Darth Vader’s stunt double Bob Anderson on the set of Empire Strikes Back
A champion fencer who won several competitions while in the British Royal Marines, Bob Anderson represented Great Britain at the Helsinki 1952 Summer Olympic Games, and the World Championships in 1950 and 1953 in the saber event. He finished tied for fifth in the team sabre event at Helsinki in 1952.
Following this carrier, Anderson went to Hollywood, where he worked as a fight choreographer and trainer for Errol Flynn. Anderson subsequently went on to be involved in all three of the original Star Wars films. Anderson did not receive much recognition for his work for years after their initial release. Mark Hamill in 1983 revealed, “Bob Anderson was the man who actually did Vader’s fighting. It was always supposed to be a secret, but I finally told George I didn’t think it was fair anymore. Bob worked so bloody hard that he deserves some recognition. It’s ridiculous to preserve the myth that it’s all done by one man.” Anderson in 1994 specified that for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi he staged the lightsaber duels and also wore the Vader costume in fight scenes. David Prowse, who played Vader, said he did his own swordplay in the first Star Wars film but afterward, “having one of the principals do his own stunts made [the filmmakers] very weird from an insurance point of view.”
Anderson continued to work in cinema for the next 30 years and was responsible for the swordsmanship in many films, including Highlander, The Princess Bride, The Three Musketeers, The Mask of Zorro, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Shortly before his death, he was working on The Hobbit. He had a reputation for being a perfectionist, with director Martin Campbell giving him the nickname “Grumpy Bob”. Anderson was interviewed at length for the 2009 documentary on cinematic sword-fighting, Reclaiming the Blade, where he commented, “I never took up the sword, I think the sword took me up.
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