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R.I.P. BOB ANDERSON 1922-2012

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Sadly, it has been reported that Bob Anderson, Darth Vader's stunt double in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the jedi, has passed away aged 89. Here is what the Kurtz Joiner facebook page had to say:

It is with great sadness that we report that Bob Anderson, the man behind the lightsaber fights in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and legendary swordplay in countless other films, has died at the age of 89. We had the very great pleasure of working with Bob numerous times over the years and always found him to be a gentleman, a professional and a legend. It was a privilege to know him and our thoughts are with his family and loved ones at this sad time. RIP Silverblade Bob.

ANH:REVISITED
ESB:REVISITED

DONATIONS TOWARDS MATERIALS FOR THE REVISITED SAGA

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May he Rest in Peace.

Screen grooming.  A most underrated activity. - hairy_hen

 

The mic was in picture!

^_^

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He also worked on other movies such as The Princess Bride and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. One of the best in the business. Sad to hear of his passing.

 

“Grow up. These are my Disney's movies, not yours.”

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Wow- what a great athlete. Hard to believe he was 89! He'll be missed.

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RIP! :(

The OT was just on Spike TV yesterday, all three.  Sadly ironic.

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Yahoo obituary.

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movie-sword-fight-master-bob-anderson-dies-89-122704485.html

Kudos to Mark Hamill for giving Mr. Anderson public credit for his contributions to Empire and Jedi back when Lucasfilm was mum about such things.

In case you've never seen the specially modified Vader helmet Anderson wore on Empire up close...

http://www.starwarshelmets.com/Original-Darth-Vader-Helmets.htm

It's about halfway down the page.

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Where were you in '77?

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Is it me or Starwars.com did not even mention this on their news page?

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The most recent news item I can find on there was posted December 19th, so perhaps the site staff was away for the holidays.

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Where were you in '77?

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They don't really have a staff anymore. After the recent site redesign it seems like they abandoned developing new material for the site and I wouldn't be surprised if it's run by one person at the moment. Everything that's there now is the absolute bare bones with links to fansites to do the heavy lifting.

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I hardly ever visit the site, so I didn't know.

Let's hope the official magazine at least does an obituary.

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Where were you in '77?

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2009's, 'Reclaiming the Blade'

http://www.reclaimingtheblade.com/  (trailer has clips of the Anderson interview)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0961079/

a documentary about how swords were traditionally used, interviewed Bob anderson.  There's a behind the scenes shot from ESB which I hadn't seen elsewhere.  Here's some of the dialog from the SW segment.

The idea of a free army. A theme in movies. (shows movie posters: Star Wars, Robin Hood, Lord of the Rings) 04:10 (movie sword play) 06:30 Bob Anderson talks: 00:09:09,315 --> 00:09:11,681 Then he said, "Oh, and he was Darth Vader." He was actually in Darth Vader's costume actually doing all the light saber work. And I was like... that sort of struck a resonance with me, you know. Oh, Darth Vader, yes. It's just a cloak and a helmet that I was underneath it all. I did choreograph the fights. I did 3 of those. It was good work for me. It became the weapon of choice in that series of films. Indeed even, it seems when somebody's making a science-fiction movie and off in space they can't seem to escape from the sword. I wonder why that is? What is it? It's your father's light saber. This is a weapon of a Jedi knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster. An elegant weapon for a more civilized age. To go into the future and then think about laser swords, that's brilliant. Suddenly "Star Wars" is not just a sci-fi movie, it's also a modern version of a hero legend. 09:05-10:25

 

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Thanks for the good work, Bob.

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Apparently he also appeared on camera as a random Imperial Officer in ESB - does anyone know which one?

That’s impossible, even for a computer.

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Well I don't know about Imperial Officer but he was prominently on screen working for the other side :

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I was hoping he'd be able to do the swordfights for The Hobbit to give continuity with the LOTR trilogy. A great contributor to cinema, he will be missed. 

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death