Rest in Peace, Sword Master Bob Anderson

Grey Ghost

Do you know this dude? You may not know his face, but you know his work

Bob Anderson was a champion fencer and a stunt choreographer (and often performer) on basically every badass fight with bladed weapons in Western film (or at least the ones that matter)

He was in the Vader suit for the lightsaber duels in Empire and Jedi, he choreographed the Pirates and Lord of the Rings swordfights, a bunch of Errol Flynn movies, and oh yeah, he's responsible for the single coolest exhibition of swordplay ever put on film:



Anderson was 89 years old and kept it up right until the end (he was still doing the fights for the The Hobbit, which is shooting now); I have to imagine he passed in his sleep because there's no way Death could take him in a duel

So let's raise our blades to Bob Anderson, who is handing angels their asses right about now

Fleeb

Awesome guy. RIP badassman.

tynic

oh man he sounds like a dude!

RIP dude.

BahamutZERO

he was an awesome dude.

Dark Raven X

Holy shit, I was just reading about this guy a couple days ago.

Pirates of the Caribbean has gotta be his best. The blacksmith fight in particular is fantastic.

alternatingAberration

Man, who is going to fill that vacuum.

Melding

That's unfortunate. Rest in peace guy, you're sword fighting dinosaurs in heaven now.

Druhim

big ups for Anderson

Centipede Damascus

alternatingAberration wrote:

Man, who is going to fill that vacuum.

hopefully he trained apprentices who have attained some measure of his talent

Der Waffle Mous

Centipede Damascus wrote:

alternatingAberration wrote:

Man, who is going to fill that vacuum.

hopefully he trained apprentices who have attained some measure of his talent

I bet that's how he died.

Fearghaill

I find it kind of funny looking at his IMDB page, he had a handful of movie jobs from the 50s-70s, and just Star Wars in the late 70s/early 80s. Then he did Highlander and The Princess Bride back to back and after that was very busy right up until he died.

Avraham

Mortal Sky

It's guys like this - the people involved in making films not only well written and acted, but also fun to watch - who sometimes seem to be the most unappreciated, even though they make dozens of films absolutely incredible. It's pretty amazing to look at Anderson's record and realize just how many memorable swordfights he was behind. I mean, hell, I even dreamed I was in one of them (the final lightsaber fight of RotJ) a few years ago.
RIP, Bob Anderson.

Fearghaill

Also I can't help but notice that he doesn't appear to have been involved in the Star Wars prequels, which is telling.

Centipede Damascus

Der Waffle Mous wrote:

Centipede Damascus wrote:

alternatingAberration wrote:

Man, who is going to fill that vacuum.

hopefully he trained apprentices who have attained some measure of his talent

I bet that's how he died.

killed his master in a duel and never said why

Druhim

Guys, just remember:
SWORDS WILL FUCKING CUT YOU

Melding

Damn it druhim, i was about to go get those.

That Series gets so good.

Buttlord

Druhim wrote:

Guys, just remember:
SWORDS WILL FUCKING CUT YOU

That's why you need to know how to survive edged weapons

True story I watched all of Surviving Edged Weapons this summer

It's basically the best thing

Grey Ghost

Centipede Damascus wrote:

Der Waffle Mous wrote:

Centipede Damascus wrote:

alternatingAberration wrote:

Man, who is going to fill that vacuum.

hopefully he trained apprentices who have attained some measure of his talent

I bet that's how he died.

killed his master in a duel and never said why

Anderson, Anderson
Six foot twenty, fuckin' killing for fun

Buttlord

Grey Ghost wrote:

Centipede Damascus wrote:

Der Waffle Mous wrote:

Centipede Damascus wrote:

alternatingAberration wrote:

Man, who is going to fill that vacuum.

hopefully he trained apprentices who have attained some measure of his talent

I bet that's how he died.

killed his master in a duel and never said why

Anderson, Anderson
Six foot twenty, fuckin' killing for fun

I heard he stole a pocketful of horses, and fucked the shit outta bears

Oghulk

Damn. Bob Anderson was awesome. It's really sad to have that void now where his handiwork was...

miscellaneousinsanity

Heard the news from my brother earlier, RIP

Few knew of Anderson's role until Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, said in a 1983 interview that "Bob Anderson was the man who actually did Vader's fighting."
"It was always supposed to be a secret, but I finally told (director) George (Lucas) I didn't think it was fair any more," Hamill told Starlog magazine. "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."
[...]
"I never took up the sword," he said in an interview for the 2009 documentary "Reclaiming the Blade." "I think the sword took me up."

Tonkka

Aw man.

ThreeCubed

What??! NO!

SCREECH OF THE FARG

man this guy was rad

Edcrab

I was reading about him the other day too

A ripe old age and still working, with swords, right up until the end

I Win Swordfights

My man.

R.I.P.

Druhim

miscellaneousinsanity wrote: »

Heard the news from my brother earlier, RIP

Few knew of Anderson's role until Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, said in a 1983 interview that "Bob Anderson was the man who actually did Vader's fighting."
"It was always supposed to be a secret, but I finally told (director) George (Lucas) I didn't think it was fair any more," Hamill told Starlog magazine. "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."
[...]
"I never took up the sword," he said in an interview for the 2009 documentary "Reclaiming the Blade." "I think the sword took me up."

Reclaiming the Blade is actually a pretty good documentary.

Grey Ghost

Oh hey and it's on Netflix Instant!
I know what I must do

Gumpy

Bloody impressive that he managed to keep it up till the very end

RIP Mr Anderson

Piotyr

I'll leave these here...because holy crap he did everything...

Lost Salient

Welp

Those videos are cool

Mostly they just reminded me how much I love the shit out of Zorro

Wren

the james bond swordfight was the best swordfight in the history of ever

Naphtali

that was about the only good thing to come out of die another day

Lost Salient

I've never actually seen Die Another Day.

Also the best swordfight in ever is Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone in The Adventures of Robin Hood.

Did you know that Basil Rathbone actually took to fencing and became quite accomplished at it? True story! Even though he never won in the movies, he was really good! I think I read that in By the Sword. Which, incidentally, was a cool book.

Naphtali

unless you really have to be a bond movie completionist, don't bother seeing it LS

Shorty

Naphtali wrote:

unless you really have to be a bond movie completionist, don't bother seeing it LS

true story.

Snork

if you are a bond movie completionist i feel like it might be best to just forget DAD even happened

it was... unbelievably bad. i was incapable of enjoying it at age 12 with a plate full of white castle burgers and a living room full of doofy adolescents

Shorty

there are things that make it worthwhile but only the most dedicated bond fan should bother to look for them

just move along, watch a good Bond film, there are lots of those

Lost Salient

I dunno about you all but I just rewatch Moonraker every day.

Shorty

moonraker is cool when you're a kid because LASERS

but it was a really obvious attempt to cash in on the space-craze heralded by Star Wars

it had almost an identical plot to The Spy Who Loved Me, for fuck's sake