my career had loads of dialogue to learn and deliver. I also acted as stunt advisor for the wrestling scene in which I am beaten by the male lead Brian Stirner. The filming was done at Glamis Castle, the birth place of the late Queen Mother, and the stars were James Bolam, Anghared Rees, and Helen Mirren.
A HORSEMAN RIDING BY 1978 - This was a TV series filmed by the BBC from a novel by R. F. Delderfield. I played Jem Pollock a circus strongman - a wonderful part that ran through three episodes. The filming was done in the Kingsdown/Totness area of Devon with Nigel Havers playing the male lead. I had the enviable task of being the screen lover of the Potter twins whose mother was played by Pam St. Clement prior to her East Enders fame.
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS 1977 - This was primarily in cartoon form with Gulliver played by Richard Harris. Although I worked on the film for a week I never met him once. I played the giant who scoops Gulliver's boat out of the water at the end of the movie. I was made up to look oriental and nobody ever recognises me. This was another film that did not do very well and it is now on sale in Woolworths for less than £5.
JABBERWOCKY 1977 - This without a doubt was one of the funniest and enjoyable films I have worked on. Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame directed and most of the filming was done at Carmarthen Castle in West Wales. Michael Palin played the lead but for me the star of the show was the famous comic Max Wall. I had two parts in the movie playing the black knight and the red knight and was even offered the role of the dragon who was terrorising the town. Terry offered me the parts saying that my face would not be seen at all during the entire film and so not to expect to be 'discovered' but if you are very quick there is a brief glimpse in the armourer's shop when they were trying to remove my helmet.
STARWARS EPISODE 4 'A NEW HOPE' 1976 - This is the film that changed my life and I think the choice of playing Darth Vader as opposed to Chewbacca was one of the best decisions I have ever made. The first thing that happened after landing the role was a lunch with Gary, George and Sir Alec Guinness that was arranged so that Alec and myself could get together as I had the onerous job of killing him off in the film. It was great working with Peter Cushing again and I had a reunion with Carrie Fisher with whom I had worked at the London Palladium in 1973 in the Debbie Reynolds Show. I worked on the film for 5 months and had to learn and deliver all Darth Vader's dialogue, I did not know that George had plans to use American voice over artists to cover most of the English voices in the movie. Harrison, Carrie, and Mark were all very easy to work with as were the rest of the English cast. The film went on location to Tunisia but all Darth Vader's scenes were studio shots in the Death Star. Little did I know that I would be travelling around the world appearing at Sci Fi conventions and autograph signing sessions 28 years later.
CALLAN 1974 - This was the second time I worked with Edward Woodward, the first in a TV series where I played a butcher. Edward was a pleasure to work with but we did have one nasty moment when I had to slap him across the face and instead of missing him I actually hit him and knocked him out of his chair. I apologised profusely and fortunately Edward was not too hurt.
FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL 1973 - One of my favourite films and one in which I gave one of my best acting performances. The doyenne of Hammer film directors Terence Fisher directed and Peter Cushing was making his come back film after going through a long period of bereavement after the death of his wife. Madeleine Smith and Shane Bryant co starred and I reprised the monster role giving me the doubtful honour of being the only actor ever to play the Hammer monster twice. The action took place in an asylum. When I did the Horror of Frankenstein the make up for the head piece took 2 1/2 hours every day to be fashioned by make up expert Tom Smith. In Monster from Hell the whole make up was done with a mask and the body built up on a wet suit that took only 20 minutes to apply. Eddie Knight was the make up man.
WHITE CARGO 1973 - This was filmed originally as ALBERT'S FOLLIES with Ray Selfe directing and David Jason starring. To put it bluntly it was not a good movie and did nothing to further David Jason's career. We filmed at Twickenham sudios and David, Ray and the rest of the cast were fun to work with. This is another film that is on late night TV as 'White Cargo'.
BLACKSNAKE 1973 - This is a film I did for Russ Meyer who was famous for his soft porn movies. Blacksnake was a departure from the porn as he decided with the advent of A Clockwork Orange that violence was the big thing and sex was out. We filmed in Barbados with David Warbeck playing the lead and Anouska Hempel as the lustful plantation owner, Percy Herbert the plantation boss and myself as the Duppie who was the deaf and dumb, castrated ex lover of the female lead and the brother of the male lead! All I did in the movie was run through the scenes frightening the natives to death and back to the plantation fields. The film came out in various disguises, Blacksnake, The Whip, Duchess of Doom, Sweet Susie she aint no Lady and eventually Slaves. The film was the beginning of a friendship with Russ that lasted many years.
VAMPIRE CIRCUS 1972 - This to me was one of the best ever of the Hammer Horror movies. Directed by Robert Young it had advanced special effects of people changing into animals and vice versa and also was one of the most sexually explicit movies for its time. I played the part of the circus strongman and got my back blown out with a shotgun blast prepared by special effects master Les Bowie. Adrienne Corrie was the female lead assisted by Lala Ward and a young Lynne Fredericks. A good movie spoiled slightly by Hammer refusing to give Robert Young more time to complete the film as he wanted. When working for Hammer, it is to a budget, financial and time and there is no question of running over.
