FLOAT 100 · Memorabilia · No. 63
Darth Vader Helmet & Mask (The Empire Strikes Back)
Chipped at the cheek, missing its sensors and still marked inside with hand-painted production numbers, the fiberglass helmet and mask David Prowse wore as Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back sold for more than twice its high estimate.
- Year
- 1980
- Maker
- Lucasfilm
- By price in memorabilia
- 63 of 100
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Create a free account- Film
- Star Wars: Episode V, The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
- Worn by
- David Prowse, the 6-foot-6 British weightlifter who played Vader in the suit
- Construction
- Two pieces, mask and helmet, both fiberglass; tinted plastic lenses; foam rubber padding
- Markings
- A white '1' painted inside the mask; a brown '3' painted inside the helmet
- Condition
- Production chipping on the lower edges and right cheek; interior vent mesh and aluminum sensors missing
- Estimate
- $250,000 to $450,000
- Sold
- September 2019, at auction in Los Angeles
- Price
- $1,152,000 including buyer's premium
A samurai helmet and a gas mask
George Lucas asked concept artist Ralph McQuarrie for a very tall, dark, fluttering figure with a spooky feeling, as if it came in on the wind. McQuarrie added a space suit so the character could survive the vacuum of space, and produced the face of Darth Vader by combining a full-face breathing mask with a samurai helmet.
Costume designer John Mollo turned the drawings into a wearable outfit drawn from clerical robes, a motorcycle suit, a German military helmet and a military gas mask. Prop sculptor Brian Muir made the physical helmet and armor pieces. Sound designer Ben Burtt supplied the breathing from modified recordings of scuba apparatus, a sound later trademarked.
The helmet that results is really two parts: a domed outer helmet and a separate face mask, joined together. This lot preserves both, with traces of the original adhesive where the mask was bonded to the helmet and remnants of the Velcro used inside.
The man inside
David Charles Prowse was born July 1, 1935, in Bristol, England. He stood 6 feet 6 inches tall, won the British heavyweight weightlifting championship in 1962 and represented England at that year's British Empire and Commonwealth Games. In Britain he was already famous as the Green Cross Code Man, a road-safety superhero for children from 1971 to 1990.
Lucas cast him as the physical Vader for the original trilogy but gave the voice to James Earl Jones, wanting a darker voice than Prowse's West Country accent; Orson Welles had been considered and rejected as too recognizable. In the lightsaber duels of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, former Olympic fencer Bob Anderson took over.
Secrecy around the film's great twist reached even the man in the suit. On set Prowse was given the false line 'Obi-Wan Kenobi is your father'; only director Irvin Kershner, the producers and Mark Hamill knew what Jones would actually say. Prowse died in London on November 28, 2020, at 85.
Making the sequel
The Empire Strikes Back was directed by Irvin Kershner and produced by Gary Kurtz. Principal photography ran from March 5 to September 24, 1979, at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire and on the Hardangerjokulen glacier near Finse, Norway, where the crew filmed the Hoth scenes in the area's worst snowstorm in half a century.
The budget swelled from $8 million to $30.5 million, a fire damaged a stage at Elstree, and by July 1979 the production needed emergency refinancing. It opened in the United States on May 21, 1980, became the highest-grossing film of the year and won two Academy Awards. It was added to the National Film Registry in 2010.
It is the film in which Vader becomes the center of the saga: commanding the Imperial fleet, hunting Luke Skywalker and finally revealing that he is Luke's father. The helmet he wears through those scenes is the image the film is remembered by.
The 'holy grail' goes to auction
The helmet and mask were offered in a Los Angeles sale of film and television property in late September 2019, with online bidding open in the weeks before. They opened at $250,000 against an estimate of $250,000 to $450,000. The catalog called original Vader masks and helmets exceedingly rare, and the 'holy grail' of science fiction artifacts.
They sold for $1,152,000 including buyer's premium, the top lot of a sale that also included Prowse-worn Vader shoulder armor at $76,800, a full-size R2-D2 at $128,000, a C-3PO arm and hand worn by Anthony Daniels at $83,200 and Luke Skywalker's rifle from A New Hope at $70,400. Reports place the sale on September 26 or 27, 2019. The buyer was not named.
The result came months after a complete Vader costume, offered elsewhere with an estimate around $2 million, had been withdrawn over questions about its history, a reminder of how closely buyers scrutinize Vader material.
Reading a working prop
Both mask and helmet are fiberglass. The mask is painted a dark metallic gray with black accents and fitted with tinted plastic lenses and worn foam rubber padding, and it keeps two original elastic straps that held it to the wearer's head.
Inside, the mask carries a '1' in white paint and the helmet a '3' in brown paint, the kind of workshop numbering used to track multiple costume pieces through a production. The wear tells the same story: chipping along the lower edges and the right cheek, and missing components, including the metal mesh behind the respiratory vent and the aluminum 'atmospheric sensors' on the mask.
Those losses did not hurt it at auction. On a screen-used costume piece, honest production wear is part of the evidence.
The numbers
- Film
- The Empire Strikes Back, released May 21, 1980
- Director / producer
- Irvin Kershner / Gary Kurtz
- Shoot
- March 5 to September 24, 1979; Elstree Studios and Finse, Norway
- Budget
- $8 million planned, $30.5 million final
- Worldwide gross
- About $550 million, the top film of 1980
- Honors
- 2 Academy Awards; National Film Registry, 2010
Timeline
David Prowse is born in Bristol, England.
Star Wars opens, introducing Darth Vader.
Principal photography on The Empire Strikes Back begins.
Principal photography ends.
The Empire Strikes Back opens in the United States, with Prowse in this helmet and mask.
The Empire Strikes Back is selected for the National Film Registry.
The helmet and mask open for bidding at $250,000 against a $250,000 to $450,000 estimate.
They sell at auction in Los Angeles for $1,152,000 including premium.
David Prowse dies in London at 85.
The world in 1980
The U.S. Olympic hockey team beats the Soviet Union in the 'Miracle on Ice.'
Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, killing 57.
Pac-Man debuts in arcades, the day after the film opens.
CNN launches.
Ronald Reagan defeats Jimmy Carter.
John Lennon is shot and killed in New York.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2019 | $250,000 | Estimate, not a saleLow estimate and opening bid; high estimate $450,000. |
| Sep 2019 | $450,000 | Estimate, not a saleHigh estimate. |
| Sep 2019 | $1,152,000 | Sold at auctionSold at auction in Los Angeles, including buyer's premium. |
A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.
By reference price, Darth Vader Helmet & Mask (The Empire Strikes Back) is number 63 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (63 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- The Vader mask was conceived as a full-face breathing mask merged with a samurai helmet.
- David Prowse was a British weightlifting champion and, for children in the U.K., the Green Cross Code Man.
- On set, Prowse was handed the fake line 'Obi-Wan Kenobi is your father' to protect the film's twist.
- The helmet carries a hand-painted '3' inside and the mask a '1', production numbers from the workshop.
- Vader's breathing was made from altered recordings of scuba gear.
- The helmet sold for more than 2.5 times its high estimate.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026