David Prowse, the actor and bodybuilder who filled out Darth Vader’s large frame in the original Star Wars series, died. He was 85 years old.
While James Earl Jones gave the voice to the space criminal, it was Prowse’s 6-foot-7-inch frame that hid under Vader’s armour as he matched the lightsabers with his son Luke Skywalker.
The lines of the actor were dubbed with his Bristol, England voice, according to BBC News.
Mark Hamill, who played Skywalker, expressed his homage to Prowse in a Twitter post early Sunday.
“So sad to hear David Prowse has passed,” Hamill wrote. “He was a kind man & much more than Darth Vader. Actor-Husband-Father-Member of the Order of the British Empire-3 time British Weightlifting Champion & Safety Icon the Green Cross Code Man. He loved his fans as much as they loved him.”
