<
https://theconversation.com/james-earl-jones-has-died-but-as-the-voice-of-darth-vader-he-will-live-forever-238678>
"It is difficult to imagine a world of pop culture villains without Darth
Vader.
The masked and cloaked figure now casts perhaps the longest shadow of any film
character on popular culture. When Vader first appeared on screen in 1977,
audiences recognised something elemental, and reportedly did something that
hadn’t been done since the days of Vaudeville and silent cinema: instinctively,
they hissed.
One look at Vader and you recognise a cinematic villain. Beyond the visual,
every element of Vader builds the perfect bad guy. There’s that voice, provided
by James Earl Jones, who died today at age 93. There are the lines – “I am your
father”. Then there’s that theme tune by John Williams, a piece of music so
well loved that it’s often forgotten that it wasn’t written until the second
Star Wars,
The Empire Strikes Back in 1980.
George Lucas created Darth Vader in the earliest drafts of the original
Star
Wars script, after completing
American Graffiti in the early 1970s,
describing him as a “a tall, grim-looking general”. Lucas was inspired by comic
books and the serial shorts of the 1940s like
Flash Gordon and
Buck Rogers.
When it came time to film
Star Wars, Lucas hired an English bodybuilder and
strongman, David Prowse, to fill out the suit. Yet Prowse spoke with a strong
Devonshire accent, earning him the nickname “Darth Farmer” on set.
Lucas searched for a replacement voice to be dubbed over Prowse, and, after
asking Orson Welles finally settled on the profoundly sonorous James Earl
Jones.
Prowse, who had hoped to voice the lines himself like Anthony Daniels had for
C-3PO, had a strained relationship with Lucas from that moment on, and when
Vader was unmasked at the end of
Return of the Jedi in 1983, it was English
stage actor Sebastian Shaw who appeared to deliver the character’s final
lines."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
