played by:
Jake Lloyd (age 10, Episode I),
Hayden Christensen (age 20-23, Episodes II & III),
Matt Lanter (voice only, during the Clone Wars),
Sebastian Shaw (age 46, Episode VI)

Born to Shmi Skywalker into slavery under mysterious circumstances (namely, without a known father), Anakin was also born gifted with an extraordinary sensitivity to the Force.  His sensitivity helped him become the only human success story in Podracing, and gave him an uncanny intuition into the workings of machinery.  Around the age of three Anakin and his mother were sold into slavery on Tatooine, changing hands from a female Hutt to the Toydarian Watto, in the spaceport of Mos Espa, who soon found Anakin's skill with machinery and Podracing made him a valuable slave.

At the age of 9, still working in Watto's shop, he met the Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and Queen Amidala of Naboo, who was in disguise as the handmaiden Padmé Naberrie, both seeking repairs to Amidala's damaged ship.  Anakin was instantly drawn to Padmé, despite the fact that she was almost five years his senior, and the two quickly developed a close friendship.  Anakin's skills helped him to win the important Boonta Eve Podrace, providing the money and means to repair Amidala's ship.  Qui-Gon noticed Anakin's extremely strong sensitivity to the Force, and took Anakin with him when they left Tatooine to begin training as a Jedi Knight, believing Anakin was the "Chosen One," the one prophesized by the Jedi to restore balance to the Force, and conceived by Force-channeling microorganisms called midi-chlorians.  Anakin was forced to leave his mother behind, the guilt at leaving her behind creating a hole in his heart that would profoundly affect him later in life.

Anakin was initially rejected for training by the Jedi Council, as he was too old.  So Anakin accompanied Amidala and her retinue, including Qui-Gon's apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi, back to Naboo, where he piloted a Naboo starfighter into the heart of the Trade Federation lead battleship, destroying it and disabling the droid army, ending the occupation of the planet.  His accomplishments forced the Council to reconsider their decision, and they agreed to let Anakin be trained-- by Obi-Wan Kenobi, since Qui-Gon had died in the Naboo battle.  Since Obi-Wan did not formally choose Anakin as an apprentice-- training him primarily at the dying request of Qui-Gon.  He and Obi-Wan would always have a rocky relationship, despite the growing friendship as Anakin's training went on.

Anakin became perhaps the most gifted Padawan ever in the Jedi Temple, if hardly the most disciplined.  Often his ideals clashed with those of the Order, and Obi-Wan in particular, and he would almost as often rebel against them in small - and sometimes not so small - ways.  His leaving-behind of his mother would periodically haunt him; in that and other ways he had never really come to peace with his past as a slave.  He was also passionate and willful and sometimes prone to strong anger.  He also showed an initiative that while sometimes saving Anakin and Obi-Wan both from disaster, often led to trouble for Anakin and was a source of consternation between them as well.  Though over time forging a grudging bond between them, the two never quite saw eye to eye on many issues, the trust in their relationship never quite complete.  Much of what Anakin did was in effort to earn praise from Obi-Wan, which Obi-Wan seldom gave, so Anakin wound up seeking it elsewhere: Chancellor Palpatine, who had already taken something of an interest in Anakin's training. All this time, Anakin continued to think about the girl who had captured his heart back on Tatooine.

A decade after the Battle of Naboo, when Anakin was 20, he and Obi-Wan were assigned by Palpatine as protectors to Padmé, now the Senator of Naboo, who was the target of an assassination attempt.  Anakin fell in love even more intensely than before upon seeing her again.  The Jedi Council assigned Anakin as Padm�'s personal protector, sending the pair into hiding on Naboo, while Obi-Wan was sent to track down the assassins.  On Naboo Padmé and Anakin's childhood affection developed into something deeper, Anakin willingly pursuing it despite the forbidden nature of the romance: the Jedi Code forbade any attachment outside the Jedi Order itself.  Because it was forbidden, despite their mutual feelings, Padmé tried to resist, finally drawing a line which Anakin reluctantly accepted.

