Would it surprise you to learn that this arch villain taught four ultimate good guys how to fight with a sword? I'm referring, of course, to Athos, Aramis, Porthos, and D'Artagnan in the Walt Disney Pictures film of the classic French novel by Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers.

Darth Vadar, also known as Bob Anderson, is a fencing master's fencing master. At 71 years of age, he's in top shape, and still physically involves himself with the training of the actors put in his care.

Early Fencing Training

Bob began his career in fencing in 1947 while in the British Royal Marines. He began his coaching career in 1949 under the tutelage of Maitre Roger Crosnier who had come to Britain from France after the 1948 Olympics in London, to take over the position of National Coach. Under Maitre Crosnier, Bob participated in the 1952 Olympics as an athlete, and when the Maitre returned to France in 1953, he accepted the position of National Coach, attending six Olympiads. In 1962 he became the European Sabre Champion.

"My style of sword fighting draws heavily on my experience as a sabre fencer," remarked Bob. "In fact, when I met Errol Flynn, he liked this style, and that led to my first movie, Master of Ballantrae. Subsequently, I did a total of three movies with Flynn in the capacity of Swordmaster and stunt double."

Since that first movie, Maestro Anderson has worked in hundreds of action films doing things as diverse as being blown around by the three super bad guys in Superman II to playing Darth Vadar's swordfighting role in The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. He's been Swordmaster for the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, England, and Swordmaster for all Disney films from 1972 to 1980.

Taking Swords into Space

"I never thought they would take swords into space," remarked Bob when asked about his role as Darth Vadar. "I didn't do the first Star Wars. I was working with Michael Caine at that time on a remake of Kidnapped. Peter Diamond, who is a longtime friend and associate of mine was the stunt coordinator for the Star Wars series, and he asked me to double for Darth Vadar during the swordfights with Mark Hamil.

"Obviously, with Mark playing Luke Skywalker without any protection at all, it was realized that, due to the restrictions of Darth Vadar's costume, especially when it came to the field of vision from behind the mask, that Mark could potentially be injured. With that in mind, they wanted an expert swordsman to do the routine simply for the safety factor. That's how I came to be in the series."

Oddly enough it was not his role as Darth Vadar, or his former affiliation with Disney that brought him in as Swordmaster on The Three Musketeers, but rather the fact that he was responsible for the swordplay in another, quite different movie.

The Princess Bride

"Director Stephen Herek was looking at some old films, trying to get an idea of how the sword fights might go in The Three Musketeers. The fight he liked most was in The Princess Bride," explained Bob. "So he found out who did the swordplay in it, and called me up. Fortunately I was free and so told him I would be delighted to do the movie."

"The odd thing about all this," reflected Bob. "Is that a lot of modern swordmasters think that the old fights of the Errol Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks era are passé. Fortunately, Rob Reiner, who directed Princess Bride, wanted exactly that type of fight. I had come onto the scene exactly at that period, so I was able to give it to him. I remember thinking that maybe it wouldn't go down well, but that's what the director wants, and that's what I gave him not to mention it's the way I like doing it anyway. Wouldn't you know that everyone raved about it, and I was very surprised."

"It's nice to know that people still like the romantic sort of thing where there's no hacking with blood all over the place and gimmick stunts."

Training the Musketeers

After reading the script, it was arranged for Bob to work with the actors in Los Angeles for three weeks prior to their arriving on scene for shooting.

"It was nice having them every day like that," said Bob. "We would train at different times, as in the beginning I prefer working with the actors on and individual one-on-one basis. Quite often they would overlap as when Rochefort fights Athos, and we would begin to develop that routine so we could build up on it when we got to Vienna, and we were able to actually see where we were going to fight."

"It's really rather difficult to explain how you put a swordfight together," replied Bob when asked.

"Really, it's a matter of experience. I've done so many of these fights since starting with Flynn that all these ideas are stowed away in the mind somewhere.

My whole history has been of swordplay things just happen."

Setting a Routine

"What I usually do is put together a basic routine as it comes from the head with a high amount of concentration focused on getting the rhythm right. Other than the safety factor, the most important thing concerning the final choreographed fight is changing the rhythm of the blade. If it all goes along with the same tempo, it gets rather boring, so you have to do moves that are broad and slow, then change to fast and fluid. You have to put in some basic fare such as pris de fer (taking of the blade), then you begin to move it around."

"When you get on to the set and you see where you're going to do the fight, you work it into that location. I don't think there is an easy way to answer this question. It's not a trick, or anything like that. Simply, the more experience you have at swordplay, the better chance you have at coming out with a decent fight.

"As we go along, I do write the fight down using modern fencing terminology. I throw in a few moves like a "hanging parry," which you do use in modern sabre, but not that often. I write it all down as I'm sure that every action coordinator does. I just use fencing terms.

Learning the Terms

I'm not sure that the actors or stunt men approve totally, but I make them learn the proper names. I believe that when you get to a certain stage, the fencing master has to be able to communicate with the swordsman within those terms. It's not good enough for me to say, "take it in a high parry to the right." I have to say "take it in parry tierce," because you can take several different high parries to the right. By using the actual terms of the parry, the actor or stuntman knows exactly where to go."

We started our training with epees, starting off slowly, talking about safety, and how to defend yourself properly. Very gradually the actors become confident, and they start turning on the speed and the acting part of it, and then it begins to look real. It's a slow process and you need to do that. I won't short circuit that sort of learning. I believe that if you can't be safe, you shouldn't be doing it. You can't afford to take a chance with an actor. A cut in the eye, of a slash across the face and that's his fortune."

The Safety Factor

"I believe very strongly about the safety factor and I won't let them do it in front of the camera if I don't think they can do it. It's a great responsibility as there is no completely safe fight there's always danger, and you have to keep a sharp eye on things as they progress.

"At one time, they would run the entire fight scene from start to finish. The director liked it like that so he could plan his shot angles in advance, but a lot of time is wasted doing it that way. If something goes wrong, you can't just pick up in the middle and begin again. I can do a rather long sword fight in three or four sections which makes it safer for the actors, and the director gets a better idea of what the long fight is about.

Developing the Character

"Another aspect of being the swordmaster is the development of the character of the swordfighter. The thing that I like about this picture was that I had very specific ideas about the fighters and the people they were from the book. Athos was the fighter, Aramis the technician, D'Artagnan the athlete - young and gymnastic about the whole thing."

"With that in mind, I tended to lead them in that direction as we trained, but they really developed it themselves. They obviously knew the type of person that they were supposed to be, and so they actually brought out the character better than I could."

Bob paused to chuckle softly, "We called Keifer Sutherland the 'fighting machine' because as soon as the director said 'action' he was going to annihilate every guy he fenced. It was a great joy watching him move."

Continuing the Good Fight

Currently Maestro Anderson is working as the Swordmaster on the television series The Highlander. Bob did the first Highlander film, doubling for Sean Connery.

Bob's whole life has been fencing and swordfighting, and although he is much too modest to admit it, we in the fencing world owe him much. And in the realm of movie kingdoms, although the swordmaster is named last on the credits, Maestro Bob Anderson is the first man the stars seek out when they need to look good holding a sword.

Reprinted with permission from the Fight Master.