Bob Anderson, 1922-2012
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?You might not know his name, but you know his work — that’s because Bob Anderson portrayed Darth Vader in parts of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. He was David Prowse’s stunt double, and performed the lightsaber duels in both movies. Anderson was an Olympic-class fencer, representing Britain in 1952, and at the World Fencing Championships in ’51 and ’53. He then became one of the most prolific fight choreographers in Hollywood; his works included Star Wars, Highlander, The Phantom, The Princess Bride, the Lord of the Rings movies, the Zorro movies, some of the James Bond movies, Pirates of the Caribbean, and more. And a lot of this was while he was also coaching Britain’s national fencing team, which he did for over 25 years. Anderson passed away yesterday at the age of 89. Frankly, even if he’d just done the Man in Black/Inigo Montoya duel in Princess Bride, I think he’d be worthy of memorializing, but he did so much more. Thank you, sir. You will be missed. (Via ESPN)
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.