This will be a day long remembered. It has seen the end of...
November 29, 2020 10:40 AM   Subscribe

 
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posted by oozy rat in a sanitary zoo at 10:41 AM on November 29, 2020


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posted by valkane at 10:46 AM on November 29, 2020


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posted by MythMaker at 10:46 AM on November 29, 2020


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posted by clavdivs at 10:47 AM on November 29, 2020 [11 favorites]


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posted by Devoidoid at 10:49 AM on November 29, 2020


Obligatory Green Cross Man link.
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posted by thatwhichfalls at 10:50 AM on November 29, 2020 [8 favorites]


And Julian in "A Clockwork Orange"
posted by chavenet at 10:54 AM on November 29, 2020 [12 favorites]


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posted by mstokes650 at 10:55 AM on November 29, 2020


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posted by JoeXIII007 at 11:02 AM on November 29, 2020


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posted by Splunge at 11:06 AM on November 29, 2020


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posted by mdoar at 11:07 AM on November 29, 2020


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posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 11:13 AM on November 29, 2020 [2 favorites]


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posted by tclark at 11:23 AM on November 29, 2020


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He'll never see RotJ make money.
posted by Mitheral at 11:33 AM on November 29, 2020 [3 favorites]


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posted by octothorpe at 11:41 AM on November 29, 2020


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posted by Big Al 8000 at 11:42 AM on November 29, 2020


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> Obligatory Green Cross Man link.
“Stop, Luke, and listen”
posted by farlukar at 11:44 AM on November 29, 2020 [11 favorites]


Imagine walking around in public pretending that the voice of James Earl Jones was coming out of your body. Imagine doing that successfully!
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posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:46 AM on November 29, 2020 [4 favorites]




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(Can't find lightsaber emojis)
posted by tzikeh at 11:57 AM on November 29, 2020 [2 favorites]


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posted by evilDoug at 12:09 PM on November 29, 2020


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posted by jim in austin at 12:17 PM on November 29, 2020


Even before I heard JEJ's voice, Prowse made one of the biggest impressions ever on this then-young geek's life. The battle on the rebel ship is finished, and then... someone like a hole cut into the fabric of reality itself walks in.

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posted by Halloween Jack at 12:23 PM on November 29, 2020 [12 favorites]


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posted by May Kasahara at 12:25 PM on November 29, 2020


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posted by Lynsey at 12:42 PM on November 29, 2020


I had this Darth Vader t-shirt back in '78. It was the old iron-on style heat transfer shirt that didn't breathe so your skin would get sweaty only underneath the image. That shirt gave me a rash but I wore it all summer anyway.
posted by cazoo at 12:48 PM on November 29, 2020 [8 favorites]


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posted by Faintdreams at 1:05 PM on November 29, 2020


I had the same shirt and/or a puzzle!
posted by freecellwizard at 1:22 PM on November 29, 2020 [1 favorite]


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posted by Foosnark at 1:23 PM on November 29, 2020


Footage of him saying Darth Vader’s lines on set. You underestimate the power of the Dark Side, my lover.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 1:26 PM on November 29, 2020 [6 favorites]


Apparently he got really upset when his West Country accent corpsed the other actors on set. He missed out on a lot of the cast's social life and just sat in his trailer a lot of the time. I hope he was OK.

(Source: an old friend who played a stormtrooper and preceded Prowse to the Great Beyond. Thinking of him, too, today.)

RIP to the Sith Lord who cared about kids crossing the road safely.
posted by Pallas Athena at 1:42 PM on November 29, 2020 [9 favorites]


An tremendous physical presence as an actor. May the Force be with him, always.

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posted by nubs at 1:53 PM on November 29, 2020 [1 favorite]


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posted by detachd at 2:05 PM on November 29, 2020


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posted by Joey Michaels at 2:49 PM on November 29, 2020


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posted by riverlife at 2:54 PM on November 29, 2020


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posted by gauche at 2:54 PM on November 29, 2020


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posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 3:25 PM on November 29, 2020


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posted by jabo at 3:25 PM on November 29, 2020


Saw in the twitter thread above that he was also the bodybuilder in A Clockwork Orange?!
posted by nevercalm at 3:27 PM on November 29, 2020 [1 favorite]


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posted by Cardinal Fang at 3:36 PM on November 29, 2020


It was the old iron-on style heat transfer shirt that didn't breathe so your skin would get sweaty only underneath the image. That shirt gave me a rash but I wore it all summer anyway.

Never mind chopping up people into generations by year of birth: to me, you are gen-x if you ever had a patch of sweat the same shape as the Battlestar Galactica logo or the Bay City Rollers on your torso.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:45 PM on November 29, 2020 [12 favorites]


Imagine walking around in public pretending that the voice of James Earl Jones was coming out of your body. Imagine doing that successfully!

