(3/3) Fortunately, when the characters finally reached the wet slabs of cement, accommodations were made for the restricted wearers within. "What they did, since we couldn't get down on our hands and knees, was they rigged up a stick with a ball point pen capped at the end to draw in the concrete and sign our names. Tony said he wanted to add his name [to C-3PO's], so he came out afterwards while the concrete was still wet and wrote 'Anthony Daniels'. Of course, I didn't sign my name because I wasn't in the movie. So I drew my 'Darth Vader' signature as best I could -- it doesn't look exactly perfect, but it's the best I could do."
Though Eller recalls the event being pre-empted from televised broadcasts that evening by other news, he was able to catch himself guest-starring on the Donny & Marie show a month later. Also that September, Eller was filmed for a short holographic sequence used in the Making of Star Wars documentary, in which his image appears in a scripted scene with C-3PO and R2-D2.
It was an event in April, 1978, however, that probably garnered Eller his most famous, albeit anonymous, moment. On April 3, 1978, Star Wars received seven Academy Awards, including Best Costume Design. The award was presented to John Mollo by Natalie Wood, accompanied on stage by Eller's Darth Vader.
"The real thrill with the Academy Awards," says Eller, "was knowing that something like 1.2 billion people were watching and that it was live. I also knew that I had to walk down fifty tiny stairs [it was the 50th Academy Awards] and didn't want to fall down to have the whole costume fly apart." According to Eller, a bit of fakery was in order to safely descend the stairs -- an actress wearing the Princess Leia costume would guide him down by the arm, maintaining the illusion that he was actually guiding her.
Though a rare appearance at the Academy Awards can pretty much secure one's status as a pop-culture icon, it was Eller's posing for a famous photograph that will probably be most remembered by Star Wars fans. Eller filled the Vader costume for the famous Factors Etc. Darth Vader poster that has been pinned up on millions of bedroom walls since 1977. "That was interesting," remembers Eller. "My hand was empty. I formed my hand as if I was holding a lightsaber, and Ralph McQuarrie painted the lightsaber handle, the blade, and the reflections coming off the costume."
Such modest memories for an image that has been used countless times throughout the years, replaced only recently by a new series of Vader images taken for Revenge of the Sith.
After nearly five years of anonymously donning the famous black helmet and cape, Eller made his final appearance in the cold early months of 1982. By this time, the costume had been updated to reflect some improvements made for The Empire Strikes Back, and others had begun donning a second and third Vader costume to keep up with demand for a nation clamoring for more Vader appearances. It was in Chicago, at a housewares exhibition, that Eller finally made good on a suggestion he'd made in the months prior -- to end public appearances before the character's cachet became commonplace.
"I just had this vision of Darth Vader being this really wonderful figure and having a kind of majesty to him," explains Eller. "To end up doing [an endless schedule of appearances] just wasn't in fitting with the character."
For a wintertime show, the interior of the exhibit hall was very warm -- so warm, in fact, that Eller temporarily passed out from the heat. It may have been heatstroke, but he can't be sure. "I didn't let them take me to the hospital," confesses Eller. "They wanted to cut the suit off -- I said, 'I don't think you understand -- I'll heal. The suit won't.'"
Ever loyal to the costume and the character, Eller braved a final day at the show before hanging up the props, and persona, for good.
Today, Eller remembers his days as the people's Vader fondly, trading in his virtual techno-man status for a career in computer systems engineering at company Trace|3. "I help companies manage where their data is stored and how the data is replicated over to other safe sites," explains Eller, who calls himself an "I.T. Architect/Engineer."
Like an architect who works anonymously behind the scenes, Eller can secretly take pride in the accomplishments spanning both careers, which include, of all things, a spotlight at the Academy Awards, an iconic poster portrait, a footprint in the Chinese forecourt, and the awe of thousands of young star-struck fans out for a summer day of shopping.