After Padmé's rejection Anakin once more became plagued with dreams about his mother, visions of her suffering and in pain back on Tatooine.  Knowing he would likely face punishment from the Order for doing so, Anakin returned to Tatooine with Padmé, discovering that not only was his mother free and a married woman-- she had been captured by a band of Tusken Raiders and was likely dead.  Refusing to believe so, Anakin mounted a search for her-- and did find her.  Having been badly beaten, she died shortly after in her son's arms, prompting him to go on a vicious revenge crusade, massacring the Tusken camp-- his first large step towards the Dark Side.  Ashamed and angry, he broke down and confessed the act to Padmé, who remained with him and comforted him.

After receiving word that Obi-Wan was in danger on the planet Geonosis, Anakin and Padmé went to rescue him-- and were captured as well.  Both facing certain execution at the hands of their captors, Padmé lowered her guard at last and declared her love for Anakin.  Following the subsequent opening battle of the Clone Wars and a duel with the current Sith apprentice, Tyranus, which cost Anakin his right arm (prompting the need for a cybernetic replacement), he and Padmé defied the Code and secretly married on Naboo. Over the next few years Obi-Wan and Anakin fought as generals in the Clone Wars that heralded the fall of the Republic. Anakin, now a full-fledged Knight, attained some celebrity as a successful starfighter pilot and troop commander - perhaps the greatest of the Wars.  His marriage to Padmé was still secret, and between that and the conflicts pulling him all over the galaxy, they saw one another seldom. This was perhaps further complicated in part due to Anakin being assigned his own Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, for a time during the Wars. While master and student initially bristled at each other, the two soon formed a genuine bond of affection. This persisted until Ahsoka, her trust in the Jedi Order shaken in a trial during which she was falsely condemned for terrorism and murder, left the Jedi Order - and Anakin. They would encounter each other again, but many years later and on opposite sides: Anakin as the Sith Lord Darth Vader, and Ahsoka as one of the leaders in the growing Rebellion against the Galactic Empire.

Nearly two decades later he met Obi-Wan again in battle, this time killing him.  He was the sole Imperial survivor of the destruction of the Empire's first Death Star superweapon, which he soon discovered was destroyed by Luke Skywalker-- his son.  Vader immediately became obsessed with finding Luke, initiating a galaxy-wide search for him, capturing and torturing his friends (including Leia Organa, Anakin's unknown daughter) and confronting Luke at the planet Bespin.  He severed Luke's hand in a duel and revealed that he was Luke's father, after which Luke fled the planet with his friends.

Vader encountered Luke again several months later on the world of Endor, above which the second Death Star was being built.  Luke, having made it his personal quest to bring back Anakin from where Luke believed he was still inside Vader, turned himself in to Vader there.  Luke insisted Vader was still Anakin Skywalker - which Vader protested - pleading his father to renounce the Dark Side, but Vader confessed he believed it was too late for him.  Vader took his son to face Palpatine, who tried to corrupt the boy to the Dark Side.  Another duel ensued between father and son, during which Vader, reading Luke's thoughts, discovered the identity of his daughter Leia.  Luke refused to turn to the Dark Side, and Palpatine proceeded to torture the young man with gouts of Force lightning (as Anakin had experienced decades before in the same duel that first cost him his arm, and later watching Windu's death) with the intent of killing him.  Vader realized he could not let his and Padm�'s son die, and rose up against Palpatine - Vader seized him and threw him down a reactor shaft, taking a massive jolt from the lightning.  Palpatine died, and Anakin wound up fulfilling the prophecy and restoring balance to the Force.  Vader's life support armor was fatally damaged by the strong electrical current.  Anakin's dying request was for Luke to unmask him, so he could see his son with his real eyes just once, which his son obliged.