Kenneth Colley
Acting
Born 1937-12-07
Died 2025-06-30
Manchester, England, UK
120 credits
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Kenneth Colley (7 December 1937 — 30 June 2025) was an English actor. A long-time character actor, he came to wider prominence through his role as Admiral Piett in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
Colley was born in Manchester. He played Jesus (very briefly indeed) in Life of Brian (1979), having also appeared in the earlier Python-related production Ripping Yarns episode "The Testing of Eric Olthwaite" alongside Michael Palin. As a Shakespearean actor, he played the Duke of Vienna in the BBC Television Shakespeare production of Measure for Measure (also 1979).
Colley also held an important role in the Clint Eastwood film Firefox, as a Soviet Colonel tasked with the protection of the Firefox and its secrets. Colley portrayed SS-Standartenführer Paul Blobel in the World War II drama War and Remembrance. His character was charged with hiding the evidence of the Holocaust, and putting dead victims through "Economic Processing".
According to comments Terry Gilliam (who directed him in Jabberwocky and co-starred with him in Life of Brian) made in the DVD audio commentaries for both films, Colley is a terrible stutterer in real life. When he had a role in a film, however, he could recite the lines perfectly. Stuttering is a character trait, however, in his role as the "Accordion Man" in the BBC television drama Pennies from Heaven (1978). He has also recently starred in BBC's HolbyBlue as a drunk and violent father, grandfather and father-in-law.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Kenneth Colley, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Filmography
— top 60 of 120
Acting
56 credits
Midsomer Murders
Peaky Blinders
Agatha Christie's Poirot
Play for Today
Casualty
Vera
Minder
Heartbeat
Foyle's War
Crown Court
Peak Practice
The Wednesday Play
Inspector Morse
BBC Play of the Month
Screen Two
Misfits
Relic Hunter
The Empire Strikes Back
Omnibus
Return of the Jedi
The Institute
The Sweeney
Thirty-Minute Theatre
Wycliffe
Between the Lines
The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
Life of Brian
The Protectors
The Play on One
Churchill's People
War and Remembrance
The Expert
New Scotland Yard
The BBC Television Shakespeare
Dickens of London
Target
City '68
The Devils
Firefox
Fall of Eagles
Always and Everyone
The Kenny Everett Television Show
John Silver's Return to Treasure Island
Redcap
Pennies from Heaven
The Informer
Brassed Off
Jabberwocky
The Modern World: Ten Great Writers
Juggernaut
The Mrs Bradley Mysteries
Black and Blue
It's Dark Outside
Peter and Paul
Ripping Yarns
The Love School
Other credits
4 credits
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