Darth Vader's original age

Does anyone have any official sources from pre-prequel times stating Vader's age? It seems to me that originally he was much older than the mid-40's he now apparently is during the OT. In fact, when revealing his face in ROTJ, he was depicted as an old man--and played by a man who was well over 70 years old (Sebastian Shaw was in fact 77)! I seem to recall Lucas years ago stating that Vader was supposed to be in his early sixties at the time of his death. Can anyone confirm or elaborate on any of this? Most of the official sources have not survived since they have been updated to account for the PT history.

 

I'm not sure if this is right but i heard that in ANH he was 41, Luke was 19, Obi-wan was 57. In ESB he was 44, Luke was 22, and Obi-wan...well you know. Then he died at 45, and Luke was 23. But thats just what i heard.

Cheers_Cazza

 

I think those numbers are from the PT era, not before.

Originally Luke and Leia were different ages (18 and 20, I think) but I don't remember about Vader from anything pre-PT.

 

Before the PT was made, Luke and Leia's ages were sometimes 18, sometimes 20.
Han was always 29.
Vader and Ben were around 20 years older than they are now.

 

Not that i hate Darth Vader,knowing that he was once anikan. In episode 6 he looks like he is 90 something.

 

Living in a desert and in an iron lung sure make you look older than you actually are!!

 

Vader was younger than OB1 , that´s for sure.And if OB1 was around late 50´s , early 60´s , he probably was abut 40´'s.Remember what OB1 said: " a young pupil of mine named Darth Vader".

 

It tricky because there is really THREE timelines that Lucas has created.

The first is ANH; this existed from 1976-1978. In this one Obi Wan is approx. 65-70 years old (possibly older?), with Father Skywalker being about the same and Darth Vader is roughly 40.

The second is ESB-ROTJ; this existed from 1978-1993 (though sources still used this until 1999). In this one Obi Wan is still an old geezer but Vader and Father Skywalker have been combined and his age is now somewhere in between, approximately early 60's. This is the one i am trying to get some kind of official confirmation on. I know its out there!

The third one is the PT; this was created around 1993 (though many didnt begin citing it until 1999) and is the final timeline. In this one Obi Wan is offically 61 years old and Vader is roughly 40 again.

 

TPM= 9

AOTC= 19

ROTS= 22

ANH= 42

ESB=45

ROTJ= 45 or 45 going on 46 or 46

 

let me revise the CT ages for you:

ANH: 41

ESB: 44

ROTJ: 45

 

The age thing was really only mentioned in the first Guide to the Star Wars Universe. No where else was the age really ever discussed that I know of at the time. In that one, Anakin was 65 in ROTJ if I recall. The Clone Wars were also way before Episode III in that books timeline.

 

Read the actual question guys, i know what the current timeline is, the OS even mentions specific ages for Anakin. What i am trying to determine is the vague age Vader was supposedly during 1980-1998 (i.e. pre-prequel).

The best thing i have found is this:

[describing Lucas' thoughts on the Vader reveal in ROTJ] "Luke's father should be in his sixties, about ten years younger than Ben."
(Bouzereau, The Annotated Screenplays, p.316)

Well, its official, but i wish there was something more to back it up. Probably not very likely without doing some thorough digging.

 

thanks for that info! Consistent with the above quote at least.

Now the question is: what was Obi Wan's original age? 75? I know he is supposedly 61 in ANH now.

 

Sounds about right. I get the sense from the OT that Lucas originally intended Obi-Wan and Vader to be around the same age, because of the friendship angle to their relationship. Lucas apparently forgot that Vader was also supposed to have been Obi-Wan's pupil, meaning he would probably be younger.

 

I heard somehere thet Anakin was 20 in AOTC am i right

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that Obi-Wan and Anakin were both originally meant to be at least 10 years older in the Original Trilogy than they are now. Now, their ages are as follows:

Obi-Wan

The Phantom Menace = 25
Attack of the Clones = 35
Revenge of the Sith = 38
A New Hope = 57

Anakin/Vader

The Phantom Menace = 9-going-on-10
Attack of the Clones = 20
Revenge of the Sith = 23
A New Hope = 42
The Empire Strikes Back = 45
Return of the Jedi = 46

 

Yes, "forgot".

This is another inconsistency Lucas had to deal with after making Father Skywalker and Vader the same person in 1978--one was a friend of equal age and status, the other a much younger student. This also went hand in hand with the fact that Obi Wan says Father Skywalker was a jedi knight and the fact that Vader says he was still a student when he left Obi Wan; luckily the dialog still works in more generic terms now.

So far the age differences i have constructed are:

Timeline one (1977)

ANH:

Vader is approx. 40
Obi Wan is approx. 75
Father Skywalker is approx. 75 (perhaps slightly younger)

Timeline two (1980)

ANH:

Vader is approx. 62 (assuming 3 years pass between ANH and ESB)
Obi Wan is approx. 75

Timeline three (1999)

ANH:

Vader is approx. 42
Obi Wan is approx. 57 (corrected from my previous estimate of 61, seeing as he is 25 in TPM and ANH is 32 years later)


That is quite the variation. Vader ages 20 years older on the second timeline, and poor Obi Wan drops almost twenty years younger due to the PT final timeline!!

 

Good job, Zombie, but I think you might have missed one little thing regarding the first Vader-variation:
"Father Skywalker" always was the father of Luke, and Luke was always intended to be around 18-20 years old. Don't you think the father would be a little to old at 75 to have a son at 18? Personally, I'd guess that Luke's father always has been around 60 years.

 

Yeah, thats something thats been kind bugging me too. I surmised that Father Skywalker would be slightly younger than Obi Wan, but i wouldn't think any more than 10 years--most likely only 5. Considering it was Obi Wan's idea to run off, leave Tatooine and become jedi together, I get the impression that Obi Wan may have been a 'bigger brother' type of friend to Father Skywalker, the way Biggs tries to get Luke to join the Academy in ANH. The problem i run into when trying to push back Father Skywalker's age is that both he and Obi Wan would have been young men when they joined the jedi to fight in the war--its meant to parallel adventure-seeking young men eagerly signing up for military service in WWII. In other words, 18-25 years old, meaning that if Father Skywalker enlisted at 18, the oldest age plausible for Obi Wan would be 28; any gap greater than that between the two and it begins to loose plausibility (a teenager running off for military service with a thirty year old??). So this brings the earliest possible age of Father Skywalker at the time of his death to 65, ten years younger than Obi Wan, but more than likely he would have been a few years older to bring him closer to age of Obi Wan. Of course this means that he would have anywhere from 45-50 years old when he concived Luke. Considering he would have been a verile jedi warrior, this isnt anything impossible, but it does seem a little unusual .

 

Feeding of the Dark Side isn't quite the Oil of Olaz you're looking for either, is it now?

 

Well in all truth Alec Guinnes had just turned 62 during the filming of ANH, not in the 70s some label him. He was a mere 5 years older than the character he was playing.

 

OB1 was never intended to be in his 70´s.60´s maybe.And Vader was not of the same age .Once again remember OB1 ´s words : " a YOUNG jedi called Darth Vader , who was a pupil of mine ".He is supposed to be younger than Ob1.

 

Luke and Leia were ~23 in RoTJ. Their mother was young when she had them. So unless Anakin was married to a much younger woman the PT timeline fits. This puts Vader in his 40's in RoTJ. Make sense?