The Sad Story Behind Star Wars’ Most Famous Autograph

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 25 seconds ago

Most autographs don’t have much of a story attached to them for the celebrity doing the signing. Sure, you’ll be telling friends about this moment your entire life, but for a big-time actor at your local con, this was just another weekend afternoon during the off-season. However, the man behind the most famous Star Wars character of all has a wild autograph story, one that is equal parts sad and spiteful. David Prowse was in the Vader suit but was dubbed over by James Earl Jones, and he was so angry that he signed most of his autographs with “David Prowse is Darth Vader.”

David Prowse Is Darth Vader

To understand why this Star Wars icon was so spiteful with his autographs, you need to understand the history of bad blood between the late, great David Prowse and George Lucas. It all started with the original Star Wars film. Prowse was a tall bodybuilder who was hired because his impressive physique made him perfect for the role of Vader. However, his voice wasn’t really suitable: the late Carrie Fisher once revealed that the cast nicknamed Prowse “Darth Farmer” due to his rural English accent, and Lucas famously hired James Earl Jones to redub all of Vader’s lines in a move that took Prowse by surprise.

Having his famous character surprisingly redubbed would probably not be enough to destroy the relationship between the two men, but what really drove a wedge between Prowse and Lucas was an incident in 1978. Prowse and other Star Wars actors were signing autographs when the Darth Vader actor revealed that his character was, in fact, Luke Skywalker’s father. In point of fact, The Empire Strikes Back hadn’t been written yet, so everyone’s favorite onscreen cyborg was talking out of his exhaust port. He just happened to accurately predict what would be brought up one movie later. 

By the end of The Empire Strikes Back, Luke isn’t sure whether Vader is really his father or if this was a weird Dark Side ruse intended to emotionally manipulate him. Return of the Jedi confirmed who Luke’s daddy was, but this big reveal was spoiled for fans one year before the film came out by a UK tabloid. Because of the earlier incident, Lucas always blamed Prowse for the leak, and the results were swift and brutal: Prowse was ostracized during filming, replaced by Sebastian Shaw for Vader’s one unmasked scene, and forbidden from attending official Star Wars conventions until 2010.

Still, you could say that Prowse had the last laugh. Being temporarily forbidden from attending official Star Wars conventions didn’t keep him from appearing at other Comic-Con style events around the globe, signing autographs for legions of fans. And he made sure each autograph was a statement unto itself: “David Prowse is Darth Vader.” Some saw this as a slight against James Earl Jones, but we see it as a way the actor reminded people of his accomplishments in a franchise that increasingly kept its distance from him.

Obviously, this Star Wars tale of sad and spiteful autographs isn’t a feel-good story, but we like to think it helps us remember something important about this franchise. Fans tend to single out singular creators (like George Lucas, Dave Filoni, or Rian Johnson) when a movie or TV show in a galaxy far, far away crashes and burns, but the truth is that it takes a village of creators to bring our favorite stories to life. To celebrate Star Wars is to celebrate all those who been a part of something that has always given fans immense joy.

David Prowse played one of the most important parts of this franchise’s early days, and we can only hope his surviving family knows that we don’t need an autograph to remind us of a simple and profound truth: now and forever, David Prowse is Darth Vader. 

Source: Mashable