Here’s a guide to the career of Sebastian Shaw, best known for playing the helmetless Darth Vader in Return Of The Jedi. While obviously best known for his brief appearance as Vader in the Star Wars sequel, Shaw did most of his most acclaimed acting work on the stage. The English thespian appeared in many acclaimed productions of Shakespeare plays, including Romeo And Juliet, Cymbeline, Macbeth and many others. He also received praise for his performance as the judge in the classic play Whose Life Is It Anyway?
Sebastian Shaw made his film debut with 1930’s Castle, a British drama written by Peeping Tom director Michael Powell. In the years that followed Shaw would appear in many more British movies, including 1933’s Little Miss Nobody and 1935’s Brewster’s Millions, based on the novel of the same name; Richard Pryor remade the movie with Walter Hill in 1985. Despite a busy stage and screen career, the actor didn’t rate his own abilities very high during this period. He felt his career was largely down to his good looks and believed he only matured as an actor after serving with the Royal Air Force during World War II.
Following his time with the RAF, Shaw had to restart his acting career again. In addition to more stage roles like a 1945 production of The Gambler, he appeared in TV movie Hamlet playing Claudius and the 1949 romantic drama The Glass Mountain. The years that followed saw the actor jump between TV shows and movies, with the most notable being Scotch on the Rocks, disturbing war drama The Glass Mountain and a 1968 adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Why Sebastian Shaw Was Cast As Anakin Skywalker
He also appeared in a 1972 episode of cult BBC horror anthology Dead Of Night, but his outing “Death Cancels All Debts” is one of five episodes that are now lost. Shaw was also a writer, penning the play Take A Life in 1961 and later publishing his only novel The Christening. In what might have been an intriguing piece of alternate history, he submitted a proposal for a comedy series about four female friends sharing a flat to the UK’s Granada Television. While they considered producing it, they instead opted to make Coronation Street, a classic soap opera that’s been running since 1961.
In 1983 he was cast as Anakin Skywalker for Return Of The Jedi. Shaw was in his late 70s when he shot his scenes, with George Lucas deciding a veteran performer was needed to pull off the emotion of Darth Vader’s unmasking and death. Despite only having two minutes of screentime, Shaw gives a heartbreaking performance. The role also earned him a lot of fanmail in the aftermath. Sebastian Shaw stayed busy for the remainder of his career, including appearances in Sam Neill spy drama Reilly: Ace Of Spies, romantic comedy High Season and the cult sci-fi miniseries Chimera. Shaw passed away in 1994 at the age of 89, with his final credit being an episode of TV show Growing Rich.