Kenneth Colley
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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.
Known for
Credits
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
as Admiral Piett
Return of the Jedi (1983)
as Admiral Piett
Life of Brian (1979)
as Jesus
The Devils (1971)
as Legrand
Les Misérables (1978)
as Police Prefect
The Scarlet and the Black (1983)
as Capt. Hirsch
Brassed Off (1996)
as Greasley
Juggernaut (1974)
as Detective Brown
Firefox (1982)
as Colonel Kontarsky
The Rainbow (1989)
as Mr. Brunt
Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973)
as Boldt
LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out (2012)
as Admiral Piett (voice)
Performance. (1970)
as Tony Farrell
Jabberwocky (1977)
as 1st Fanatic
La Vie de Bohème (1992)
as Street Sweeper
Lisztomania (1975)
as Frederic Chopin
How I Won the War (1967)
as 2nd Replacement
Casanova (1987)
as Le Duc
The Blood Beast Terror (1968)
as James
I Hired a Contract Killer (1990)
as The Killer
Dance of the Seven Veils (1970)
Actor
Shadow Run (1998)
as Larcombe
The Whistle Blower (1986)
as Bill Pickett
The Jokers (1967)
as De Winter
Giro City (1982)
as Martin
A Summer Story (1988)
as Jim
Solomon & Sheba (1995)
as Nathan
Prisoner of Honor (1991)
as Capt. Dreyfus
The Boy Friend (1971)
as King in fantasy sequence (uncredited)
Macbeth (1966)
as Macbeth's servant
Mahler (1974)
as Krenek
The Triple Echo (1972)
as Provo Corporal
Like Father Like Son (2005)
as Rawsthorne
Flame (1975)
as Tony Devlin
The Music Lovers (1971)
as Modeste Tchaikovsky
The Last Island (1990)
as Nick
Scar Tissue (2013)
as Weaver
The Chester Mystery Plays (1976)
Actor
Unnatural Causes (1993)
as Inspector Gerry Reckless
Who Pays? (1968)
as Corbett
The Plot to Kill Hitler (1990)
as Wilhelm Keitel
Hold Back the Night (1999)
as Uncle Bob
I Remember Nelson (1982)
as Vice-Adm. Horatio Viscount Nelson
The Testing of Eric Olthwaite (1977)
as Robber
Kremlin Farewell (1990)
as Sergej
Measure for Measure (1979)
as Duke Vincentio
Return to Waterloo (1984)
as The Traveller
Seventy Deadly Pills (1963)
as Covent Garden porter
The Danedyke Mystery (1979)
as The Major
A Master of the Marionettes (1989)
as Inspector Tennyson
Three Clear Sundays (1965)
as Nick
Three Days in Szczecin (1976)
as Edmund Bałuka
Come the Revolution (1977)
as Bruce Tetley
Robert Rylands' Last Journey (1996)
as Archdale
One Bummer News Day (1978)
as Frank Benyon
Greetings (2007)
as Ken
The Secret Life of Arnold Bax (1992)
as John Ireland
Cause of Death (1968)
as Dr. Emil Justin