As best I can determine on the Internet machine, Jones and Prowse never met. This calls to mind the even more bizarre fact that despite sharing a lot of dialogue in two different movies, Keir Dullea and Douglas Rain never met.

And then I recall that 2001 was a Kubrick movie; Jones and Prowse were each in one Kubrick film, but these two films were separated by 2001.)
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:53 PM on November 29, 2020 [5 favorites]


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posted by dannyboybell at 4:04 PM on November 29, 2020


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posted by Faint of Butt at 6:05 PM on November 29, 2020


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posted by kitten kaboodle at 7:24 PM on November 29, 2020


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posted by pt68 at 7:37 PM on November 29, 2020


When I was about 13, I went to a tiny SF con in Chicago, held at a community college—that would have been my first SF con. He was the guest of honor. I remember him on the stage of the auditorium, telling his anecdotes from the set.

Apparently before Star Wars, most of his roles were "freak of the week," in heavy makeup or masks, and he was ready for something different. He was offered two roles for Star Wars, either Chewbacca, which was described to him as an ape-person. Obviously another masked role. The other was Darth Vader, the villain. That, he thought, was more like it.

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posted by adamrice at 7:43 PM on November 29, 2020 [5 favorites]


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posted by bryon at 8:16 PM on November 29, 2020


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posted by dbiedny at 8:50 PM on November 29, 2020


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posted by Sphinx at 9:00 PM on November 29, 2020


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Uber Eats continuing to run their commercial of Mark Hamill mocking his character's father despite David Prowse's death is indicative of the company's integrity.
posted by fairmettle at 11:08 PM on November 29, 2020 [2 favorites]


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posted by Coaticass at 11:29 PM on November 29, 2020


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posted by kinnakeet at 1:50 AM on November 30, 2020


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posted by unicorn chaser at 2:55 AM on November 30, 2020


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posted by Gelatin at 4:08 AM on November 30, 2020


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From the Guardian obituary:
Prowse publicly declared his support in 2009 for Ukip, the UK Independence party. Asked in 2014 what he would do if he ruled the galaxy, he said he would “reintroduce capital punishment”.
posted by runcifex at 4:12 AM on November 30, 2020 [4 favorites]


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posted by solotoro at 6:08 AM on November 30, 2020


Also fantastic as Hotblack Desiato's bodyguard in the BBC TV version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. "And I am Mr. Desiato's personal bodyguard and I am responsible for his body and I am not responsible for yours, so take it away before it gets... damaged."
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 6:45 AM on November 30, 2020 [3 favorites]


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I met him once in the early 80s when he was being The Green Cross Code Man and doing a road safety promo in the foyer of a theatre that had a kids' show on. We all got autographs and it was somewhat exciting, until we then discovered that he was also Darth Vadar, and then it was suddenly REALLY exciting.
posted by penguin pie at 9:05 AM on November 30, 2020 [2 favorites]


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posted by blurker at 9:33 AM on November 30, 2020


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posted by Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead at 9:35 AM on November 30, 2020


Vader would have been terrifying if he had never spoken a word. The body language was incredible. Farewell to a master.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:53 AM on November 30, 2020 [4 favorites]


May he rest in peace.
posted by George Lucas at 10:06 AM on November 30, 2020 [3 favorites]


Apparently he got really upset when his West Country accent corpsed the other actors on set. He missed out on a lot of the cast's social life and just sat in his trailer a lot of the time. I hope he was OK.

I literally just watched a gag about that in Bill Bailey's first comedy special "Bewilderness" from 2001 on Friday.


Didn't even see these films until I was 37 (on VHS in order to see the original cuts). Mr. Prowse's presence was palpable.

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posted by droplet at 11:19 AM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]


(And then I recall that 2001 was a Kubrick movie; Jones and Prowse were each in one Kubrick film, but these two films were separated by 2001.)

And so I just learned that Darth Vader was Julian, Mr. Alexander’s helper in A Clockwork Orange. Fascinating bit of trivia.

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posted by TedW at 11:52 AM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]


Still think he got done dirty. At the end of RotJ, when Vader was unmasked, that wasn’t Prowse’s face. After absolutely owning the scenery in one of the biggest properties ever in cinema, and they didn’t even give him that face time.
posted by azpenguin at 4:31 PM on November 30, 2020 [4 favorites]


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posted by Gadgetenvy at 7:39 PM on November 30, 2020


Exactly, azpenguin. Dub in some other voice if the accent is wrong, but they should have used his face.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:48 PM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]


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posted by filtergik at 6:14 AM on December 1, 2020


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