Star Wars actor Kenneth Colley dies at 87

NEW YORK – English actor Kenneth Colley, who is best known for his role as Admiral Firmus Piett in the original Star Wars trilogy (1977 to 1983), died in Ashford, England on June 30. He was 87.

His agent Julian Owen said in a statement the actor died in a hospital from complications of pneumonia after contracting Covid-19.

Colley became a memorable screen presence for international audiences who could recognise his dour, stony face even if they did not know his name.

A versatile supporting actor, he was often tapped to play stern detectives, military men and, on multiple occasions, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. He had been active for nearly two decades onstage and on-screen before his appearance in The Empire Strikes Back (1980).

His stone-cold portrayal of Admiral Piett, the trusted officer of villain Darth Vader, in the sequel to Star Wars: A New Hope (1977), turned him into a fan favourite and earned him a callback for Return Of The Jedi (1983).

In a 2014 interview, Colley recalled that when he walked into an office to meet late American film-maker Irvin Kershner, director of The Empire Strikes Back, Kershner told him he was looking for “someone that would frighten Adolf Hitler”. Colley, with his gaunt face and steely eyes, fit the bill.

Admiral Piett is appointed top commander of the Imperial fleet after his superior is killed by Vader (whose physical presence is played by late English actor David Prowse) for his poor judgment.

Colley often said that he saw Admiral Piett as a shrewd operator who followed orders for the sake of survival in Vader’s menacing world. In his interpretation of the character, he reinforced the severity and tension felt in the camp as the Rebel Alliance evades capture.

The film grossed more than US$200 million in its original release, according to the site Box Office Mojo, with Admiral Piett emerging as an unexpected crowd-pleaser.

As Colley liked to recall, George Lucas, creator of Star Wars, asked him to come back for Return Of The Jedi after the American film-maker received many fan letters curious about Admiral Piett’s backstory.

Although the character was not included in the original script, Lucas wrote him into new scenes while on set. In the finished film, Admiral Piett leads the Imperial fleet until the damaged command ship crashes into the Death Star at the Battle of Endor.

Colley relished the popularity of his role and appeared at conventions and fan events in the subsequent decades.

He continued to interpret a wide assortment of roles, including an impudent left-wing journalist in a 1987 stage adaptation of John Hale’s spy novel The Whistle Blower (1984). But he mostly played villains, which, he told the magazine Star Wars Insider in 1987, was “fine by me”.

“If you can burrow in deep and find some life there,” he said, “that makes it interesting – you want to know more about this uniform.”

Colley was born on Dec 7, 1937, in Manchester, England. He began acting at the Bromley Repertory Company, where he worked as an assistant stage manager, according to British newspaper The Guardian, and joined The Living Theatre in Leicester in the early 1960s. He also trained with the Royal Shakespeare Company and with late English actor Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre Company.

In the 1960s, Colley played bit roles in various TV series and televised theatre productions, including ITV Play Of The Week; the anthology drama series Thirty-Minute Theatre, taking on the parts of Charles I and Hitler; and BBC Play Of The Month.

He played a stammering accordion player in Pennies From Heaven (1978), a major in The Danedyke Mystery (1979) and Jesus in the film Monty Python’s Life Of Brian (1979).

His other notable performances include the Duke of Vienna in Measure For Measure, a 1979 BBC Shakespeare production; Nazi official Adolf Eichmann in Wallenberg (1985); and a cranky recluse in a Nancy Meckler 2000 revival of Bertolt Brecht’s 1939 play Mother Courage And Her Children, a role he “brilliantly played for one scene only”, as late theatre critic Sheridan Morley wrote in The International Herald Tribune newspaper.

In a hot streak during the 1980s, Colley acted in American actor-director Clint Eastwood’s Firefox (1982); in Giro City (1982), a drama about investigative journalism and censorship starring late English actress Glenda Jackson; as the titular vice-admiral in the British historical miniseries I Remember Nelson (1982); and alongside late American actor Gregory Peck in the TV movie The Scarlet And The Black (1983).

“In one year, I worked with Clint Eastwood, Gregory Peck and David Prowse,” he recalled in 1987. “I got a crick in my neck from always looking up toward the stars.”

Colley married Mary Dunne in 1962. She died in 2018. Information on his survivors was not immediately available. NYTIMES