CARRY ON HENRY 1970 - Had a small part playing the torturer stretching Charles Hawtrey on the rack (who was enjoying every moment of it). Only had one line but spent one of the most enjoyable weeks filming totally enthralled by the most hilarious person I have every worked with; Kenneth Williams. I worked with him several times after that in comedy sketches and in his TV Special.
UP POMPEII and UP THE CHASTITY BELT 1970 - Two fun films, working with Frankie Howerd and assembled casts including Madeleine Smith, Patrick Cargill, Bernard Breslaw, Rita Webb and many other character actors. Both films directed by Bob Kellett - it is nice to see them cropping up on late night TV.
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE 1970 - I played the part of Julian the bodyguard to the writer played by Patrick McGee the great Irish actor. A great experience working with Stanley Kubrick and also to work with Malcolm McDowell, Margaret Tyzack and John Savident. The film was only released for a short period and recalled by Stanley himself as not only was he receiving death threats but the Droogs actions seemed to be spawning copy cat violence.
HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN 1970 - Written and produced by Jimmy Sangster who personally cast me in the role of the Horror. Ralph Bates came in to play Dr. Frankenstein as Peter Cushing was unavailable and Veronica Carlsen and Kate O'Mara provided the sex/glamour. Although it was enjoyable to work on I don't thing the Hammer horror aficionados like it very much as Jimmy Sangster had fun with the genre instead of filming it as a pure gothic horror.
HAMMERHEAD 1967 - Wonderful location working in the picturesque fishing village of Cascais outside Estoril, Portugal. It was a pleasure working with Vince Edwards of Dr. Ben Casey fame and a host of English character actors including Diana Dors, Judy Geeson, Peter Vaughan, William Mervyn, Patrick Holt, and Patrick Cargill. Most of the film was shot on a luxury yacht moored on the River Tegus and Hammerhead played by Peter Vaughan used to make his entrance from a sedan chair lowered from a helicopter on to the deck of the yacht. Unfortunately Vince Edwards broke his ankle during the filming and nearly all of his standing, walking and running shots were done by his stunt man Gerry Crampton. The film was not very good and had terrible reviews.
CASINO ROYAL 1966 - My first part in this movie was playing a giant teddy bear called Superpooh opposite Peter Sellers and Ursula Andress. Unfortunately Peter walked of the set in the middle of the sequence and what we shot was left on the cutting room floor. I was then offered the second role in the same movie of Frankenstein's Monster playing opposite David Niven and Woody Allen. It seems strange that a film that we all regarded as a load of rubbish eventually went on to achieve cult status and is next in line for the official Bond treatment.
THE GREEN X CODE 1976 - 1989 - In the January of 1976 I was asked if I would have some photos taken for a possible road safety programme for children - The Green X Code. The Green X Code had been in existence for three years and was fronted by three personalities - boxer Joe Bugner, pop singer Alvin Stardust and footballer Kevin Keegan. In spite of their involvement accidents to children in the 4 -11 age group continued to rise at an alarming rate and in 1976 had reached the horrendous figure of 40,000 children per year being injured and killed on the roads in Great Britain. After consultation between the Central Office of Information and the Department of Transport and their advertising agency Ogilvy, Benson and Mather it was decided to give the Green X Code a totally new image with a superman type character fronting the campaign and I was offered the job. Without a doubt the Green X Code campaign which lasted 14 years was the best and most satisfying job I have ever done. We filmed five lots of three commercials and at the same time the Department of Transport asked me if I would like to prepare a show that could be presented at the schools.
The commercials were hugely successful and a large measure of the success was due to the fact that the kids knew that the Green X Code Man was really Darth Vader and it was Darth Vader that was giving them advice. I used to do three schools per day, five days per week, for eight months of the year and because of the success of the campaign in the UK I was asked to visit America, Australia, The Caymen Islands, Barbados and British Forces Bases all over the continent. The net result was that in 14 years I visited 700 towns and cities, over 2,000 schools and gave my talk to over 500,000 children. We reduced the road accidents in the UK from over 40,000 per year to less than 20,000 and if you added it all up the campaign had actually saved over 250,000 children's lives. In the year 2000 the campaigns success was recognised when I was awarded the MBE from HM the Queen at a Buckingham Palace Investiture in June. Even now 15 years after the campaign finished I am still recognised from my Green X activities and people come up to me at conventions to talk about the time I visited their school when they were children. A wonderful job, I would do it all again tomorrow.
My TV credits include:
The Champions
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Saint
Department S
The Benny Hill Shows
Code Name
Callan
Ace of Wands
From a Birds Eye View
Dr. Who
Arthur of the Britons
The Tomorrow People
Doctor at Sea
The Kenneth Williams Show
Space 1999
Crossbow
More information can be found on Dave at his website
http://www.darthvader-starwars.com
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