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The Force was with us as we looked up the answer to your question. A quick trip to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) turned up the complete cast list for Star Wars. While James Earl Jones is indeed credited as the voice of Darth Vader, David Prowse is listed as the man behind the mask. IMDb noted that Prowse's stature (he's a towering 6'7") helped him snag the job as Darth Vader. However, his British accent didn't quite strike the right note, so George Lucas chose James Earl Jones as the voice of this ultimate bad guy. A little bit of searching turned up a Yahoo! category about Dave Prowse, and that led to the actor's official site. A former body builder and weight lifter, Prowse was originally offered the choice between playing the hairy good guy, Chewbacca, or Darth Vader. He picked Vader because "people will always remember the villain." Prowse and James Earl Jones were not the only actors to play a part in Darth Vader's history. Actor Sebastian Shaw appeared as Anakin Skywalker in Return of the
Jedi. Anakin, as Star Wars fans know, is the person Vader was before he succumbed to the dark side of the Force. At the end of Jedi, Vader is unmasked to reveal Anakin underneath. Of course, Anakin is the central character in the recent Star Wars prequels, The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.
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