Contrary to what you may have seen in the movies, Darth Vader is alive and well and living in Tennessee. He’s also not a fan of the Star Wars franchise and spends his days working as an orthopedic surgery tech at Saint Francis Hospital-Bartlett outside of Memphis.
According to an interview with Esquire, this 39-year-old man, who was born Darth Vader Devon Williamson but now goes by Darthvader or Darth, has little interest in the Force or the Dark Side, but had a father who was a Star Wars enthusiast.
“They came up with the best plan to ruin their child’s life,” he said. With a Star Wars buff for a dad and a mother under the effects of anesthesia, she would agree to anything. When she realized what she had done afterward, she was like ‘Uh, what have we done?’ (My dad) was like ‘No no, it’s cool, he’ll be OK,’ and it just stuck.”
That doesn’t mean, however, that it hasn’t presented some problems for Darth.
“If I’m conducting business, or I’m on the phone and tell them my name, they’ll hang up,” he said. “When I introduce myself, I’ll call myself Darth Williamson. They’ll be surprised by the name and go into a spiel about the movies.”
Despite his lukewarm interest in the films, Darth does have a favorite villain from the series — and it’s not who he’s named for. He’s a fan of bounty hunter Boba Fett; specifically, Fett’s brevity.
“Darth Vader is always talking,” he said. “Boba doesn’t do much talking. When you see him, you know it’s going down.”
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Write to Cady Lang at cady.lang@timemagazine.com