David “Dave” Prowse, who played Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, has died at the age of 85, according to his agent Thomas Bowington. Prowse won the British heavyweight and weightlifting championship three times and represented England in the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Australia. His first role in a major film was as Frankenstein’s Monster in the 1967 rendition of Casino Royale. He also played monsters and villains in A Clockwork Orange and a variety of horror flicks, and worked as a personal trainer to prepare Christopher Reeves for his 1978 Superman role. He was invited by George Lucas to audition for both the roles of Darth Vader and Chewbacca as he cast the original trilogy. He said he chose Vader because “Everyone remembers the villain.”
