David Prowse - Vader in Episode III?
British strongman Dave Prowse, who epitomized the dark side of The Force in the first Star Wars trilogy, wants to repeat the role, despite arthritis and a dodgy hip.
Two decades after crossing light sabers with Luke Skywalker in the original movies, the 66-year-old actor has his sights firmly set on being fit enough to bid for the role in the sixth and final "Star Wars" movie.
But first the former weightlifting champion who gained screen immortality overnight in 1977 as the menacing, black-cloaked Vader, must undergo his fifth hip operation and get his hefty frame back in form.
"I would love to reprise the Darth Vader role," he told Reuters in an interview Tuesday. "If I am 100 percent physically able and they offer the part to someone else, I would be very disappointed."
The creator of one of cinema's most famous characters has his next hip operation in September. "I should be walking properly by Christmas and can get back into the gym and training. I am going to surprise them all next year," he said.
Prowse chilled a generation behind his shiny black mask as the heavy-breathing villain in the first three Star Wars movies but found himself out of a job when the action rolled back to Vader's youth in the current series of "prequels."
The last movie in the series, now being scripted by Lucas, completes the circle and brings back the adult Vader in all his evil glory.
Prowse has carved himself out a full-time career traveling the world to Star Wars conventions. Adoring fans line for hours to get his autograph. "I would say it would probably run into millions (of signatures) by now," he said.
"I was one of the first people to do the conventions. I formed a team and called it 'The Men Behind The Masks' and did them with Chewbacca and C-3PO."
Prowse, now working on his autobiography "Straight From The Force's Mouth," has just returned from a Star Wars convention in Indianapolis which attracted up to 100,000 fans.
"I am off to New York this weekend. I go to Japan once a year and do a tour. Germany is very big, as are Denmark and Sweden," said Prowse who has his own fans' Web site that is dedicated to George Lucas.
Prowse played Darth Vader and did all the dialogue in the "Star Wars" movies. But, at the last moment, Lucas asked James Earl Jones to dub the voice in the distinctive deep tones that became an instant classic.
But Prowse is not bitter: "He said I did a wonderful job and I am very complimentary about the way he did the voice."
However there is no doubting the steely determination to get back on the set of the world's most famous space epic.
"If Christopher Lee (one of the stars of the new "Star Wars" movie "Attack of the Clones" ) can handle a light saber at the age of 80, then so can I."