10 Iconic Movie Villains (Almost Played By Someone Else)

On the set of Star Wars Darth Vader was a decidedly less than menacing presence given that, although he looked imposing in his black mask and cape standing at 6 foot 6, David Prowse delivered all of Vader's supposedly intimidating dialogue with a west country twang.

It was clear from the start that the villain needed a rich, authoritative tone to match his physical stature and the Bristolian actor was never going to provide that. Lucas's first idea for the man who could was one of Hollywood's great elocutionists.

Yes, according to the man who would eventually provide Vader's instantly recognisable vocal tones, James Earl Jones, George Lucas first contacted Orson Welles to read for the sith lord, only later turning to the future Mufasa instead.

Lucas later referred to how, after deciding that Vader needed to have an appropriately powerful voice that could dominate the scene, his choice came down to Welles or Jones. As Lucas tells it, the only reason he opted for Jones was that Welles's voice was simply too familiar. He worried that whenever audiences heard Darth Vader they would be hearing Citizen Kane instead and would be pulled out of the scene.

Welles did get to voice a sci-fi bad guy a few years later, albeit a far less iconic one, with the giant planet-eating robot Unicron in the original Transformers movie.