The Modern History

Obit: Man behind Darth Vader’s light sabre leaves legacy in Canada

Michele ApSimon remembers the day in sixth grade when she brought Darth Vader to her Ottawa school — in person.

“I went to Alta Vista Public School, and he agreed to come as my show and tell,” ApSimon said of the time sword master Bob Anderson made her the coolest kid in school.

“They were absolutely stunned. I was the hero for the week. It was my 15 minutes of fame.”

Anderson, the stuntman who wielded Darth Vader’s light sabres in the original Star Wars films — part of a lengthy career in film and television — died New Year’s Day in hospital in England, the British Academy of Fencing confirmed. He was 89.

In the wake of his passing, Anderson was remembered fondly Monday for the roughly two decades he spent living not in a galaxy far away, but right here in Canada, in the Ottawa area and elsewhere in Ontario.

“He was a great guy,” Michele ApSimon’s father, former Canadian Fencing Association executive John ApSimon, recalled Monday. “He loved Canada.”