LONDON ā Dave Prowse, the British weightlifter-turned-actor who was the body, though not the voice, of arch-villain Darth Vader in the original āStar Warsā trilogy, has died.
Prowse donned Darth Vader's black armor and helmet for āStar Warsā (1977), āThe Empire Strikes Backā (1980) and āReturn of the Jedi" (1983).
He was a regular at āStar Warsā fan events but was banned from official conventions by Lucas in 2010 after the pair fell out.
Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the āStar Warsā films, tweeted that Prowse was āa kind man & much more than Darth Vader.ā Hamill said the actor "loved his fans as much as they loved him.
āAs a kid, Dave Prowse couldnāt be more famous to me; stalking along corridors as evil incarnate in the part of Darth Vader & stopping a whole generation of kiddies from being mown down in street as the Green Cross Code man,ā he wrote.