The truth about Darth Vader
Sorry for coming out of nowhere w/ this but .... this is the never ending 'SW' thread .... and Ep.3 may not have ever happened if it wasn't for this guy (this outta start a whole new debate ... Heh-Heh)Dave Prowse is famous for playing Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies, and he travels the world attending conventions about the films. But unbeknown to many of his fans, over the past 20 years he has suffered a series of serious orthopaedic problems, including failed hip replacements.
Dave, 71, and a father-of-three, lives in Croydon, Surrey, with his wife, Norma. Here, he explains to MOIRA PETTY how he refuses to let his health slow him down:
At Star Wars conventions around the world, fans have grown used to the sight of me dressed as the character Darth Vader, with one added accessory - a crutch.
Over the past 20 years I've had one new left hip and three right hips, more dislocations than I can count and a near brush with death from septic arthritis.
Only last week, I had the latest operation to drain fluid from an infected hip joint. But I don't let my health stop me from doing anything - my wife, Norma, says I'm either in complete denial or totally amazing, she's not sure which.
As a schoolboy, I was one of the fastest sprinters in Great Britain and a talented rugby player. Then, at 13, my knee started to swell up. Doctors thought tuberculosis had attacked the joint and I ended up in a sanatorium for ten months.
With all the fresh air and milk, I shot up from 5ft 9in to 6ft 3in. They said it wasn't TB but decided to put me in a supportive leg iron, from groin to ankle, for 18 months; I grew a further two inches.
In the end, they said I was suffering from an inflammation of the tendons, known as Osgood-Schlatter's Disease.
When I came out of the leg brace I was rather puny, and after noticing a big, blond giant on the cover of a fitness magazine, I started weightlifting. I was a British heavyweight champion from 1962 to 1964. I joined Equity in 1965 and started getting acting roles.
Stanley Kubrick cast me as a bodyguard in Clockwork Orange (1970), which paved the way for Star Wars in 1977.
I worked hard at my physique, so it was a big shock when, in 1986, aged 51, I was on the leg press machine and my right hip gave way - 400lb of weights crashed down, pinning me to the machine's base.
I was rescued by friends, but when I stood up, I couldn't put my foot on the floor. The pain didn't subside and I had to rely on a stick for support.
Not long after, I flew to the U.S. for three-week tour as Darth Vader. While I was there, a leading orthopaedic surgeon said I had the start of an arthritic hip.
I was told arthritis can be hereditary - my mother and her mother had it - but I was determined it wouldn't interfere with my life. I began taking cod liver oil and doing sensible exercise. I was pain-free and my hip was working well within 18 months.
When I got carried away on the leg-press machine and became trapped again. This time an X-ray confirmed the hip was arthritic.
I had a right hip replacement. The head of the femur, the main leg bone, and the acetabulum, the socket, were replaced with artificial parts. But because they are smaller than the natural ones, they can easily become dislodged. Sure enough, a few days after the op the hip dislocated.
It was agonising and I had to stay in bed for three weeks. I was on crutches for three months, but was soon back on an exercise bike. A few months later, as I got up from my floor exercises, I heard a cracking noise from my left ankle and felt a terrible pain.
I had a hairline fracture in my ankle which I was told should right itself with an elasticised bandage. But as the months passed the swelling became huge.
I was given three choices: wear a support calliper, have the ankle joint fused surgically - or amputation below the knee. I opted for the calliper. I wore it for several years but the ankle remained out of alignment.
In the early 1990s, I was put in touch with a specialist in Atlanta who said he could save the joint by doing an ankle fusion. In theatre, he had to break the joint and rebuild it using pins and bone grafts. It takes the mobility out of the ankle, but it is then pain-free.
I lost about one-and-a-half inches of bone in my ankle and had to wear a built-up shoe. This put extra pressure on my left hip, which became stiff and painful, and a couple of years later, the specialist offered to replace it.
I had the surgery on a Tuesday, was in a walking frame on Thursday, on crutches on Friday, and that weekend I was doing a tour of Atlanta toy and book stores.
But on the Saturday the new hip popped out. It did it twice more over the next ten days. Back home, it happened a fourth time and was dealt with at my local hospital. But I wasn't worried: I knew the muscles were weak from the surgery and that remedial exercises would strengthen them.
However, my UK surgeon felt my right hip replacement was getting old, and in 1998 it was redone (a common revision procedure).
For three years everything seemed all right, then on the day I was due to fly out to Japan I found my right arm was paralysed. That is my (autograph) signing arm, so I was a bit worried, but I flew off.
Next morning, I woke up in Tokyo to find my left arm was also paralysed. I had to wait for the convention organiser to arrive to help me out of bed. The feeling started to return to my right arm, but at the convention I had to use my right hand to place my useless left arm like a weight on photos I signed.
My wife met me off the plane and said I looked terrible. I asked her to ring my GP, who immediately sent me to hospital. I was suffering from septic arthritis, a rare but serious joint infection.
Doctors battled to save me and prevent it turning into septicaemia. They pumped me with antibiotics but warned my wife my liver and kidneys were affected and if it went to my brain, that would be the end. I recovered, but was in hospital for more than a month.
A year later I had another revision of the right hip. A few days later I had another dislocation - surgery to adjust the joint has meant my right leg is a couple of inches longer than the left, so I now need a greater build-up on the left shoe.
Although I've had no more dislocations, a couple of years ago an abscess erupted in the old operation scar at the top of my right leg. I was taken into hospital for the wound to be cleaned out, but two weeks later it came up again. The problems reoccur every couple of months, and the abscesses have increased to three.
Doctors say the infection in my scar is very deep-seated, and if it doesn't improve they may have to remove the right artificial hip to get to the heart of the wound.
Next year there are 30th anniversary celebrations for Star Wars. I shall arrive on stage escorted by 50 stormtroopers, and when they gaze at me, the Commander in Chief, with awe and wonder, I'll forget my hips are playing me up.
Dave Prowse: Straight From The Force's Mouth, his two-volume autobiography, is available from www.darthvader-starwars.com
