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Poor old David Prowse, who of course played Darth Vader and educated a generation of British schoolkids in road safety (quite why they never combined those two ideas.... Vader sure as heck would have made sure I took things careful on the road), appears to be worsening. The strange paralysis that has affected him appears to have worsened.

Let's all hope he gets well soon and doesn't join Alec Guiness in the Force before his time.

Who was alec guiness

I hope your not serious! He is the original Obi-Wan Kenobi, old Ben. He died sometime last year.

I don't like reading the credits! That is who I thought it was anyway.

Alec Guiness is one of the finest British actors of all time. Amazingly, GL managed to get him to play the role of the original Obi-Wan (not Alec's normal role at ALL), and in doing so Alec won himself an Oscar, and a great deal of money. He sadly died last year.

Far fewer people know of David Prowse, sadly. Poor sod was being dummied all the way though the making of Star War- amasingly enough, he did not know that Luke was Vader's son until he actually watched ESB at the cinema. He was guven dummy lines to say (JEJ did the voice-over later, of course) and he couldn't hear a thing anyone was saying to him in that helmet.

Poor man. That seems so unfair.

Still, he was great. Now if only they can work out what is wrong with him...

Yes, the disease is strange.

I never liked his claims that he WAS Darth Vader. I mean, Vader is an actor, a suit and a voice: three different elements. He always made it seem as if his part was irreplacable. That never seemed right to me.

He waas a tad bitter of course. Like I say, he got the raw end of the deal.

In an ODD way now, it'd be great if he could play Vader again at the tail end of Episode III...

I kinda like to see a suited Vader but much more agile than the one we know from the OT. doubt if he could pull that off.

Of course. I meant a post-crippled Vader.

Why do you feel he got the raw end of the deal? He played Vader a couple of times, he doesn't need to know everything about the script or the story. His job is to walk around in the suit, he got payed for that and that's what he did.

Don't you think he got a tad TOO forgotten?

No. His job was pretty clear, why would he be forgotten. Harrison Ford didn't know about the plot, neither did Carrie Fisher. Only a few people did. What else should he have done. Not the right voice, not the right face for old Anakin. What? He just had to walk in a suit.... and he did that.

Yeah... but even so... he played Vader!

Well, HALF of Vader at the most.

True... and everyone loves JEJ... ok, so the Jonesmeister probably contributed more, and Prowsey boy desevred more, i feel.

I don't think they should have given him dummy lines. They didn't give Mark dummy lines.

That's security for you.

I see absolutely no problem in the dummy lines. Vader being Luke's father was like THE big revelation of ESB. And Prowse is no the author of either SW or Vader, GL has every right do make him say dummy lines. Heck, actors don't always need to know every detail or how a scene works. Especially when you want to keep things secret about the film.

I think I've mentioned it before but cus of his falmer-palmer accent, some people on set were calling him Darth-Farmer(!) when he was saying his lines.

I've amused myself many-a-time by repeating my favourite Vader lines in a Cornish accent. Honest, try it!

"What is thy bidding my maaaaaaaaarster"

Aaannnnnnnnnnnddddddd, I've got a brand new combine harvester, and I'll give you the key.

What's farmer-palmer ? I mean, what's the palmer part ?

Darth Hick, eh? Yes, what is with the palmer?

It's true, and it also made it easier for the other characters to interact with him in the scenes.

I don't think it actually means anything, it's just a name that rhymes.

Falmer Palmer was a character from VIZ magazine some years ago. Most amusing - son & daughter get married - shoots ramblers dogs - "GET ORRF MY LAAAAAND" etc in every monthly strip

Top notch, if you've ever seen it, although BIG VERN was always my fave, he was dieing at the end of every episode way before Kenny even thought of it.

Oh yeah, now I remember. What about the Fat Slags, I think I knew them...

Tee-hee, haven't we all been there after one too many shandy's!

Actually, I've led far too a sheltered life for that...

Too sheltered for shandy's? Where have you been? Underground in a hole?

Something like that...

Anyone got any news on DP? I can't find anything out.

I haven't browsed any other SW sites today.

Well he pulled out of Star Wars Weekends cos he was ill, but was supposed to be getting better.

Then, about 10 days ago, I read that he had taken a turn for the worse again and the doctors still had no idea why.